Monthly Archives: February 2004

A postcard from Jerusalem

Mass tourism is pretty horrible. But to see a city where tourism has died off is ghastly. Of course, it looks absurd to come to Jerusalem and see the city’s problems as primarily touristic, but I’m not sure that the … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes | 3 Comments

gone again

I’m off to Israel until Sunday, so there may be no posts till then. It all depends on business and connectivity. Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off on gone again

renaissance art

The textbooks will tell you that the painters of the renaissance had mastered naturalistic representations of the human form. So what is this woman doing in the fresco’ed roof of the collonade of palazzo Santini in Lucca? There is an … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off on renaissance art

No: it is a tragedy

Melanie Phillips has an agonised article in Prospect that makes me think better of her. At the same time, it bodes very badly for the future of Israel. She visited the country on a government-sponsored freebie: she got to talk … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in War | Comments Off on No: it is a tragedy

time and motion

OK. I got back from Lucca at half past midnight this morning, and spent about two minutes sorting the paper post. There were two magazines I needed at least to skim, a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury to which … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on time and motion

a kedgeree of knowledge

Just back from a three day trip to Lucca — more later — to find SpamAssassin outmanoevred again — 440 spams on the server; 220 made it down to my spam folder. One of those was legitimate. But the number … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off on a kedgeree of knowledge

Classical Arabic or Wadi girl?

I think of buffyspeak, and (I’m,like,) totally not Mohammed. But one of the distinguishing features is the lack of punctuation, and the fact that you’re expected to hear a voice shifting constantly to represent different speakers. In fact the correct … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off on Classical Arabic or Wadi girl?

German Railways

It is humiliating, but not surprising, that the the German Railways site offers a better guide to British trains than the British one does. This morning I discovered another chic trick there. You can get personalised PDF timetables for the … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Travel notes, Trouty things | Comments Off on German Railways

Language Change (2)

I heard my cousin Jonathan Bartley on the radio this morning, talking to Roger Scruton and Ed Stourton. I would never have recognised him from his voice (we hardly ever meet). i’ was a gruff es’uary grow(l) from which con’sonanns, … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on Language Change (2)

Language change (1)

I know almost nothing about African languages — so little that I don’t know what I don’t know, as Mr Rumsfeld would say. So it was a pleasure to come across Abiola Lapite’s refutation of the idea that we can … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Science without worms | Comments Off on Language change (1)