Let’s face it, readers and writers essentially fall into these categories: 1. Readers non-writers; fellow writers who read widely. 2. Writers serious [published; unpublished]; occasional. Somewhere in this mix is the vast number of “I have a novel tucked away I’ve always been meaning to finish,” who tell you “Some friends told me I should [...]
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
How should this statement have been worded? MPs at the centre of the expense claims scandal have been warned not to use Parliamentary privilege to avoid court proceedings by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg. One answer, if it’s correct syntax you be wantin’ [highlight below]: MPs at the centre of the expense [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
A beautiful piece of vitriol from Peter McGrath: When writers write about writing (and even worse writers writing about writers writing about writing) often gets self-indulgent and makes one want to find them, break their keyboards and burn their Writers and Artists’ Yearbooks in front of their eyes. No one asked us to inflict our [...]
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
It’s a pity there’s no tradition of military songs in our country, apart from WW2 numbers like Lily Marlene. We’re not a militaristic nation, we don’t fly the flag on holidays and we we don’t have a “Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland” which the Russians have on February 23rd [also my birthday celebration]. [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
On December 10, 1963 the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite ran a story about the Beatlemania phenomenon in the United Kingdom. After seeing the report, 15 year old Marsha Albert of Silver Spring, Maryland wrote a letter the following day to disc jockey Carroll James at radio station WWDC asking “why can’t we have [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Via Angus, this: Patrick Timoney, a 9-year-old student at PS 52 in Staten Island, N.Y., was in the school cafeteria Tuesday playing with LEGOs when he was taken to the principal’s office and threatened with suspension. One of his toys was a LEGO policeman that holds a 2-inch plastic gun. The school has a no-tolerance [...]
7 Comments »
Filed under: Politics & economics
I wonder how many will read this post through. . We all seem to be going round in circles. The Albion Alliance is trying to get two things: 1. Accountability to the people from MPs; 2. An agreement to push for a referendum on EU membership. Now, on the first one, not only are MPs [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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Filed under: Politics & economics
1. In which Buster Keaton film did an entire wall fall on him, with Keaton only saved because an upstairs window happened to be open? 2. The script for ET was written during shooting breaks for which film? 3. In which film was a house, which had previously served as the family home in “The [...]
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Filed under: Diversions, Literature & performing arts
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Filed under: Politics & economics
The clip above is on the teen end of the scale and touches on the practical side of the matter. It’s an American clip and so doesn’t take into account the dole culture over here of getting pregnant and going onto welfare . The Telegraph is running an article on the other end of the [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
Jessica gets dolphins, Abby pulls into Cabo, Laura doesn’t seem to be doing a lot. You can read those yourself. I’d like to write to you about keels and the problems they pose. These people are missing the whole point of keels. All of them being from the Bermudan rig camp, they don’t really understand [...]
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
Britblog One of the characteristics of political bloggers of a certain bent is the way they try to stifle and snuff out any dissenting voices, i.e. they only wish for their own voices to be heard. The difference between them and good blogs is that good blogs welcome any comment from any side but give [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues
The base theme [before it was dabbled with] was Quadruple Blue. It doesn’t appear on the WordPress.org list but it is available on the net. Frankly, it was the symmetrical, untweakable “three-columnedness” of F2 which I was sick of plus the fuzziness of some of the lettering. F2 allowed much functionality but at a cost. [...]
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Filed under: Blogging
Thank you.
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Filed under: Society & human issues
This is far worse than I’d thought: Husbands and wives make up less than half of Britain’s adult population for the first time, newly released statistics suggest. The forces behind such a situation are rising divorce rates and the increasing trend of cohabiting. Due to such forces, most people above the age of 16 are [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
From late morning and for much of the afternoon, this blog will not be so much “down” but doing very strange things. I’m installing another theme and will have to configure the css style sheets so, at any time, sidebars will disappear and headers and even posts. I don’t have a mechanism, as with Blogger, [...]
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Filed under: Blogging
One of the best things about the reinstatement of David Kiely after the ridiculous piece of PC madness the other day was the global internet reaction – the power of the blogosphere and the net as a whole must have the MSM wondering and some of the MSM was gracious enough to concede what happened. [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
And so it continues: A New York City junior high student has been arrested for doodling on her desk with a marker. Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez scribbled “Lex was here 2/1/10” on her desk Monday. She also wrote “I love my friends Abby and Faith.” The girl says the doodles could have been erased, according to [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
Everyone knows about the Passion Play. I meant to go every ten years but only made it in 1980 and 1990 – whether I can get there this year will be interesting. It’s a spectacle and a half and the accommodation in private homes with their carved wood eaves and sills is something else.
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
So often, Australians don’t know when they’re being parodied, as Dame Edna demonstrated over many years. At the same time, Australian artists and musicians have always done their own parodying, not least Garry McDonald as Norman Gunston. The Australian sense of humour is as dry as the land itself and the story of Men at [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues
No, not our Dave but poor David Kiely, the Macquarie banker: There are reports that Mr Kiely was deliberately sent an email containing the images and opened it unwittingly, before being told to look round, with the broadcast still in progress. Messages of support for the banker’s plight have been posted on internet campaign sites. [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
Ségolène Royal appears to have lost her supporter base and fallen out with too many people. Her reaction is to go back to local level and achieve some success in participative democracy there, for the moment eschewing comment on national issues, gaining allies once more, in order to launch her national claims for 2012. Many [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Friend commented: James- some reasons why they might think you are anti-EU: 1. The letter you address to them contains anti-EU propaganda about a super state swallowing the UK. We have had some feedback on that and are rewording the initial letter to reduce that but it still requires us to explain what led us [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Meanwhile, turning our attention away from the party-political, specifically EU issue, look at this: Fast approaching is the event of GAME OVER for London, a condition that has already reached critical level, according to a key reliable source of information with London connections and direct experience with its market events. How long can a major [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
I had to answer this for a job application yesterday. Click to zoom:
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Filed under: Politics & economics
The Times in its leader of 15 April 1940, entitled “Quislings everywhere.” The editorial asserted: To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor… they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Actually it contrives to suggest [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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Filed under: Diversions
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