Monthly Archives: October 2006

Worm turned to compost

I just learned that my Worm’s eye column has been shot with immediate effect. It’s a great shame. That was one of the two or three most enjoyable jobs I’ve had in journalism — another was the long Saturday Review … Continue reading Continue reading

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A rather drastic cure for snoring

Round where I live,the cure, or at least the treatment, for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea is a mask that pumps air into the sufferer at night. At least some American surgeons are more ambitious Continue reading

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An unspeakable thought

The notion of women as property is terribly widespread. What do women get out of it? Not a lot, obviously. But perhaps more from being private property than communal. Obviously a woman in a burqa is not valued for herself. … Continue reading Continue reading

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A test of your age

I was sitting here idly listening to a 1973 Little Feat bootleg from the Internet Archive and when they got to Willin, Lowell George introduced it with the words “This one goes out to one of my favourite groups, Slade”. … Continue reading Continue reading

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Art and light

I have been in Paris most of the week (half term). Hence no contemporaneous blogging, and some notes now on all the culture around which I was dragged by the more refined members of the family: The Centre Pompidou –- … Continue reading Continue reading

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No more than a ludicrous filigree

On the real tragedy, but the retreat of the warhards is now like the retreat of the Iraqi army from Basra in the first gulf war, when tens of thousands were killed by Allied aircraft. This morning’s papers are full … Continue reading Continue reading

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Sunday morning cheer

This has been the week when half of our problem became obvious: the war is lost. What hasn’t yet sunk in is the other half of this catastrophe: we can’t afford to lose it. Continue reading

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Apologies to commentators

For some reason, this has been a very bad week for spammery. Bastard the first started to use the domain as the return address on a bunch of stock-pumping spams, so that at one stage I was getting twenty to … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Housekeeping | 3 Comments

Rural pursuits

I had meant to return Cicely Hamilton’s Modern Sweden to the London Library yesterday, but I started to reread it on the train down, and I could not quite bear to return it. It is an account of a journey … Continue reading Continue reading

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Sometimes a caption

Sometimes a caption is worth a thousand pictures … from the Svenska Dagbladet RSS feed I take this one, to a story about a power cut: “The cat in the picture is not the same cat as entered the electricity … Continue reading Continue reading

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