Category Archives: Blather

Why are these bastards spamming my mobile? It seems to happen on Fridays and in the drunken hours of the evening: the phone rings, and hangs up as soon as you answer, leaving a tempting ‘ring me’ number on the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was just about to start a wormseye on the new American visa regulations. And, while tossing around column ideas, I discovered one that would really cause a stink: “What the world needs is an annual Holocaust Forgetfulness Day.” Actually, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Well, here we are again, back on Pair, after a two-year excursion to Cornerhost. I have spent all morning reviving a sick database, and making sure that everything works after being moved across the atlantic twice. Do let me know … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Presumably this story is all over the better tabloids but I only have the Times, which is not a good tabloid. Once upon a time (1944) there was a girl No Better Than She Ought To Be, who had an … Continue reading → Continue reading →

When I was a young man, I used to think my problems were due to interesting and personalised character flaws, which other people would envy if they thought they could have them. Nowadays I realise that they are largely the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was in the middle of an anecdote about two Nobel Prize winner when the telephone rang. It was a third, Sydney Brenner. I answered, as I always answer the phone “Brown”. This is apparently a syllable that people find … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The greatest pleasures of the Daily Telegraph are A.N. Wilson’s column on Mondays, and the obituaries. The novelist’s imagination never approaches some of the stories in the obits; This one, about a rich and spoiled convent girl, who lost her … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was astonished to discover that there are only 6370 Google hits for “Political correctness gone”, and none at all for this, the perfect title for a leftish blog. Continue reading →

Lots of stories in all the papers today about the declining popularity of Ecstasy (and the increasing popularity of cocaine). The interesting point is that all the commentary attributes this to a change in fashion: the idea that laws, or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

How much do computers matter? Brad de Long thinks he has a measure for it: The computer-and-communications technology revolution we have been living through transforms twice as large a share of the economy as did the British Industrial Revolution, looks … Continue reading → Continue reading →