I went out of my way to read the Daily Mail today, what with all the fun of the Two Shags story, and it’s all about trousers, isn’t it? The big Mail piece about Pauline Prescott dwelt lovingly on the leopard-print trousers she used to wear, once upon a time, and ended by saying (something like; I paraphrase from memory) that John Prescott was now throwing all of this away for a pair of red leather trousers.
A comrade writes from South Africa:
Strini Moodley died this morning. Member of the
Socialist Party of Azania and Black consciousness movement (one of Biko’s lieutenants). Died broken and bitter. Could put away a bottle of whiskey in a heartbeat. Good guy.
There’s the transcript of a long interview with Moodley here.
Antonio Gramsci, 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937.
Virtual Stoa readers attending the Tribeca Film Festival (I’m sure there are thousands) may have seen me last night in a documentary about students at Oxford who spend their time boxing. I’m told that I featured in one shot saying that one of my students “said I could go and watch him get his face smashed in, but it was short notice and I was busy… I usually am…”. Anyway, the film’s over here, and I’m told it’s being shown again some time.
My goodness. Not sure how that nearly two week silence happened. It’s not as if I went away or anything. I think perhaps I just wanted to keep those magnificent pictures of Enkidu (scroll down) at the top of the page for longer. And I was listening to lots of Schubert, which is more enjoyable than reading or writing on weblogs.
Three pictures of Enkidu, for Easter Sunday.
First:
Second:
Third:
You might conclude from the photographic evidence that he hasn’t moved much in the last couple of weeks (scroll down). He has, in fact, been out and about quite a bit recently, as the weather gets better, and I met him in the street for the first time last week, while returning from the pub.
Vladimir Mayakovsky, futurist poet, born 19 July 1893, died 14 April 1930.
I want the pen to be on a par
with the bayonet; And Stalin
to deliver his Politburo
reports
about verse in the making
as he would about pig iron and the smelting of steel.
Simone de Beauvoir, born 9 January 1908, died 14 April 1986. Socialist, feminist and existentialist philosopher.
Ernest Bevin, trade unionist and Foreign Secretary; born 9 March 1881, died 14 April 1951.
Willi Stoph, German Communist and leading politician in the DDR; born in Berlin, 9 July 1914, died in Berlin, 13 April 1999.
Abbie Hoffman (also here, Yippie, born 30 November 1936, died 12 April 1989.
Good news! Also good news here, too.