Aldiborontiphoskyphorniostikos

Just try saying this nonsensical tongue-twister - worthy of Frank Key's Hooting Yard, in today's weird Wikipedia discovery from the Wikiworm Aldiborontiphoskyphorniostikos was a book that contained a game in which players had to read the snippet for each letter of the alphabet as fast as they could without making a mistake. Alternatively, several players could ... Read More...

Some Handy Tips On Etiquette

This week, a guide to manners when finding oneself amongst royalty and/or pigs... We all know that good manners cost nothing, and that civility makes the world bearable. Here, then, are some useful extracts from my forthcoming Book Of Etiquette: Correct Form Of Address When Ushered Into The Presence Of Prince Fulgencio. Oh ... Read More...

Fear Itself

Fear is always with us, says Rita in her latest dispatch from the States, and sometimes it's justified... “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words are among the most well known American sound bites of the 20th century. They are often interpreted as ... Read More...

Come to the Fair

Forget Glastonbury and the Notting Hill carnival - the Bartholomew Fairs of old would have dwarfed them, and far outdone them for debauched behaviour too. For his August post, Prof Nick Groom looks at England's history of late summer fairs... The end of harvest in England was usually celebrated in the ... Read More...

Questions and Answers

In today's poetry feature, Stephen looks at the big questions and the small questions of life... In the following poem, Elizabeth Jennings speaks of "small answers" and "big answers." Perhaps I have grown old and jaded (by the antics of humanity, my own included), but I prefer small answers. How tiresome ... Read More...

Oto Benga – Human Zoo Exhibit

Man's inhumanity to man features large in today's sad tale, culled from the weirder side of Wikipedia by The Wikiworm Ota Benga (circa 1883  – March 20, 1916) was a Congolese pygmy who featured in an anthropology exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904, and in a controversial human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx ... Read More...

Cat Versus Booby

Which is the most stupid member of the animal kingdom?... I have been thinking, as I sometimes do, about the ineradicable stupidity of certain members of the animal kingdom. These thoughts were prompted, today, by the newsagent’s cat. It really is a bewilderingly stupid cat. I then found myself pondering the ... Read More...