He wonders if his powers of recollection or his ability to avoid repeating himself might be slackening.
Markets are now waiting to see whether next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve will provide clues as to when America's central bank might start to slacken the pace of its quantitative easing programme.
While analysts said they thought the persistent cold weather in the northern United States might buoy oil prices, they nonetheless expect demand to slacken somewhat in the weeks to come, which might help curb the rise in prices.
Though others might have been tempted to tail off or slacken as they collected a contract as lucrative as Lockett's, his achievements for the Swans were significant.
Do not slacken the line or the fish might "throw" the hook or lure.
If brokers' signs were allowed, the town might look, from the right distance, like a giant and very expensive tag sale, and the sudden conspicuousness of so much supply, in a time of slackening demand, might shatter a range of illusions best epitomized by the risible listing prices.
East Germany's very young champions-to-be might be rewarded with a teddy bear as long as they did not slacken.
It is conceivable that a sense of impending mortality might finally concentrate the minds of its more Luddite members.But competition is not likely to slacken.
Meanwhile, import growth should slacken as firms reduce the pace of import-intensive stockbuilding.The gravest risk is that the surge in inflation might force the Bank of England to tighten monetary policy sooner than expected.
The pace doesn't slacken.
In Japan, growth will slacken from 2.6% to 1.8%.
