Monthly Archives: May 2003

Cultural sensitivity

Maybe you don’t read the Sun. Maybe you don’t know what exactly it is that some British troops did, and photographed themselves doing, to Iraqi prisones of war. So here’s the money quote: ONE [photo] was apparently taken in a … Continue reading Continue reading

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Of course we’re invulnerable

“We try to be as culturally sensitive as possible, but we want to make sure everybody goes home alive,” said Capt. Paul Kuettner, an intelligence officer. “We’re not going to risk the lives of one of our soldiers to be … Continue reading Continue reading

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Lost for words

I have just discovered one reason why work has slowed down so much. I have been using a beta version of Openoffice, out of pure inertia, really, and a love of fiddling, and it turns out that the fucking word … Continue reading Continue reading

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Guns before Boucher

You know how the Battle of Jutland would have been reported in the NRYRB — “The German North Sea Fleet: an exchange.” In a similar spirit, here’s an exchange about the news that Downing Street, not MI5, made up the … Continue reading Continue reading

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weighty matter

Older readers will remember a discussion on teaspoons and neutron stars. I’m glad to say that the whole subject has now been exposed to a rigorous scientific examination. Continue reading

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When he come to your house

It’s been a horrid month for death already, and last night Caroline came in with an old copy of the Independent carrying a death notice I’d entirely missed when it appeared on the 17th. Eve Keatley was Bob Runcie’s press … Continue reading Continue reading

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real housewives

— in your neighbourhood: I had a spam this morning which offered me pictures of “Women bearing all”. Continue reading

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Another gloomy old sod

was of course P. Larkin. Almost the high point of my journalistic career came last year when Bob Conquest handed me his copy of High Windows, inscribed by Larkin with a joke about limericks. Those bits of Larkin that eveyone … Continue reading Continue reading

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apologies for absence

The first computer I ever used had a daisy wheel printer so noisy that I would move to the floor below when it was time to print out a draft of the pamphlet I was writing (for an improbable thinktank … Continue reading Continue reading

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res ipsa loquitur, buddy

I have somehow got onto the mailing list of the London School of Islamics, which appears to be a pressure group arguing for Muslim schools. Their latest spam contained the following passage: “The schools are there to anglicize the future … Continue reading Continue reading

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