Ok, so you’re a sculptor, here’s the brief: we need a statue to represent a fictional heroine from an 1858 poem who meets the Italian patriots before they go and die fighting against the kingdom of Naples. Fair enough. I’ll get to work. If the sculptor was English he’d be thinking of a Florence Nightingale – Read More-
This is big news, a revelation: do a bit of sport and you’ll live longer. Wow! Who’d’a thought? Who’d’a known? It’s almost like there’s link between exercise and health! But newspapers have to fill columns and cynics need to take the piss. It’s the way of the world. But here’s an irony. I work with – Read More-
I know you to be clever, cultured, superior and smug. So name the first 10 artists that spring to mind, GO! Lose a point each for: Rembrandt, Renoir, Hockney, Picasso and Van Gough. Lose three points for every other one named that isn’t a female. Ok, that’s actually impossible without getting really obscure. I don’t – Read More-
I find watching my football team very stressful. I take it too personally. Everything that happens takes on a supernatural importance. It’s hard. Especially when we’re not playing very well. Which is often. However, watching other people’s teams play can be a total pleasure. Because, f’rinstance, if Liverpool win or lose at Brentford, do I – Read More-
I personally think that this entire petrol ‘situation’ in which we currently find ourselves, is a ploy by the advocates and manufacturers of electric vehicles. There is simply no greater advert for battery-powered cars than mile long queues outside every petrol station in the country. As if Tommy Tesla-Driver was not previously sufficiently smug, the – Read More-
It seems, where the human body is concerned, that the more we seem to know, the more we realise we have absolutely no clue whatsoever what actually goes on inside of us. Nor why. Not even how. Particularly where food is concerned. For years we’ve been told that ‘fat is bad’, particularly cheese, ok, when – Read More-
Ok, Qatar is absolutely ready for next year’s World Cup being held there. In November, for a change, because in the usual June/July for such an event, the heat is sufficient that any non-desert dweller could stand it for no more than 2.7 minutes before dehydrating and a further 3.2 until they die. In November, – Read More-
Jimmy Greaves died. He was a superstar. Possibly the best striker of his day, probably the best striker ever. Drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, had a fitness programme that included jellied eels, pie & mash and ever such a lot of sausages. Took the bus, cleaned his own boots, sang ‘my ole – Read More-
I hate to be cruel. I’m not generally an unkind person. Especially in my post-Yom-Kippur, ‘be a better person, less of a total muthafucka than last year’ glow. But I was gladdened to read of the death of Alan Steel. He was a personal finance guru and, from the sounds, an almost-all-round good guy. So – Read More-
This week was Yom Kippur. Our ‘day of atonement’, as it is known, though not really what it means. Because that’s the English interpretation, the nearest kind’a deal, but not what its all about. In the Christian sense ‘atonement’ means beating yourself up, flagellating, somehow paying penance for sins. For Jews we only pay for – Read More-