Okay, this story seems to have got a lot of coverage and a storm of Twitter outrage: Seaside town's high-tech anti-sex toilets will spray users with water.
And honestly, I've had enough embarrassing moments with those hair-trigger motion-operated automatic flush systems...
(Carry on at your Convenience was the 22nd in the series of Carry On films ( Read more... )

Which I suppose I am, in my very minor way, contributing to various friends' and acquaintances' Patreons and so on.
And I suppose at least we are not in the full C18th mode of Patron, in which Patron expected from the Artist fulsome dedications of the works, the occasional obsequious letter praising their generosity, and the odd grovelling sonnet ( Read more... )

Biographer writes about his life being a biographer...
I suppose that the thing about biographers developing a relationship with their subject must be particularly acute if the subject is still actually alive and interacting with them.
But I do think it's a bit presumptuous to expect that you are going to be Boswell and Johnson together, because, ( Read more... )

I am not entirely convinced that there are two kinds of readers who like entirely different kinds of texts*: Those who are diverted by the offshoots of 19th-century realism - the historical novel; fantasy; fiction with a well-rounded plot and characters, and “conflict” - will find all residues of poetic language and modernism, with some of the ( Read more... )

And the Ponceyness Police are calling for reinforcements and decontamination gear (and issuing warnings about not approaching the suspect, who is feared to be a carrier of ponceyness plague):
Will Self leads walking tour of Bristol
[A] simple urban stroll as a way of discarding the shackles of capitalism.

Having lined up a slightly reluctant 30- ( Read more... )

Taiye Selasi: stop pigeonholing African writers: [O]ne could argue that 50-odd writers emerging from a continent of 1.1 billion people represent more of a trickle than a wave. So, too, might one question the media’s fondness for these little ethnic trends. (When did the white male novelist’s moment begin, and when will it end?) One might pause to ( Read more... )

Some snippets of his wit and wisdom:
"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization."

I wish I had found this one when I was doing my 100 things about London project:
[I]f you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the ( Read more... )

London in literature is a huge subject, and I'm not going anywhere near Dickens.

Although William Dunbar was all 'yay! London!' (an early example of the finest sight a Scotsman sees?), several noted poems are perhaps pretty much the equivalent of the routine grumbling of residents who wouldn't actually want to live anywhere else. Come on, Dr J! ( Read more... )

'The most-awarded single malt whisky in the world'

Awarded, we ask, to whom?

I think you mean 'award-winning'?

And plz not 2 get me started on the insidious creep of 'to gift' as a verb, when there is absolutely nothing wrong with the good old-fashioned 'to give'.

This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1836381.html. ( Read more... )

The poems chosen to mark the 150th anniversary of the capital's tube system reflect both the history and diversity of London.

But, really? Blake's
I wander thro' each charter'd street ( Read more... )