Every month we award a bottle of Glengoyne 10 year old single malt - the finest whisky available to humanity - to a commenter who tickles our fancy... You can be reasonably sure that there will be at least one Dabbler commenter who will know more about the subject in hand than anyone ... Read More...

Nige ponders the ever-spiralling hyperbole of book blurbs... Recently I reread Lolita, probably for the fifth or sixth time - it never palls, only grows richer and more wonderful with each reading, the sure sign of a great, rather than merely good, book. The copy was my battered old Penguin, dating from 1980 (in ... Read More...

Mahlerman celebrates a quartet of great English composers once dismissively described as the 'cow-pat school'... My default position when asked, as I am from time to time, how one 'gets into' serious music, is to suggest tuning in to Classic FM. I don't tune in myself however, as I don't like music ... Read More...

A legion of new poppies has sprouted, thanks to some rather dubious rebranding.There’s no denying that all monies raised are in aid of a very worthy cause, but shouldn’t a little more respect be paid to the timelessly understated and universally recognized, bog standard Royal British Legion poppy? Personally, I ... Read More...

Glue your jaws shut with a traditional Bonfire Night treat. Honeycomb, yellow man, sponge toffee, hokey pokey, puff candy, the middle of a Crunchie Bar – cinder toffee goes under many names but there’s no mistaking it. The glossy, golden outside that snaps open to reveal bubbles of caramel-coloured sugar makes ... Read More...

In this sad week for showbiz, Frank announces the launch of an exciting new venture... Though it is unseemly to rejoice at someone's death, I must admit that I beamed with glee when I heard the news that Sir Jimmy Savile had shuffled off this mortal coil. For shuffling off alongside ... Read More...

Jonathon Green continues his slang tour of London with a look at the chequered history of Black Mary's Hole... We have been to Clerkenwell before and here we are again. I shall forswear Pissing Alley, long bowdlerized as Passing Alley but still redolent of the odours that named it; I shall ... Read More...

The Dabbler's communications expert Mark Pack reflects on how there's nothing new under the sun, at least in communications: there's another thing the Romans did for us. Before the internet, before computers, before even electricity, the Romans had a communications technology that showed an understanding of how to get the right ... Read More...

Rita compares the American and British approaches to celebrating in November... One of the oddest questions I’ve been asked since moving to the U.S. is “Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in England?” I resisted the temptation to answer “Yes, we celebrate that the Puritans left and took their repressive ban on dancing ... Read More...

As the world’s population hits 7 billion, Brit finds David Attenborough celebrating Earth’s most anti-human places... There is no major problem facing our planet that would not be easier to solve if there were fewer people and no problem that does not become harder — and ultimately impossible to solve — ... Read More...