Monthly Archives: February 2008

The FT is very gloomy

Posted on February 28, 2008 by acb

Belated news, but hardly out of date: the FT on Monday had a remarkably pessimistic commentary on its op-ed page by Wolfgang Münchau, saying, in essence, that the credit crunch will be even nastier in the UK than in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Silly Scanner fun

Posted on February 28, 2008 by acb

The wonderful Librarything is selling off cuecat scanners, to read the ISBN numbers off barcodes, very cheaply, and mine arrived this morning. It took about ten minutes to learn that the secret is to swipe quite fast, and after that, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

Raymond Chandler

Posted on February 28, 2008 by acb

So hard to do right; so easy to do like this: For an instant, I saw the golden ring on his drumming fingers. A five-pointed star was engraved on the ring that Dr Albert Fowler was no longer wearing when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 3 Comments

Onward, Christian soldiers

Posted on February 25, 2008 by acb

There is a rather good and very chilling article in the most recent Atlantic by Eliza Griswold, daughter of the former Presiding Bishop, which casts some light on the reasons why Dr Akinola might want to hold a conference in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God | 1 Comment

Nineteen percent

Posted on February 20, 2008 by acb

Did Nixon get down to fourteen? Well, there are ten months left for Bush to beat that. But this approval rating is still rather gratifying. Of course, once the air goes out of the American economy, the rest of us … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Small self plug

Posted on February 20, 2008 by acb

I am going to deliver one of the Oxford Amnesty Lectures tomorrow, or at least participate in a sort of debate that replaces one of the lectures. This is one of the most honouring things I have ever been asked … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | Comments Off on Small self plug

Sushi Pizza

Posted on February 19, 2008 by acb

On this blog we refrain from Norwegian jokes but I would not like to take seriously this recipe from Dagbladet. Yes, it is a sushi pizza, with the fish (Norwegian salmon and Norwegian halibut are specified) arranged on round platters … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Sweden, Travel notes | 5 Comments

Filthy synod blogging

Posted on February 13, 2008 by acb

There is something about the extreme boredom of a routine synod meeting which fires up the erotic imagination, and yesterday afternoon, as I sat in the press room trying to summon up the will to live, or at least to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, God | 4 Comments

Emergency Sanity blogging

Posted on February 11, 2008 by acb

Before I go into London. I just want to record that spring has arrived in the countryside. I was struggling with a filthy cold for most of the weekend, and turned down an invitiation to go on the Sunday programme … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Monday Press blogging

Posted on February 11, 2008 by acb

Let the record1 show that Ruth Gledhill had the only news this morning, and that her analysis piece actually moved forward our understanding of the story. She is the only person who has actually explained how the catastrophe happened — … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism | 4 Comments