In a week where the papers are full of columns warning that the EU is out to pilfer everyone's bank accounts, I thought it topical to look at the world of straight bananas and Sun Newspaper headlines. Turns out there's a word for such Brussels-based brouhaha... A euromyth is the word ... Read More...
Politics
Rita weighs into the gun debate, and finds an unlikely hero in Piers Morgan... Well, I’m going to bite the bullet and write about guns, a topic that leaves me feeling trapped in a Hall of Mirrors where everywhere you turn you see a distorted, nightmarish vision of America. But this ... Read More...
'We seem to have lost any sense of what it is to be human'...Elberry reviews Lebanese intellectual Amin Maalouf's exploration of the post-9/11 world... In general, I try to avoid knowing anything about politics, foreign affairs, or the world; that way, I can’t have opinions and so avoid strife. I am ... Read More...
Steve, the Fire Training Officer, had tattooed arms, a sovereign ring and beautiful long eyelashes. My fellow trainee Fire Marshall whispered that she was jealous of the lashes. Looking closer, I could see what she meant; he had the eyes of Audrey Hepburn. In all other respects Steve was impeccably ... Read More...
On Thursday Tony Blair stated that it was important to ‘de-escalate’ matters in Gaza. I’m not sure if he coined the word but I’d not encountered it before. In that night’s Question Time two panellists also spoke of ‘de-escalation’. Fascinating, the irrepressible urge to coin, to fill in ever tinier ... Read More...
To Bristol Zoo again, this time for bangless fireworks. Quick visit to the monkeys to say nighty-night first. The fireworks were bangless because animals don’t like bangs. Nor do tiny infants so we thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce the youngest daughter to Guy Fawkes night. What ... Read More...
To Portsmouth, birthplace of Charles Dickens, Christopher Hitchens and runner Roger Black. Also Isembard Kingdom Brunel, Peter Sellers and Hollyoaks actor Marcus Patric. Also, me. We moved away from Southsea when I was eleven but naturally roots remain because I was a happy child there. Roaming around my formative haunts ... 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...
Tuesday, 10am. Clacket Lane motorway services, on the anti-clockwise M25. I purchased from the Costa coffee shop my ‘small’ (i.e. least gigantic) americano-with-milk and settled at the unoccupied table amidst other unoccupied tables that was at the optimum equidistant point from the few occupied tables. Thus the exciting life of ... Read More...
Builders have come, so Mrs Brit and the girls fled the house. The builders are of course very mannish men. Gnarly men. Practical men, who work with their hands and communicate in grunts and obscenities and take at least two sugars in their tea. Like all good building crews this ... Read More...
