Readers of The Economist will know that there is some disagreement about the Shim Sham, from which Mr Reed developed the Shim Sham Shimmy. Some say it started as a tap routine in the early 1900s; others credit it to the Brains-as-well-as-Feet team.

They don't write obituaries like they used to...

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I've been doing this almost every single year for the past, oh, 35 years and it never fails to amaze me. You bung the seeds in to damp compost, you keep them a bit warm and -- Bam! -- new life. Keeping a lid on my impatience can be hard, and in my current set-up is especially dangerous because ther...

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The world is divided into people who have children and people who do not have children. But yesterday I became aware of an even more fundamental division, between people who have children and people who have children and put them on their answerphones. This is mawkish sentimentality of the highest d...

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I swore I wasn't going to note anything to do with the whole sorry mess, but this is just too good not to share. Thanks ftrain.

P.S. 1 January 2016 So glad both sites are still alive and well.

On Saturday a 15 ringgit cab ride brought me to the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, at last away from the hotel-conference centre axis. It is a good place, full of interesting things to see and people seeing them. And if KL is very Blade runner, then the forest is very Raiders.

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