Monthly Archives: August 2004

comment spam policy

Posted on August 28, 2004 by acb

Some little slimeball has been spattering the site with these. I thought I might try something different to instant nuking, the usual response. Since comment spams are designed to give Googlejuice to the products advertised, I have simply edited them … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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ratdog

Posted on August 27, 2004 by acb

Various silly heretics claim to be unable to see the point of the Dead. I suggest a visit to the Ratdog site, where Bob Weir’s spinoff band are releasing live download CDs for a very reasonable $12.50 a concert, which … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 3 Comments

Austrian cuisine

Posted on August 27, 2004 by acb

For the first proper meal after ten days in Austria, we ate a curry. It was lamb, not pork, but what seemed really odd was that it came without whipped cream on top. Continue reading →

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Sympathy for Dracula

Posted on August 26, 2004 by acb

Returning to England makes me understand what the Count felt every morning: I have been feeding, flying and wandering in my proper estate; now I must climb back into a coffin fulled with clay, sand and flints and tug the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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