On Saturday night, I finished reading David Denby’s article in the latest New Yorker, on the transformation of cinema viewing, and fell asleep. On Sunday night, with supper, I picked up where I left off, with a newly published Primo Levi story called Bear Meat. Spooky to the max, as we used to say...

There’s more ➢

“Under the armpit and knee of River Plate you can see that the marble is still smooth as it once was. But the amazing and enormous head is rough and lined like an old man.”

I just love the idea of the River Plate’s armpit. The real thing’s not bad either. The restoration of Bernini’s fountai...

There’s more ➢

That’s what I keep telling myself; don’t delay. If you have something to blog about, blog about it. But life gets in the way. So my high-minded thoughts on the whole “is cloned meat safe to eat” heat have been put aside in favour of Safe as milk?, an editorial in the New York Times.

There’s more ➢

Start: 95.4 Last week: 188 This week: 190
Tuesday 2 January: The Squeeze hit the nail on the head earlier this morning. “I can’t remember when I last felt hungry,” she said, as we moved in on a salad and a sandwich. And that’s the real problem with the Holiday Season. No time to get hungry.

Very odd to see a film as quintessentially English as The History Boys among an American audience. Were others aware of the crucial layering of “other” universities? Neither Hull nor Loughborough is Oxbridge, of course; but nor is Hull Loughborough. Excellent, excellent fun, and well portrayed too...

There’s more ➢