Has anyone else been beguiled into watching those awful side-trips on Google inviting you to look at the Hollywood stars with surprising high IQs, or to shudder at the botched plastic surgeries or the ravages of age and or obesity or to find out whatever happened to so-an-so? Quite apart from the voyeuristic “thrill” (?) – more like a frisson – the morbid curiosity that lures one into these divergent explorations can be damaging. Suddenly, you have spent an hour cruising gossipy horror stories, wasting time you cannot afford to lose. At least, I can’t. You are teetering on the edge of addiction. I mean, I am.

Deal with it.

When I bought my newest computer (not my last, I’m sure) I forswore Games. I pretended that the new machine did not provide such distractions and I never looked. I had been spending more and more time with Free Cell and someone had just introduced me to the Spider series. Best to leave them alone. Best to shut my eyes to something before it gets a grip on one’s soul.

You think I’m being over-dramatic?

The theory is that it takes 28 days to make a habit, but that’s a good habit. I think it takes about a day to acquire a bad one and then 28 days to lose it, if ever. I don’t want to risk it. I have to be careful now.

I was going to make a joke: be careful not to check on celebrities’ bad habits. But it wasn’t a joke. I looked to see if such a lead existed, and of course, it did, so I looked at a series of not necessarily bad habits but peculiar ones. Did you know that Mariah Carey eats purple food three days a week: eggplant, plums, grapes…. Do you believe that?

Be careful!