That Scottish Diaspora
Is Red still here ever? The Independent – Like it or not, the Scots and the English are flesh and blood Inspect the details of this diluted nationalism and one thing becomes clear. It embraces, even celebrates, a cross-border world. By Boyd Tonkin The best bit: Elements of bathos accompanied the unveiling of Alex Salmond’s [...]
Categories: History
Absolutely the Funniest Item of the Day CCCV
Peter sent this to me sometime last week but it’s still the funniest thing I’ve seen today: A History of English (in under 12 minutes!)
Categories: History
Jackie’s Strength
I wasn’t planning on posting anything to mark the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination (but lord if you’ve seen the Zapruder Film Stabilized…) because I wasn’t alive during the 60s and I don’t think it often contributes much to over-romantisize that particular decade, even at it’s most tragic. What would I say, as I have [...]
Categories: History
We All Need A Cursing Stone Sometimes
I would put this in my front yard, and give it a little settling pat after one of my errand-running drives (as documented the other day on Twitter . . .). American Digest – The Curse Carved Into the Cursing Stone Read it. It’s very therapeutic.
Categories: History
Pity My Poor Unhappy Swimming Pool
Yeah! Finally! wait but why – Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy (I like this post’s style. It’s sort of Hyperbole and a Half meets Quora.) So yes, now that you’ve gone away and read the whole thing, I agree with all of it, and read the whole thing, except: • I think it’s overstating [...]
Categories: People and Current Events
Aethelflaed, the Lady of Mercia
See, the trouble with the entire world, really, is that we live with the internet, wherein I know that there’s this TV documentary airing, even if it is airing in a different country, but I still know about it, and I still see people’s reactions to it, and I can still Google it and see [...]
Categories: History
Becoming Chinese
So this is very good, and although it’s long (although, not as long as I thought it would be; I was reading it this morning on my phone and emailed it to myself to finish later because I thought I was less than halfway but it turned out I had one paragraph left and the [...]
Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs
In My Glorious Rule…
We would build miles of neighborhoods like these (near suburban train stations, downtown cores, over deserted and hideous strip malls…) SF Girl by Bay – LITTLE HOUSES OF WESTLAKE. They’re all 2 or 3 bedroom homes, with 1 bathroom, and tiny, manageable yards. Because to get started on the housing ladder, you do NOT need [...]
Categories: History
Death on the Nile
Mark Steyn: The Princess and the Brotherhood For nine decades, Egypt has fled modernity. For my part, I would bet Egypt’s fate will be largely driven by its fiscal ruin. Morsi is a good example of what happens when full-blown Islamic rule is put into effect in a country without the benefit of oil. He’s [...]
Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs
The Death of Culture
With an unexpected Die Boomers Die twist at the end! Vanity Fair – You Say You Want a Devolution? For most of the last century, America’s cultural landscape—its fashion, art, music, design, entertainment—changed dramatically every 20 years or so. But these days, even as technological and scientific leaps have continued to revolutionize life, popular style [...]
Categories: Business & Media
*Bursts Into Applause*
I’ve been reading this, via Janice Turner’s Twitter feed, on my phone, and I’ve gotten up to “there are criticisms flying about” and I had to get up and link to it on here because I just keep laughing out loud and doing subtle air punches (we’ve just had dinner, the child is in bed, [...]
Categories: Art and Literature
In Which Some Corners of the Internet Are Vastly Superior to Others
It’s a funny old world. One must never, never, never read the comments of a news article, a newspaper opinion article, a youtube video, a post on a political blog (unless independently run and strictly moderated); even amazon and yelp reviews will mostly only serve to cause confusion and anguish (best to stick to the [...]
Categories: Science and Nature
Jan Steen: A Painter For Our Age
(Unrelated, but: Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!) On Friday I went to the de Young Museum in San Francisco to see the Girl with a Pear Earring (Dutch Paintings From the Mauritshuis). It really is a lovely painting. Nobody seems to point out how Vermeer seems to have put the whole thing out of focus (especially [...]
Categories: Art and Literature
And the Most Amazing Item of the Day
Judi Dench in Cabaret! From the video’s notes: Yes, that Judi Dench…from the original London production of Cabaret in 1968…keep in mind, the character of Sally Bowles from the original stories was supposed to be woefully untalented (this was changed for the Liza Minnelli film version) and this particular song was not included in the [...]
Categories: Entertainment
The Country’s In the Very Best of Hands (More True Every Day)
Remember when this went around a few years ago and we were all “WOAH HOW PRESCIENT” about it? I think Vanderleun found it first? Or maybe Tim Blair? Anyway, in pursuance of a laugh, I followed up a Twitter conversation with RC2 with this and, gosh golly, it just keeps getting better. The Country’s In [...]
Categories: Politics
