But this time it is the Oxfordian kind, rather than deep Mybuggery about the symbolism of BOARS.
Receiving random spam with the subject line 'Fun', including links, does not inspire me to click those links for fear of finding myself on the wrong end of some ransomware demand, but a little light googling took me to enough places to ascertain that ( Read more... )

Goodness knows I do not, on the whole, give close attention to the Matter of Ted Hughes, but in today's Guardian Weekend Review, I discover this piece of WTFery: He believed he’d found the secret key to unlock all of Shakespeare’s work.
Do we not feel somebody should have sat him down with a copy of Middlemarch with the Casaubon sections bookmarked ( Read more... )

I thought this was funny, though I haven't yet made my way through all the parts: Facebook Newsfeed History of the World

While I take Robert McCrum's point about the perniciousness of fiction written to a formula (assuming it to be at all true that the current wisdom is "A new novel should be summarised in a single sentence, and should stop dinner ( Read more... )

Dept of, I knew that, sort of: Cryptic crossword solvers played a vital role in military intelligence during the second world war.

Dept of, not immune to the attraction of Neanderthal Man: The downside of sex with Neanderthals.

Dept of, like no divorced couple ever remained friends: The secret letters of Wallis Simpson are sensational - but don't ( Read more... )

This does sound really rather blissikins, do admit (okay, a touch of Mitford-fatigue did set in when one observed the patching together of a volume of Diana's papers, but this is Debo).

And you know, I would really like to know more about the shadowy, mysterious, early-dead figure of brother Tom ('Tuddemy').

***

Kathryn Hughes on a clever and ( Read more... )

The ghosts of futures past: a journo delves into patents at the British Library.

At Kew Gardens, the visitor figures are blossoming as fast as the cherry trees: and the ginko biloba is changing sex. Yes, Kew is a magical place, and I still think the current entry charge is iniqituous.

Lawyers like talking in Latin and most legal documents are ( Read more... )