The 1960s was a decade of immense optimism, when anything seemed possible. Britain led the way in contemporary fashion - a group of young people was even sent to New York to show off ‘the London look,’ which, according to one journalist constituted a ‘youthquake.’ It was also a time of ... Read More...
Month: October 2012
More anti-catastrophist news: teenage delinquency is plummetting. Adolescents are increasingly turning their noses up at drugs, booze and fags, with consumption by young people the lowest at almost any time since we started measuring these things. Whilst this supports my view that things are really quite ok at the moment, it also helps ... Read More...
Not much to report this week, as I have barely had time to think. I am afraid I have become hopelessly addicted to what I suspect is the finest quiz game ever devised... Perhaps you are a gourmand, and think you know all there is to know about cheese. Or it ... Read More...
\ This week Jonathon proudly presents CARRY ON BARDING, or, Much Ado About Pistol's Cock, as he looks at Shakespeare and slang; and how the Carry On films might owe more to the Bard than you'd expect... Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Ophelia: No, my lord. Hamlet: I mean, my ... Read More...
Education standards are in the news on both sides of the Atlantic. In today's dispatch, Rita wonders whether America really values its teachers... On my first day of student teaching I exchanged my hippie duds for what I thought was a suitably sober, professional outfit: a plain grey skirt and a ... Read More...
If we listen at the tombs of the ancients what can we hear? In the suburbs of the small town of Tarquinia in Northern Lazio there is a necropolis of the former Etruscan inhabitants. Etruscan necropolises vary in form depending on local custom, rock-type, age and so on. The necropolis at ... Read More...
Nige recommends the 'autobiography' of one of our greatest thespians... 'Acting is the supreme test of physical and mental courage. It is like climbing Everest single-handed in the dark. It is like painting the Sistine Chapel with a shark on your back. It is like being asleep on a helter-skelter with ... Read More...
To Leamington Spa, my first visit. When I was at school ‘Leamington Spa’ was – for no real reason other than it happened to catch on in my gang – a comedy name. The words were considered intrinsically funny, as ‘fish’ and ‘shrubbery’ are in Monty Python, and so the ... Read More...
