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Canaries in coal mines and David Mitchell on euthanasia
Saturday, December 13th, 2008While British gays continue to display a reckless disregard for the fact that they may not be married, only civilly unified, many ruthlessly using the M word to describe their connection anyway, American humans continue to show little or no interest in the media-friendly issue of euthanasia (which for practical purposes means, enabling a loved [...]
Alain de Botton on Flaubert’s hatred of his homeland
Sunday, December 7th, 2008As a person with a somewhat mixed relationship with my own birthplace (the only time England felt like home was when my kids were small, probably because anywhere would have been home with them around; I grew up wishing not to be English, checking out every new country I visited for potential resettlement qualities), I [...]
Ahh, snow
Thursday, November 20th, 2008South Bedfordshire, England, late October 08.
Welsh Mountains & TV shows crossing the pond
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Here are some hills and sheep from when we were driving round Wales the other week. That’s snow on the top of that mountain. Beautiful, and not as cold or distant as Scotland (although I can actually see myself becoming enamoured of Scotland next, in my mature age, which will be something of a miracle- [...]
random post: political uncertainty, Britishness
Thursday, November 6th, 2008My computer conked out. There are a number of annoying things about that, such as no instapaper for storing articles like this one down the sidebar, the delete button being in the wrong place, the letters needing more hammering than on my computer so I miss some out quite often, and not having access to [...]
Wales
Friday, October 31st, 2008This time yesterday, I was down a coal mine. Very interesting, unless you are claustrophobic. They also have fantastic home-made Victoria sponge in the canteen, as well as Bara Brith; exactly what you want with a hot cup of tea when emerging frozen from underneath the earth. Our ex-coal-miner guide was interesting and engaging, and [...]
I want this cushion
Thursday, September 11th, 2008These Union Jack cushions are getting very popular among the posh, or so you would think from rooms of the magazine-interior classes. The famous British flag, once much-maligned by the masses of its own country as a symbol of extreme right-wing skinhead violence and racist thug organisations, is now a worldwide popular emblem of whatever [...]
this green and pleasant land
Saturday, September 6th, 2008The green is lavish and startlingly emerald, doubly intensely so in the rain.
I’m in deepest southern England, wondering how to explain the sheer bizarreness of this place. Bizarrity is not the characteristic people generally associate first and foremost with the UK. People who live here think it’s normal (you have to- I did too), Americans [...]
crime, guns & any other explanations for good behaviour welcome
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008I’m sitting at the back of my house watching a couple of guys from the electricity company taking down branches from trees that are getting dangerously close to cables out there. Cables in Austin are overground, and whenever there is a storm, power goes out somewhere, or in a few places. Last storm, a whole [...]
Brit-com video of the day
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008It took me a while to “get” the humour of The Mighty Boosh, partly because the title has nothing to do with anything or anyone in the show ever, and partly because the whole thing is so very reminiscent of Ex-Husband’s wacko bunch of pals & flatmates of the 80’s & 90’s (please do not [...]
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