i Editor's Letter: Blue Monday

 

Stefano Hatfield
Monday 16 January 2012 01:00
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Today is "Blue Monday", the day we are most depressed in the whole year. Some boffin (I love that word, don't you?) called Cliff Arnall, once of Cardiff University, came up with a formula relating to weather, time since Christmas, debt and time since the failing of new year's resolutions, divided by low motivation levels and the feeling of a need to take action.

The result was the third Monday in January, although it is hardly the most scientific formula you'll read. Curiously, when it appeared in 2005, Cardiff made it clear that Arnall was no longer a tutor there. But, "Blue Monday" stuck.

Perhaps that's how you feel today, despite the blue sky (well, in Kensington at least); despite the tricky rellies having vacated your spare room at last; no matter that it's the olive harvest season (four kgs is the record for my three trees), or that there are decent movies at the cinema in the run-up to the Oscars. Come on people, the days really are getting longer, those magnificent Mad Men will be back on our TVs soon, and eattheseasons.co.uk tells us monkfish, apples, pears, kale and beetroot are all at their best. So, what's not to like?

Here at i, buoyed by the positive reaction to our latest TV ad, we're feeling entirely enthused about a 2012 which we enter with a loyal reader base plus recent converts brought in by the ad. Longer-term readers will know that one way we try to be genuinely different to other papers is by acting on what you would like to read. So, in response to many requests over the past 14 months, from one week today we will introduce a daily codeword. It does not mean much to me, but it clearly does to many of you. Tell all your friends.

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