In an occasional series Daniel Kalder examines the literary endeavours of the world's dictators. First, a topical look at the oeuvre of Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. A mumbling, murderous, Ukrainian nurse-fondling tyrant he may be, but – even as American bombs rain down from on high – you've got to hand it to Muammar ... Read More...
Month: March 2011
This week, a long overdue return to Lazy Sunday duties for Martpol, who looks at some unlikely rock covers... I’ve recently copied my entire collection of CDs onto my shiny new laptop, in preparation for something else shiny and new – a 160GB iPod which, absurdly, can hold the whole lot in ... Read More...
Would you like to witness famous arsenic murder trials, visit a Victorian hospital for venereal disease, or build your own microbe to take home with you? Wellcome Collection has arranged a whole series of dirt-themed events to coincide with its latest exhibition, Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, which ... Read More...
This 1950 film from the British Council, entitled simply ‘Cricket’ opens with actor Ralph Richardson announcing: “My name is Richardson and I happen to have been born in Britain” and maintains that level of excellence for the duration. In between bursts of Richardson, we get the unmistakable Hampshire tones – the ... Read More...
When I was young, and they packed me off to school, and they taught me how to begin prose pieces with quotations from Jethro Tull songs, I came under the spell of a remarkable pedagogue. He was a shrivelled, partly collapsed person with hair the colour of a gorgeous sunset ... Read More...
Jonathon Green - visit his website here - is the English language's leading lexicographer of slang. His Green's Dictionary of Slang is quite simply the most comprehensive and authorative work on slang ever published. Today Jonathon continues his epic survey of the Seven Deadly Sins of Slang with Envy... And tell ... Read More...
Now that I've reached the age where I’ve come to terms with life turning inexorably from carefree abandon into a sort of slow accumulation of lint, I find myself experiencing strange new feelings. Walking into the tools section of the DIY store imbues me with a thrilling promise of untapped ... Read More...
Scottish novelist, songwriter, musician and nuclear physicist, Doug Johnstone is currently writer in residence at Strathclyde University. He clearly also likes his Islay whiskies – the smokier the better. His latest novel, Smokeheads, relates the catastrophic whisky and cocaine-fuelled lad’s weekend of four Edinburgh friends on Islay. It’s unlikely to impress ... Read More...
A little while ago Dabbler co-editor Brit discovered, via Mike Beversluis, the above magnificent chart from a 1940s edition of TIME magazine (click on it for a larger picture), which purports to explain everyday tastes from Highbrow to Lowbrow. It was instantly clear that an updated version for 2011 Britain was required, ... Read More...
An unequivocal solo cream bun for quiz-whizz Adelephant this week. We might have to set up some sort of league table for these super-solvers. Anyway, well done to her, and thanks to Jonathan for a brilliantly fiendish question. (And also to John Halliwell for a far superior if incorrect answer). ... Read More...
