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Tag Archives: war

An Oxford squaddie

Saturday, October 14, 2017

From deer park to gun park… . Sixteen years ago, American and British forces hurled themselves into Afghanistan the same week I arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford. I didn’t give them much thought – although the ‘War on Terror’ was immediately everywhere. I had an Egyptology degree to get to grips with; and choral evensong […]

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Turning Japanese stomachs

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima Penguin, 170pp, £8.99 . Born two years after the Great Earthquake of 1923, in ‘not too good a section of Tokyo’, Kochan is a sickly child, brought up by stultifying parents and a morbid grandmother. His first reliable memory is of the ‘night-soil’ man, and he immediately becomes […]

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Veterans of modern wars

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

In a mid-September interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux (GCB, CBE, DSO, DL – better known as General David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff) made a comment to the effect that “a part-time soldier cannot be as effective as someone who’s devoted his life to it and puts on a […]

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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 2, 2017

. Few of those who know and admire the camellia, that waxlike and pure flower, are aware that the parent plant, the origin of the million plants scattered throughout Europe, is still alive and is in Italy. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 22 1907 . The Taliban now control more territory in Afghanistan than they did […]

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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 25, 2017

. The province of Quebec has a wooden railway 20 miles in length. The rails are of maple. This railway is used for hauling timber. — The Nelson Evening Mail, November 1 1906 . The German word for ‘train’ is ‘Schienengefuhrtes Sonderzug mit feststehender Lokomotive’. Bathtime is a good time for kicking. Margaret Atwood’s real name is […]

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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 4, 2017

. The typewriter is more largely used in Mexico than in France. — The Nelson Evening Mail, August 2 1906 . In 1943 a British pilot made an emergency landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, only to have it surrender to him. Kelo trees live for up to 3,500 years, and remain standing for another 700. […]

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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, April 3, 2017

. By a recent edict, the cultivation of opium in China must cease entirely by the year 1917 The crop is reduced by one-tenth each year, and all those using opium in 1917 will be banished. — The Nelson Evening Mail, June 14 1907 . The Sports Direct on Baker Street has actually closed down. A […]

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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 6, 2017

. Though Russia is fast developing her oil lands, the United States produces more petroleum than all the rest of the world. — The Nelson Evening Mail, June 22 1912 . In English maritime law a ship is not ‘wrecked’ if the cat survives. Ezra Pound heard many performances of the Bellringers’ Guild. Kale is a […]

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Mortality 101 – or; Catullus at the graveside

Friday, November 11, 2016

‘I want to explain about the Catullus poem … Catullus wrote poem 101 for his brother who died in the Troad.’ — Anne Carson . I have come, my brother, over lands and oceans, to this field of bones to observe the rituals of the final hour, and mumble pointless words above your ashes. Misfortune took […]

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WHAT’S YOUR FULL NAME, RANK, AND SERIAL NUMBER (SPECIAL OPS EDITION)?

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Your Full Name, Rank, and Serial Number (Special Ops Edition) is: ‘Bob’ .

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