this morning, i was in a well-known "pile-'em-high, sell-'em-cheap" supermarket ... inspecting the half-price christmas decorations ... a few feet from me along the aisle stood a well-spoken country-wife in a puffa jacket and elastic-sided equestrian boots ... she picked up a toy turkey, less than half life-sized, which was made of felt, and was dressed as father christmas ... and it instantly began to sing jingle bells ... quite loudly, like a rather jolly man, kevin spacey perhaps, but it gobbled just like a real turkey at the end of each line ... blushing like a whole garden of roses, the lady looked around at the smart women behind the pharmaceutical counter, and then at me, and sounded quite panic-stricken when she said, "I don't know how to stop it !" ... so i put on a sympathetic smile and sidled over, a bit like vincent price playing the surgeon in the tingler, only not so well-spoken, or nearly as nice ... and murmured ... "maybe you should wring it's neck !"
of the seven deadly sins, the eighth and worst by far is emotional blackmail ... the diligent practise of this subtle and ancient art creates a constantly evolving darwinistic moral vacuum in which the brightest new manipulative ideas and stratagems flourish ... and which only you, or i, can fill !
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
in war, truth is the first casualty ... today's guardian ran some extracts from the war diary of david cotterrell
Bloody reality ... last year, the artist David Cotterrell went to Afghanistan to observe the work of military medical staff at the main field hospital at Camp Bastion. His diary and photographs, now on show at the Wellcome Institute in London, are a harrowing reminder of the cost of war
... well worth reading, if only for the last paragraph
Monday, November 24, 2008
two important exhibitions ... at the wellcome institute ... and the british library
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
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