Category Archives: Blather

Validimir Bukovsky is a man of unimpeachable heroism, great energy, and a hobnailed liver, as I know to my cost after a long night drinking with him on a ferry somewhere near Tallinn. So why is he turning into Bufton … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It must have been terrible for Iain Duncan Smith to read his own obituary in the Sunday Telegraph but this morning’s Times is even worse. When Rees-Mogg writes to prove you must survive, you know you’re as dead as the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

is not worth living, as we know. the google examined life, is more confusing … Continue reading →

Et delator es et calumniator et fraudator es et negotiator et fellator es et lanista. Miror quare non habeas, Vacerra, nummos I came across this in a disintegrating copy of Martial’s epigrams, translated by James Michie, who makes it out … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The weapons of the hated enemy are turned against them. Continue reading →

I went out to supper tonight on my own, with a couple of books to remove my attention from this unwelcome fact: the penguin Nietzsche Reader, and Idoru. Some years ago I interviewed William Gibson, and liked him hugely: Continue reading →

I have no idea when this first apppeared. It has to be the funniest story ever written round a Steely Dan lyric. This week it turned out that the man who bought the gold teeth is selling “Virginia for snipers” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Listening to the original of this, and a familiar line came up: “I loved that woman, better than any woman I’ve ever seen”. Today, for the first time, I noticed that it was odd, sung by Blind Will McTell. Continue reading →

with finger trouble. It’s pleasing that the highest-ranked genuine entry comes from a university. Continue reading →

Even if it‘s just another story generator. Continue reading →