When last month's squiggling frenzy ended, got to thinking that December marks not just the end of Nanowrimo but the beginning of a month with a lot of awful anniversaries. One of them long before my time was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. That got a big look in this year due to the 75th anniversary. It turns out to share the date with the ( Read more... )

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There’s been so much craziness in the big bad world that any sensible serpent would curl up on a nice warm rock and sleep it all out ( Read more... )

It’s been all gloom and doom over the last week or so.

It started with the sad saga of the slimy Stanford Squid which was the tale of the day not just in Cyberia but even in the local news and views circuit.
Back in the 1950s a 14 year old boy could get killed for wolf whistling or chatting up a woman. In these more enlightened and progressive ( Read more... )

The serpent has been absent of late. Strange that in the days of having no internet and not even a computer, I was posting far more frequently ( Read more... )

Today was a time for some serious nostalgia and a visit to the serpent's favourite old lunatic asylum which has been converted into an arts centre ( Read more... )

I was living in Germany in the early 1990s. Around that time there was a spate of firebombings of houses and hostels where Turkish residents were living. One such attack resulted in 5 people being burned to death and the culprits turned out to be a bunch of young white males. Puffed up poppinjays with an inflated sense of entitlement and resentment ( Read more... )

So it is official. This February has been declared the hottest in Dursleyville since 1910 and the most humid since some time in the sixties. Here's hoping that the same is not in store for March. One consolation is that the shortening hours of daylight means there is more time to cool down on the days we do get those sizzling stinkers ( Read more... )

It’s just over 2 weeks now since the serpent has returned to Oz. Still feeling ever so strange and out of sorts and not quite here and also obviously no longer back in Amsterdam ( Read more... )

Wednesday 8th May marked the fifth anniversary of the goblin invasion of a certain mad house. The serpent was not there to celebrate and it is likely that no one still there either knows or cares. Had intended to give it a minor mention on the day itself but in the end had lots of online course stuff to do. So it’s likely a good sign that it has ( Read more... )