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On ranting

Thursday, February 1, 2018

If there’s one thing I just can’t abide, it’s ranters. Not the C17th religious nonconformists. Folk who can’t shut up about things. You know the type. The workplace philosophers; the shouters at the TV; people in whose eyes you see the glint of socialist dictatorship. They come in every walk of life. Stupid boxers (*tautology […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Adolf Hitler, Alex Ferguson, Bangalore, Basil Fawlty, boxers, British Rail, Charlie Sheen, comedians, customer services, Denmark, dictatorship, Donald Trump, fathers, Geoffrey Boycott, Hamlet, humour, Jeremy Clarkson, John McEnroe, Mel Gibson, memoirs, men, Michael Richards, Naomi Campbell, philosophy, phones, pubs, ranting, Samuel Johnson, socialism, The Daily Mail, the Labour Party, The Oldie, TV, Will Self | Comments (0)

Cannon law

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Review of Kim A Wagner’s The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857. — For The Spectator

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Alum Bheg, army, Bengal Native Infantry, Brigadier-General John Nicholson, British Empire, colonialism, death, geography, history, India, Indian Mutiny, Kim A Wagner, non-fiction, Pakistan, Queen Mary University of London, sepoys, Sialkot, the East India Company, The Spectator | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, December 18, 2017

. Band instruments in use by the Salvation Army are worth £86,000. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 17 1908 . A transgender man has had a baby five years after having one as a woman. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, is known as ‘Fazza’. ‘Ein Volk, ein […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Adolf Hitler, advertising, Alastair Cook, Aristotle, babies, Boris Starling, cricket, crime, death, domestic affairs, Dubai, food, German, health, Hergé, homeopathy, magic, marriage, men, money, music, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, philosophy, royalty, Salvation Army, science, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, shopping, spies, The Waltons, Tintin, United Arab Emirates, walking, West Malling, Western Australian Cricket Association, women, writers, writing | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 20, 2017

. More than 6000 editions of the “Imitation of Christ”, ascribed to Thomas a Kempis, have been issued in the past 400 years. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 21 1907 . The record for the fastest hole in golf is 32.7 seconds. Acres of quiet farmland set a peaceful scene. ‘Bert’ is like a […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged agriculture, air travel, anatomy, Athens, chocolate, Christianity, diplomacy, education, elephant, golf, Hector, Iran, London, maniacs, money, music, Muslims, Nelson Evening Mail, Nobel Prize for Literature, nomenclature, nurses, publishing, reality, security, sex, singing, Smooth Radio, Special Air Service, Sri Lanka, Tarjei Vesaas, the Sinhalese, Thomas á Kempis, WWE | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 13, 2017

. Throughout Denmark there is not one person over 10 years of age who cannot read or write. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 4 1906 . There is a whale whose voice is too low to communicate with other whales. Seatbelts do not statistically improve your chances of surviving a car accident. London’s Mithraic temple is […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged accidents, advertising, Aeneas, anatomy, archaeology, Aung San Suu Kyi, Basque, Bell's, Bloomberg, cars, Christmas, cliché, criticism, Daniel O'Donnell, Dante, Denmark, drink, education, Euclid, Facebook, finance, humans, John Lewis, law, limbo, London, maths, Missouri, Mithras, music, Myanmar, Nelson Evening Mail, Nicholas Lezard, Nobel Peace Prize, nomenclature, philosophy, Poetry, politics, sex, singing, the West, traditions, whales, whisky, women | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 6, 2017

. The average salary of professors at Dublin University is £530. — The Nelson Evening Mail, March 14 1907 . The persecution of Christians is now worse than at any time in history. Toto’s ‘Africa’ is one of Myleene Klass’s all-time favourites. The Hillsborough disaster is still in the news. Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Africa, betting, Ceylon, China, Christmas, Colombia, culture, Dublin, education, employment, fear, finance, football, grindstones, Hillsborough, homosexuality, jerk-jobs, Kevin Spacey, Legoland, Leonard Woolf, music, Myleene Klass, Nelson Evening Mail, newspapers, novels, persecution, politics, radio, revolution, sex, Simon Bolivar, Toto, trees, Venezuela, Virginia Woolf, war, Windsor | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 23, 2017

. All over China temples have been turned into schools with surprising alacrity. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 26 1906 . The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk. Though rare, there have been exactly 201 documented cases of spontaneous combustion. J Sainbury plc is cutting 2000 Human Resources employees. The collective noun for brown […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged actors, anatomy, birds, China, Crete, criticism, death, Donald Trump, education, Everton, fire, fish, French, George W Bush, Journalism, men, music, Nelson Evening Mail, nouns, October, Paul Celan, poets, Renault, Sainsbury's, sea-faring, translation, vans, work, writing | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 16, 2017

. Only about three in every hundred amateur novel-writers find their way into print, except at their own expense. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 22 1907 . The erection of a verandah is a useful way to extend one’s living quarters. Seven American states observe Abraham Lincoln’s birthday as a public holiday. There is only one […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, America, architecture, atheism, babies, Barack Obama, breasts, Britain, Chiang Kai-shek, China, Christianity, class, Comic Sans, Communism, crime, domestic affairs, education, Eskimos, finance, French, Germany, grammar, holidays, John le Carré, Judaism, Mormonism, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, sharks, synthetic fibres, the Irish, the Soviet Union, translation, vision, war, writing | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 9, 2017

. Volunteers had no recognised existence in England until May, 1859. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 8 1908 . Everyone in Joe Orton’s social circle was called Kenneth. The word ‘truth’ has no exact equivalent in Welsh. The 8-hour workday doesn’t make sense. Sloths take five seconds to have sex, but a month to digest a […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged agave, air travel, America, anatomy, education, England, food, furniture, Gerry Adams, Ireland, Joe Orton, Johnny Vaughan, Kenneth Cranham, Nelson Evening Mail, politics, royalty, sex, Sinn Fein, sloths, snooker, tap-dancing, The Evening Standard, the Isle of Man, Truth, Welsh, work | Comments (0)

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 […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Afghanistan, Alex Haley, Americans, castanets, D-Day, dancing, death, fishing, flora, France, genealogy, hats, history, Icelandic, Ireland, Italy, Khmer, Lakshman Joseph de Saram, linguistics, Miles Davis, musicians, Nelson Evening Mail, ostriches, phones, Playboy, politics, race, royalty, shit, Sri Lanka, the Taliban, Theresa May, Vikings, violin, vomit, war, woodpeckers | Comments (3)