Yearly Archives: 2004

dudes and dudesses

Posted on August 15, 2004 by acb

Farewell for a fortnight or so. I’m going to Austria; and leave you with the thought that the first recorded use of “Dudess” in in the OED comes from 1885; but it is predated by the term “dudine”. And people … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

diagnostic

Posted on August 13, 2004 by acb

Among English intellectuals today, nostalgia for the Habsburgs is the touchstone of an anti-American mind. (brought about by finishing John Gray) Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on diagnostic

Spinach and exercise

Posted on August 13, 2004 by acb

is clearly doing Barlow good. there’s a lovely quote here: TV, has a much smaller share of viewers than at any time in the past, but those viewers get all their information there. They get turned into a very uniform … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

you cannot hope

Posted on August 11, 2004 by acb

.. to bribe or twist, thank God, the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do Unbribed, there’s no occasion to. Or so I have always thought. However, I got rung this morning by the Daily Express, owned by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

very fine drawing

Posted on August 11, 2004 by acb

Went to the private view last night of Jonny Boatfield’s show in a converted church in Cambridge. The subjects, inmates of an old peoples’ home, are depressing; but the pictures are very fine indeed, and well worth seeing. Had he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on very fine drawing

A Labour of Love

Posted on August 9, 2004 by acb

An Angler’s Etymology by the Irishman J.R. Harris, is one of the classic books for a fly fisherman; “Classic” in this context, as in others, means “I’ve never read it”. It concentrates on Ephemeroptera, which are the prettiest trout food, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Trouty things | 1 Comment

Surfacing

Posted on August 8, 2004 by acb

I didn’t post much last week because I was working on London, making a radio programme on the police. It’s not utter crap. It may even be better than that. In any case, it goes out on Thursday evening at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment

Slikewatch

Posted on August 3, 2004 by acb

yesterday, on the train from Stansted to London, a teenage girl describing to another an experience on holiday: “I was like – I wasn’t like – I was just like oh my god”. There’s a theologian struggling to get out … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | 1 Comment

Incompetent croooks

Posted on August 3, 2004 by acb

I just had a phish addressed to “Dear Fleet Bank valued customer”. I have, of course, never heard of Fleet Bank. It goes on in the usual style: As part of our ongoing commitment to protect your account and to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 3 Comments

Multiple document tricks

Posted on August 1, 2004 by acb

One of the less finished, potentially useful bits of Openoffice is the Navigator. It ought to let you move and link multiple documents to your heart’s content, showing the structure of each one as it does so, with headings, bookmarks, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in OOo | Comments Off on Multiple document tricks