[cliché]As the year draws to a close[/cliché], I’d like to thank the global network of PooterGeek operatives who make this site the nerve centre of international happenings that it is, both the core team of: Special Agent Berlinski: Paris operative and roving European reporter; Special Agent Levy: “the Mossad Mother”, our Middle East observer; Special […]
Another one bites the dust.
Better post this one before it’s next year here. From The Guardian in January, children under eight years of age review classic rock: Jimi Hendrix: Crosstown Traffic (1968) What the grown-ups say: “In a sense, Jimi’s Stratocaster is more articulate and speaks with more poetic beauty than he, or almost any other singer, possibly could… […]
But close enough to the truth to make me laugh [via The Motley Fool].
I’ve just tried ringing you to wish you a prosperous 2005, but all I get is a severe Englishwoman saying, “Sorry. There is a fault. Please try again.” Course, I might have just accidentally speed-dialled Mistress Spank’s Correction Line again.
Today, under the headline “WALL SAVES COUPLE AS WAVE HITS THAI RESORT”, the Cambridge Town Crier tells me on its front page that “Several Cambridgeshire residents have escaped death in the Asian tsunami horror”. Realish via boingboing takes the prize, though, for spotting this headline.
Our former colony across The Pond preserves the tradition of duelling suitors in its own special way: “The parking lot of C & W Auto Glass was the scene of a violent automotive encounter Monday, when two Godfrey men repeatedly rammed vehicles in a quarrel that broke out over the affections of a woman… “…The […]
[Via Fark] Gawker brings us priceless interview quotes from actress and raconteur Kate Bosworth. My favourites: “There was just a study done actually, I saw it on ‘Regis and Kelly’, I can’t remember how many hours a year a person uses being in their car in L.A., but it’s, like, a lot of time.” “It’s […]
Good morning, Mr McKafka. Mr Counsell, we meet again. Not very often, what with your window only opening for business minutes at a time on days of the week with a “K” in their names. Your ready wit never fails to bring a smile to my routine. What quotidian but essential goal can I divert […]
As a child I would watch my dad make a fire in the morning, kneeling down in his vest, putting paper from old copies of The Guardian underneath the coal (and then quite likely lighting his first cigarette of the day with the flame—he’s been smokeless now for years). Susurration has stolen a lead all […]
I seem to have upset the proprietor of Blognor Regis lately. Apparently I “was wetting myself over David Carr’s prehistoric Band Aid rant“. I think the figure of speech he was looking for was “taking the piss out of“. Taking the piss is a traditional British craft that some of the Beavis and Butthead types […]
Following online discussion with the Anonymous Economist, who is a PC-based iPod addict, I should point out that the main problem I had with the Windows version of the iTunes software that accompanied my sister’s iPod Mini was her not being broadbanded up. It didn’t help that the program kept trying to dial out to […]
My friend Matthew is a token male straight in the world of fashion (but no, Ms Savant, not another metrosexual). Just before Christmas he phoned me from a clothes-shop queue on his mobile. He was so bored he had a half-hour-plus conversation with me at cross-network rates. At one point I told him that The […]
I picked up this should-be-surprising-but-isn’t catalogue of a wannabe Tory MP’s experiences via PoliticalBetting.com.
Norm notes that natural disasters give believers in a loving God something to chew on. What about the pagans? Irony just isn’t big enough to cover it.
Chapomatic links to Skippy the Goth Kangaroo. [Requires Flash player.]
The online version of Hello! magazine covers the persecution of Sikh playwrite [sic] Gurpreet Kaur. Why? Because some celebs are supporting her. I wonder how Samuel West will take to having his appearance as Dr Frankenstein in Van Helsing cited as his most noteworthy contribution to the dramatic arts. Meanwhile, over at the Fox News Website, […]
Suw Charman describes Asimo the Honda robot’s gait as “cute”. Asimo in motion looks to me a lot like a bloke in astronaut fancy dress, trying to sneak around shared accommodation in the small hours without waking up any of his co-habitants. [Requires Flash player]
The Independent Radio News report on 96.9 Chiltern FM at four o’clock: “11 Britons are among the dead.” [Recording of northern Irish bloke recounting his experience] “—journalist Blahdy Blah on the earthquake in south Asia. In [Thailand] alone, eight Britons died. Others are on their way home to emotional reunions.” Don’t the media just love […]
December 2004, is turning out to be the sixth consecutive month of falling house prices in the UK. The hysteria has flipped. John Plender in the Financial Times has a word or two to say to those who believe that markets are rational. [Read the article before it becomes subscription only.]
Chris The Stoat linked to The Brick Testament yesterday, showing the image of the Lego shepherds gathering. He didn’t link to the next frame of Luke, showing them drawing a bead on a messenger of the Lord with a ground-to-air missile launcher. As the angel is joined by reinforcements, the militants run for cover.
I used to have reservations about Ute Lemper as a singer, but on Radio 3 this afternoon, performing with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, she was stunning. I’m sad that I missed the Hebrew and Arabic songs she began her show with. Apart from an abortive attempt to read Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone—I gave […]
I am having an excellent Christmas. Thank you to the Counsells and Beardsleys for their kindness and generosity and hospitality. And thanks to everyone everywhere who sent me cards and gifts and good wishes. Thanks especially to Maisie for being such a good girl and such good fun.
[Click image for details—via Stupid Evil Bastard]
I watched The Incredibles with the Anonymous Economist earlier this week. It is superb. See it. The movie takes a strong philosophical line on the question of unusual excellence and the way contemporary institutions, especially educational ones, do their best to smother it: “When everyone is special, no one is.” This quote encapsulates the underlying […]
I am a Wikipedian and link from PooterGeek to the wonderful Wikipedia frequently. This communal project has shown (yet again) the power of distributed collaborative work via the Net—just like the operating system running my PC and the Web server sending this page to you. Further, Wikipedia has proved conclusively that a philosopher can be […]
Leasey will only have to read the arithmetic expression “BadgerBadgerBadger + Christmas” to understand what’s at the other end Maoi’s link for the day.
Hello, loonies of Libertarianism. This is good irony. It is funny, sharp, and original. It has a serious underlying point to make. This is bad irony. It is flat, smug, and tired. Somehow it doesn’t score a hit against crap British celebs making crap records for charidee. David Carr, you win this week’s Prêt-à-Porter Award […]
As I predicted, the pull of Blade: Trinity was too strong and Leasey and I went along to see it last Saturday. It turned out to be both very entertaining and utter rubbish. The plot is thinner than a 15-year-old on a catwalk; Parker Posey couldn’t act her way out of a parking ticket; and […]
Oh woe, a university chemistry department is closing. “What is to become of British biomedical research?” whine the great and the good of the scientific and medical establishment. Michael Rees, the head of the BMA’s medical academics committee, is a laugh a line as he cries: “If this trend of closures continues, it will cut […]