...Long time ago. Rita recalls some favourite American Eccentrics... For Americans, an enduring and beloved stereotype is the English Eccentric. Lauded in literature and film, the Eccentric retains his place of privilege in the pantheon of British life adored by Americans. The cast includes the Royals, cheeky Cockney lads, women with ... Read More...
America
Following his look at our geography, David Cohen continues his series giving a US perspective of the English by tackling our sporting pastimes... The English have two great sports, not-baseball and not-football. They also play golf, but that’s an artifact of Scottish colonial rule we’ll visit later in discussing English ... Read More...
Rita despairs at a crazy new variant on one of the internet's most persistent conspiracy theories... Birth Announcement Born, in the United States of America in the eighth year of the 21st century, of the marriage of Ignorance and Racism: the Notion that the duly elected President is not American-born, and is ... Read More...
Rush Limbaugh fans beware - Rita gets political again in this dispatch and she's madder 'n hell... I’ve had some female medical problems lately, so I did what any respectable American woman would in these times. I consulted my local congressman. Before seeing my doctor I want to be sure I’m ... Read More...
This week, the true story of how Rita got a visa to enter the United States of America... “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” These famous lines from “The New Colossus” by Jewish-American poet Emma Lazarus are engraved on the ... Read More...
Inspired by Rita's 'letter from America' column, but not willing to come and live in England, David Cohen provides a US perspective of the English - a sort of 'Dispatches (not quite) from the Former Old World' - beginning with a look at our geography... For a while this winter, my ... Read More...
How did the USA end up with a National Anthem that's almost impossible to sing in tune? Rita investigates... It is tortured to death every weekend in sports stadiums across the nation – the notoriously hard to sing National Anthem of the United States, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” A Mount Everest of ... Read More...
Jonathon Green introduces a hero of New York slang, once a bestselling author churning out smash hit after smash hit, now all but forgotten... To the five hundred and seventy-five thousands friends who have made this series of John Henry books a success beyond all dreaming, my deepest gratitude. To the Good ... Read More...
Rita finds that the vicious polarisation of American politics infects even the season of goodwill... Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, sated with turkey and family togetherness, Americans abandon their homes to participate in an ancient ritual known as Black Friday. It is a bit like Pamplona’s running of the ... Read More...
Elberry reviews Philip Connors' much-hyped chronicle of a season spotting wildfires in New Mexico... I came to this book via the usual marketing soundbites: masterwork, unforgettable, profoundly absorbing, absolutely compelling, and so on. Not many books can live up to such praise, and Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout ... Read More...
