The Myth of LOLing

Laughing out loud is a communal activity...Oh, I expect there’s some tiresome evolutionary psychology explanation based on gibbons and whatnot, but whatever the why and the how, the fact is that it is rare to emit actual physical laughter - even when you find something funny - if you are ... Read More...

Row Z: Born into cricket

Sport has innumerable social functions. Joseph O’Neill’s book Netherland described the rough-and-ready New York immigrant version of cricket. But what about cricket as a duty for public schoolboys, as necessary and unavoidable as end-of-term exams and places at Oxbridge? Here Jon Hotten - who also blogs as The Old Batsman - ... Read More...

London calling

So all three party leaders are now 40-something, male, Oxbridge graduates. Apart from the cut of their suits (and Ed's likely to get a better tailor now) in demographic terms there's not a lot to choose between them. It's not unusual for the three major party leaders to share a background ... Read More...

Enjoyment

Can't wait for Sunday afternoon for your Dabbler music fix? Never fear, here's a midweek special from Patrick Kurp... What these performances have in common besides the pleasure I take in watching and listening to them is the evident pleasure the musicians take in performing. The Miles Davis, back-turned-to-the-audience pose squelches ... Read More...

The Uncanny Valley

As a fretful middle-class parent of an impressionable tot I broadly approve of the CBeebies output, especially In the Night Garden (a comedy classic) and the lovely 64 Zoo Lane. But horrors do lurk in the schedules. One to avoid is LazyTown, an unholy Icelandic/UK/US collaboration, all blaring colours and ... Read More...

The Dabbler Interview: Stan Madeley

Confessions of the Chisel Thrower: The Dabbler in Conversation with Stan Madeley, the UK’s top Richard Madeley lookalike and author of ‘Second-Class Male’ The D: Was it always your ambition to write pestering letters to the rich and famous or did the hobby evolve organically? SM: Thank you Brit. With an ... Read More...

The whisper of groves

I've been reading Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, a book full of ideas, observations and interesting facts. It's a great myth-buster and is permeated by a sceptical curiosity that's never shy of actually visiting a patch of land if that's what's required to rescue us from what is described ... Read More...