Linky-linky
Review of Bacchus, a restaurant recently opened in Hackney, which contains the following, deserving, I think, of this week's Oscar Wilde memorial award:
The idea of transforming a nice old Victorian pub in a resolutely poor part of Hackney into a temple of molecular gastronomy is so eccentric, it warms the heart. But then so does the story of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
For those of you who are fond of wool, a place you may like to visit, even if it is allegedly 'Britain's least popular attraction': the Welsh National Wool Museum, in the picturesque village of Dre-fach Felindre in the Teifi Valley (which does not appear to have its own website yet - no, it's cunningly concealed under National Museum of Wales)
Alas, I can't find a link in the online version of the Guardian to the report of the flightless bird (rhea, not ostrich) called Eric which is terrorising the populace of Lostwithiel, Cornwall.
Not a book to cheer the hearts of those of us whose banner bears the strange device 'It's Always More Complicated'.
Another review of that book Why Do People Get Ill?, though I am rather with the reviewer cited in the 'Critical Eye' column who felt that although one would like one's doctor to be cultured, one would also like them to know their physiology and biochemistry.
Re recent furores about Madama Butterfly, James Fenton points out that Pinkerton in the original libretto is presented as a nasty piece of work, and also shows the evolution of the story via various authors.