Monthly Archives: July 2003

the next best thing

“his problem, how to eat your cake and yet reject it with scorn, is one of his own making and he seems to solve it in the usual way, deluding himself that the next best thing to renouncing a pleasure … Continue reading Continue reading

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the loudest sound I’ve heard all year

I was sitting in a low chair with my laptop on a coffee table beside me. One lead snaked out of it to the wall socket; one led to the stereo, so that I could hear a cleaned-up MP3 of … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

It’s different when we do it

From the Washington Post: Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter … Continue reading Continue reading

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The need for pointless casualties

One of the absurd aspects of the “war on terror”, compared to real wars, is that it hardly involves any casualties. There was an obit in today’s Daily Telegraph — one among a thousand “moustaches”, as they’re known — of … Continue reading Continue reading

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I know

If you were sensible and grown-up and so on, you wouldn’t laugh at this. Continue reading

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The trolls have moved

To a new home, where they won’t disturb the rest of us, and can continue to appear in peace. Another instalment has been added. Update: there are now seven entries and I have kept up at least once a day. Continue reading

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Sleazy bits

Yesterday I managed to get annual indexes working in my cuttings blog. I only have two years’ worth of columns for the Church Times and part of a winter’s work for the Guardian up there at the moment, because those … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment

Lord Byron’s epitaph on the Presidents Bush

There is the moral of all human tales; Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails, Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last. From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. And here he is … Continue reading Continue reading

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Roy Foster

I am in the middle of profiling him: another reason for silence; and this has involved reading the second volume of his Yeats biography. It’s a tremendous book, by two good tests. I wanted to read more of the poetry, … Continue reading Continue reading

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four second warning

That password of yours: you know, the clever, eleven-letter one consisting of a word that is in no dictionary of any known language, plus some numbers, and which is also profoundly memorable to you — that Windows password, yes, that … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Software | 2 Comments