It is easy to see why certain people get killed. The inventor of the kazoo, for instance, is just one in a line of many inventors of children's noisy toys whose fate, had he found a gruesome and untimely death, would have left many parents cold. I don't think he would have lastest long under the new home-grown terror rules that make up the Patriot ( Read more... )

Last night, I went to the bookcrossing meetup at The Tun again. Reading the recent coverage of Kate Mosse's second book "Sepulchre", I was really glad to spot Labyrinth there. Technically, Labyrinth is not her first novel but her first successful book where she benefitted from The Da Vinci Code paving the way for this type of literature ( Read more... )

So that's what it feels like living in New York! Given that there are hardly any cars on the road where I live, yesterdays power cut saw me hurdling over all the stuff my beloved flatmate left lying around. Since I didn't know how long it was gonna last, I just had some bread and water for tea after I had made it to the local shop to buy candles. ( Read more... )

This one's not an entirely vegetarian proof entry. The picture behind the cut shows several geese which will by now have ended up as St Martin's geese, the traditional food served on that day in Germany. The reason why I'm showing this picture is not because it's gross or cruel but because I think the perspective makes it somewhat unsettling. I don ( Read more... )

I recently discovered that the TV show QI or Quite Interesting has a column in "The Daily Telegraph" as well as its own homepage and a BBC page where you can watch outtakes. It is of course one of the most soothing exception in an otherwise dull TV schedule these days which has become focused on reality TV to a degree that is just unbearable ( Read more... )

I feel like I should have written about 18 years of German unification but I leave that until tomorrow. I read a lot of interesting stuff today and it somewhat fits better with what I want to cover tomorrow. BTW, this weeks BBC Odd Box is quite good as well but that's beyond the limits.

Let's start with amusing political stories. ( Read more )

It used to be that people told you to read newspapers to improve your vocabulary and grammar. The demands of breaking news and ever tighter deadlines have undermined that enormously. Now, I realise that Metro doesn't belong to that venerable cast of the halcyon days mentioned above but what are you supposed to do if you read this?:

"The deaths of ( Read more... )

I very ingeniusly outwitted myself yesterday evening. I thought that by walking up high enough on Caerketton I would be able to see the fireworks display at Meadowbank saving me from going all the way to Arthur's Seat ( Read more... )

I was sent male grooming products with my last video rental by Lovefilm. Nivea, incidentally a German product, moisturiser and face wash. I much appreciated the anti-static DVD cleaning wipe they sent me earlier this year, but this seems a bit of a strange, possibly clever product promotion. It's just so removed from films. I wonder if they sent ( Read more... )

Among the things that my mother brought along was some more sauerkraut which still eludes me in Edinburgh. Should consult edinburgers or those Polish shops that seem to be mushrooming out of nowhere everywhere ( Read more... )