From the Dabbler's rich archives, Toby Ferris examines the place of teeth in the art of fifteenth century Italy and Northern Europe... I have come to realise that if I am to make any real progress on my much anticipated, much delayed History of Whistling, I will first have to address ... Read More...
Month: April 2014
David Long’s new book A History of London in 100 Places tells the capital’s incredible history through 100 buildings, details and places, from Roman barges to Boris Bike stations. In the last of three exclusive extracts for The Dabbler, David visits the Great Mosque on Brick Lane... The United States of ... Read More...
Ever wondered why sailors' wives retain their youthful looks for so long, or why giants have low sexual energy? 'Professor' R. B. D. Wells has the answers... Curmudgeons who moan about bloggers and Wikipedia argue that the democratic nature of the web has allowed ill-informed, ordinary people to flood the internet ... Read More...
To mark his one hundredth Dabble, Mahlerman selects four pieces to provide unexpected pleasure... Glancing languidly at the post-scorecard the other day, I noticed that this would be my one-hundredth essay for Lazy Sunday*, and armed with that uninteresting fact I determined to give myself a treat and, instead of casting ... Read More...
The Wikiworm burrows deeper into Wikipedia... The man on the Clapham omnibus is a hypothetical reasonable person, used by the courts in English law where it is necessary to decide whether a party has acted as a reasonable person would — for example, in a civil action for negligence. The man ... Read More...
Today, some classic British noir... “Get carter!” That was my instruction, that morning, from the overseer. But there were so many carters passing along the lane, driving their carts to, or back from, the market square in the village, that I had no idea which carter to get. Nor did I have ... Read More...
Barendina Smedley stumbles across a less reported view of a momentous year... A few days ago, a battered copy of the Studio Year Book turned up here. The date on the much-sellotaped cover was 1939. To move beyond that cover is to embark upon what feels like an act of low-cost, high-speed, ... Read More...
Rita on Arianna Huffington and the American religion of self-improvement... The first self-improvement book I ever owned was a gift from my mother. She was obviously worried that I was turning into a bluestocking Women’s Libber. The cover featured a photo of a young woman who looked like a throwback to ... Read More...
David Long’s new book A History of London in 100 Places tells the capital’s incredible history through 100 buildings, details and places, from Roman barges to Boris Bike stations. In the second of three exclusive extracts for The Dabbler, David peers into a medieval plague pit... London’s mass graves and plague ... Read More...
Continuing the theme of plagiarism from Nige's post, here, raised from the archives as a Bank Holiday treat, is Noseybonk's take on the dodgy hack Johann Hari... Those who have been following the remarkable case of the plagiarising, Wikipedia-manipulating Independent journalist Johann Hari will know that he has handed back ... Read More...