Dept of things one really doesn't want to tackle prior to one's first cup of coffee: removing muesli from a USB connector (just don't ask).

Dept of curious part/whole relationship: finding passages that one thinks are rather good and puts in one's quotation file in books that, as a whole, one thought rather dire.

Dept of lady typewriters: Why do we ( Read more... )

Spotted in conference announcement today, going huh?
Unlike other women in the pantheon of English mystics like Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, the seventeenth-century visionary Jane Lead is far from a household name.

Okay, I think if I mentioned either of the first two ladies, a substantial portion of my readers would know something about ( Read more... )

No, really, I still can't get over my WTF at Anne Robinson's answer in the Guardian Weekend magazine Q&A section last Saturday:
How would you like to be remembered?
Thin (a size eight).

(Also, how much do I hate the New Age Viciousness of the Lesson Life Has Taught Her? 'There are no victims, only volunteers.' Bring me a fish with spines.)

Because ( Read more... )

I was stunned to discover that I can haz filmography!

I.e. I have an entry on IMDB in respect of one television programme I was on - playing myself. (Actually I thought I was Posing As A Nexpert.)

I don't know whether to be boggled that this entry has somehow been generated, or miffed that they only have that one programme of all the ones I've held ( Read more... )

Okay, I very much doubt I am ever going to pick up a celebrity autobiography, but this comes as positively encouraging news:
Although the showbiz memoir is an ancient format, this season's rush of this-is-me books has felt fresh, partly because the people involved have waited until they had a story to tell. With the exception of the 32-year-old ( Read more... )

When the Guardian referred to Martin Amis as 'Britain's greatest living author' last week, one reader was so outraged she threatened to emigrate - or worse. So if not Amis, who? Stephen Moss assesses the field.

Who gives a toss?

Especially when elsewhere in the paper there's a piece on some notably 'OMG they didn't!' Oscar awards and non-awards.

( Read more... )

Even jetlagged as I am, my palaeography skillz totally ROOOL: had reader today who wanted help in deciphering various bits of C19th scientist's correspondence, and in all but one instance (which took a bit longer) I got the words Just Like That, to reader's enormous admiration.

***

What is that phenomenon whereby people think that praising one ( Read more... )

Am apparently above average popular:
( How Popular Are You? )