State theft or The Dissolution of the Monasteries
In civilized society there is a multitude of ways used by ‘the authorities’ to extract money from citizens like squeezing pips from a lemon or orange. Clever people, versed in these ways, invent new...
View Article‘Lecturas’ puts its foot in it again
This is a pinkish Spanish glossy magazine published with great success throughout Spain. It mostly deals with ‘celebrities’ whatever they are; it is not in my list of great reads. In April of this year...
View ArticleSome more eccentricities of pronunciation
Some more eccentricities of pronunciation Spanish television announcers are lax when it comes to telling the viewers about the films they interminably show. Perhaps they do it on purpose, though I...
View ArticleDorothy Parker: some things worth remembering . . .
She was born Dorothy Rothschild (nothing to do with the bankers) in 1893 and died just over seventy in 1967. She was American, one of the founders of the wits’ Round Table at the Algonquin Hotel on...
View ArticleQuotable quotes from Winston Churchill (1864-1965, edited)
He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, ‘Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they have...
View ArticleSome classic outtakes in the cinema
It is possible that these tales of fubs and fumblings are apocryphal, but as they have been repeated numberless times in the comparatively closed world of the film studios, they are obviously based on...
View ArticleThe ancient game of football
In the first twenty minutes or so of a foolish movie called First Knight, cinemagoers were treated to the Hollywood spectacle of a young and beautiful Lady of the Manor playing football with the burly...
View ArticleGuess who said (or wrote) these things?
Give us your answers in the form of a Comment “I must have a drink of breakfast.” “Somebody left the cork out of my lunch!” “She’s all done up like a well-kept grave.” “I exercise extreme self...
View ArticleSome notes on the 2000 Scarlet Pimpernel series
Some notes on the 2000 TV series ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ I have in my possession a box set of this production, the material contained in four DVD discs. The series was adapted from the books by the...
View ArticleLilibet – a purely American invention
Intrigued by the title, ‘Lilibet’, I ordered a hard-bound first edition from my online bookshop Bibliophile (how lost I would be with it). I suppose it is a work of biography, in this case composed...
View ArticleWho said it?
Our first slightly intellectual quiz for the year 2015 presents the published words of an eccentric and wit, male, and the only clue to his identity is that he is not English. The sayings resemble a...
View ArticleThe wit of two conductors
It is possible that many players in orchestras have heard very funny comments made to them during rehearsal, or even during the actual performance of an orchestral piece. But someone needed to be quick...
View ArticleCorrect behaviour of gentlemen
Four Europeans of different nationality sat down at a tea table with the great lady who was their host. As they sipped the Lapsang or the Earl Grey, according to taste, the lady moved her position in...
View ArticleWho was the dreaded Mosley?
I doubt if more than a handful of today’s teenagers have ever heard of Sir Oswald Mosley, or if they have, he is but a shadowy figure haunting the nineteen thirties. And yet he was brilliantly guyed in...
View ArticleQuotable quotes from Winston Churchill (1864-1965, edited)
He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, ‘Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they have...
View ArticleSome classic outtakes in the cinema
It is possible that these tales of fubs and fumblings are apocryphal, but as they have been repeated numberless times in the comparatively closed world of the film studios, they are obviously based on...
View ArticleThe ancient game of football
In the first twenty minutes or so of a foolish movie called First Knight, cinemagoers were treated to the Hollywood spectacle of a young and beautiful Lady of the Manor playing football with the burly...
View ArticleGuess who said (or wrote) these things?
Give us your answers in the form of a Comment “I must have a drink of breakfast.” “Somebody left the cork out of my lunch!” “She’s all done up like a well-kept grave.” “I exercise extreme self...
View ArticleSome notes on the 2000 Scarlet Pimpernel series
Some notes on the 2000 TV series ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ I have in my possession a box set of this production, the material contained in four DVD discs. The series was adapted from the books by the...
View ArticleLilibet – a purely American invention
Intrigued by the title, ‘Lilibet’, I ordered a hard-bound first edition from my online bookshop Bibliophile (how lost I would be with it). I suppose it is a work of biography, in this case composed...
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