Normal service Will soon be resumed

Sport doesn’t rear its head very often in this blog, least of all American sports, none of which I can watch apart from baseball. But I wouldn’t be complete without nailing my colours to the mast before the Red Sox start ‘whupping ass’ (as those cross-Atlantic types are fond of saying) this weekend.

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Ode to a Musical Neighbour

Just a little bit of fun inspired by the brass section next door.
– –
Sometimes the jazzman who’s lost some equipment
(like the mute for his trumpet) Uses balled fist instead.
I wish that the kid playing scales on his tuba
Would try muting his with his head!

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Kurt and Other Old Men

I’ve just heard Kurt Vonnegut has died. I don’t have much to say about it, but I felt like I had to mention it. And so it goes.
What I really wanted to talk about was old men, and old people in general. Today in the street, I walked by as two old, old men passed [...]

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Short Stories again

I’ve mentioned before how short stories are much neglected. I’ve just found a site entirely devoted to the short story as a literary form.

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Well that was weird.

Last night I was doing a bit of writing. It was a little stream of consciousness piece, from the point of view of a woman having a claustrophobic anxiety attack on a packed rush-hour bus. Now I am not claustrophobic (or prone to panic attacks), but the feeling I got when I was [...]

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Missing The Point?

I read a remarkable comment from Shaun Bailey, the Would-Be Conservative Party MP for Hammersmith (England). In this week’s Sunday Times:
“We do not do enough to deter our teenagers from becoming parents. In fact, we positively encourage it. What message does the fact that we hand out condoms to children as young as 13 send [...]

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The ‘thin veneer of civilisation’.

I’m sure a lot of people are familiar with this phrase. The idea that civilisation is just a thin layer on the surface and we are all beasts underneath that. Well, after a hectic trip to the shops where I saw nature red in tooth and claw as people fought their way through the shops, [...]

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Writing Stuff

Well, last night didn’t come to anything in the end. I didn’t write anything. I did read on with The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot). It’s a much different kind of writing than anything found nowadays. A lot more of the thematic side is explicitly stated, rather than implied. A scene might be described, [...]

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Latest Procrastination Device

My latest tool for avoiding all the things I should be doing is http://www.conquerclub.com/ . It’s sort of based on the old board game Risk. It’s a way of pretending to be Napoleon or Alexander without as much bloodshed
I really should be writing, but it’s too nice and sunny outside for me to [...]

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Karl Linnaeus is 300

The man who laid the foundations for nearly everything we know about biology today is 300 this year.
http://www.linnaeus2007.se/

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