Category Archives: Blather

My fifteen-year-old nephew by marriage recently pitched up on his grandmother’s doorstep at 1.30am, half drunk and wholly terrified after being chased through the streets by a gang with knives. This is a whole lot younger than I was when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

quick notes from his lecture at the BL last night. It’s an odd thing to notice first about a philosopher, but he is less spectacularly fat than I remember him, though still substantial. When I last interviewed him, in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Alasdair MacIntyre is giving a talk at the British Library this evening, and I think I will have to go there. I was for a long time inordinately proud of being the only British journalist to whom he has ever … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Right: Simon Sarmiento, and others, write that the graphic saying “Helmintholog” is clipped. I know it’s clipped. I clipped it. I did this because, when I didn’t, the site switched to a one-column layout when narrower than about 850px and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I haven’t posted much this week because I have been getting up too early. Instead of shambling up between 5.30 and 6.00 am and absorbing coffee while I think out loud, I have been getting up at the same time, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Two search requests, listed consecutively, from yesterday: 1: hearing protectors used in pubs 1: what is the difference between homosexuality and polygamy “So there I was, in the pub with my hearing protectors on as usual, and I think I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A story told by the FWB’s Latin teacher, about one of her former jobs. On a school trip to France, one of the boys was being a tremendous nuisance, arrogant and rude, until he got a cold. A really bad … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Future Wolf Biologist is fixing a birthday lunch with her best friend, on Neopets. She sends a message saying that lunch has been fixed at her favourite London restaurant, the Gay Hussar. Neopets bounces it, though it allows the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

LIfe is hard for the sensitive soul in Essex, so everyone who lives here adopts a protective colouration. Simon Heffer sits down in his tutu to write for the Daily Mail, Francis Wheen promotes bare-knuckle boxing in his village hall, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Ithaca is still a wonderfully remote place, accessible only by a ferry from Patras, which is itself hard to reach. So I spent five days either travelling or resting there, and at the end of that time decided to check … Continue reading → Continue reading →