Lance Armstrong's Oprah confessional has put cycling on the front pages again for all the wrong reasons. But he's hardly the first rider to come to a bad end. Death, drugs, sex and madness - here are three cautionary tales from cycling's rogues gallery... Tom Simpson Dubbed 'Major Tom' by the French press, ... Read More...
Month: January 2013
This week Susan has been battling the snow, a cold, and the French - but all in her usual stylish way... “If Britain leaves the European Union, the other members will be cheering,” whispered Lolo in her throaty southern French tones. We were at the launch party for a new Zumba academy. I’d ... Read More...
Jonathan Meades returns to our screens tonight with The Joy of Essex (BBC Four, 9pm). Our own Jonathon Green finds his old friend in typical acerbic, cliché-bashing form... Jonathan Meades, who has guided us of late around the Baltic Fringe and through the less obvious aspects of France, has made his ... Read More...
Brit's away today so I thought that for a change I'd visit Derry in Northern Ireland in his absence. The news out of Belfast wasn't good, only 24 hours before they'd been burning flags on the streets. The Dabbler always aims to seek out the quirky and offbeat, and here I ... Read More...
Rootsy railwaymen and a bellyful of lead - a look at some of the artists that made Van Morrison... A previous Lazy Sunday post entitled Amy’s Other Voices looked at the musical influences on the late Amy Winehouse, and a comment from Susan prompted me to do the same for that ... Read More...
Mary Toft was a lady from Godalming in Surrey who shocked Britain in 1726 by declaring that she had given birth to a litter of rabbits... In the summer of 1726 a Surrey surgeon named John Howard was summoned to the bedside of Mary Toft, who had apparently suffered a miscarriage ... Read More...
Well done to Maureen. Joey Joe Joe Junior, JL and others who got some of the answers. Click 'Continue Reading' for the solutions to Brit the Elder's Fiddle and Find quiz... 29445 ... Read More...
Controversy continues to rage here at The Dabbler - now Gaw's claiming that the recent weather has really been quite enjoyable I can’t remember enjoying snow so much. It must have something to do with there being just enough for some fun but not enough to disrupt travel too seriously, at ... Read More...
The crow was not among the creatures listed in Brit's interim taxonomy of good and bad animals, but it it is safe to assume it is bad. Certainly the crow which wrote the text below, in Yorkshire in 1970, seems a pretty nasty piece of work. It may surprise some ... Read More...
Cryptic crosswords are too easy, aren't they? What we need is something that somehow combines cryptic clues, anagrams and lateral thinking in a sort of mega-puzzle... Thankfully, that's exactly what quiz-master Brit the Elder has created... How to solve the 'Fiddle and Find' quiz: (1) Solve the cryptic clue (2) Apply ... Read More...