Notes on the life (and afterlife) of JS Mill, philosopher . The classical liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill was born and died this month – in, respectively, 1806 and 1873 – and in between he wrote (or co-wrote, with his wife, and then his step-daughter) On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Principles of Political Economy, Considerations of Representative Government, […]
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Friday, February 19, 2021
i.m. Umberto Eco (1932-2016) . This frothing sea surrounds the world and beats earth’s borders with its rushing waves. Its storm-wall slams the rocky foreshore, ploughs the bed with thumping crests, strewing shingled foam in starry furrows, ever-shaken by its thunderous blast. .
. The barnacles are scraped off British men-of-war twice a year..5 — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, September 6 1906 . Wicca is the fastest-growing religion in the UK after Islam. The Dutch term for a sex buddy is ‘seksbuddy’. George I and his prime minister conversed officially in dog Latin. Irish 6th-formers know what The Communist Manifesto is […]
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Also tagged carparks, crime, Dutch, employment, Fred C Trump, George I, Harvard, irony, Islam, Kalutara, Karl Marx, law, museums, Nations Trust Bank, Nelson Evening Mail, New York, news, politics, Port Said, property, religion, Royal Navy, satire, school, seafood, sex, the British, the Irish, Unitarians, Utilitarians, Walter Rothschild, war, Wicca
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. The maximum suicide age is between 65 and 75. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, August 9 1906 . Forest Green Cricket Club accepts no liability for damage to vehicles parked on the green whilst a game is in progress. There are pros and cons to time-travelling while black. Pope Gregory declared the rooster the most suitable […]
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Also tagged anatomy, aristocracy, art, Ashmolean Museum, baking, Christianity, cocks, cricket, crime, education, employment, farming, Forest Green, Fox News, frogs, Fukushima, music, Nelson Evening Mail, news, North Korea, nuclear power, Partick, race, Raymond Joseph Teller, time-travel, toilets
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On movable type, the Internet, and almost every damn thing in between. — For The Oldie
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Also tagged blogging, books, Germany, Gutenberg, information, Mainz, marginalia, monks, movable type, printing, Project Gutenberg, publishing, religion, scriptoria, Sellar and Yeatman, Stephan Füssel, TASCHEN, technology, the Bible, the Göttingen Library, the internet, The Oldie, Umberto Eco, UNESCO, vellum
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On Bram Stoker, #indexday, and the weird and wonderful history of the hapax legomenon. — For The Spectator
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Also tagged #indexday, Amazon Kindle, Audible, audiobooks, BRam Stoker, British National Corpus, Catullus, dogs, Egyptology, Foundling Museum, Gaelic, Galway, Greek, Greg Wise, hapax legomenon, Harkhuf, Hebrew, hieroglyphs, indexes, Ireland, Jeremy Paxman, Mayan, National Indexing Day, Old High German, Oxford English Dictionary, Poetry, prayer, pygmies, religion, Sam Leith, Shakespeare, Society of Indexers, TE Lawrence, The Spectator, University Challenge, vampirism, zoophagy
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When I went to the bar as a very young man, it was often enough in the company of the Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. My relationship with G&S had started early, specifically the argument in Three Men in a Boat over which song Harris is trying to sing (I remain confused to this […]
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Also tagged All Souls College, Arcadia, Bletchingdon, Brexit, clowns, comedy, Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907, donkeys, drink, English National Opera, fairies, food, French, G Schirmer, Greek, Grenadier Guards, Holywell Music Room, Iolanthe, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jerome K Jerome, Kazakhstan, ketamine, law, librettos, Mount Ararat, music, opera, Oxford University, Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, plebs, politics, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Savoy Theatre, sex, shepherds, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, the Conservative Party, the House of Lords, the Liberal Party, The Oldie, The West Wing, voice, women
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Saturday, November 11, 2017
The Oldie runs my poem for the Armistice commemorations. — For The Oldie
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
On the choice and acquisition of my one and only tattoo. — For The Oldie
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Also tagged Afghanistan, Anthony McGowan, army, Asterix, buffalos, Classics, Cleopatra, Egyptology, Elizabeth Taylor, gladiators, Greek, men, mothers, opera, Oxford, Rome, Russell Crowe, Samoan, sewerage, South Africa, SPQR, tattoos, The Oldie, war
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. From the deepest pit we may see the stars. — The Nelson Evening Mail, August 28 1906 . Armadillos are incapable of irony. Greek prostitutes bill their clients in six-minute units. One of the stars of early-Nineties cult TV show Twin Peaks was called Suburbis Polaski. It is rarely useful to have studied Latin. A ‘wineglassful’ is an […]
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Also tagged apothecaries, armadillos, astronomy, Call The Midwife, cars, chess, children, China, cookery, drink, eyes, finance, Greece, Humpy Koneru, India, James Dyson, measurements, meat, Nelson Evening Mail, New Zealand, real tennis, sex, soap, Suburbis Polaski, Trevor Nunn, TV, Twin Peaks, urine, vegetables
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