The quote in all the obits for OED superhero Robert Burchfield is his description of English as “a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib”. Even if French dogs did like accordions as much as their masters are alleged to, it would do little to encourage the terminally oppressed Quebec…
I used to sing and play lead moon-whistle with a novelty orchestra which had somehow come to the understanding that when the drummer cried, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Reggie Perrin!”, we would manoeuvre clumsily into a decrepit Jamaican shuffle of a type which would probably not have won the favour of Mr Marley. That was…
While their government slowly adopts the values and systems of the modern West, I have noticed recently that some Chinese journalists seek inspiration in older practice. Here is an example from a report on a truck accident, entitled Mobbing for eggs in order to fool the editor and other progressives: Villagers rush to reave eggs…
With the Olympics only four years away, Beijing is keen to have us believe that Chinese policemen do not torture and kill dissidents and members of bizarre sects. Officer Liu Wenli, for example, was very keen on finding someone to teach him French: “Hi. Welcome to China. What can I do for you?” he greeted…
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a highly talented Somali immigrant who started as a cleaning lady and, although still only in her mid-30s, was elected last time round to the lower chamber of the Dutch parliament on the VVD (liberal-right) ticket. She has been threatened frequently since being elected for describing Islam as a backward religion,…
The excellent Jivha reports the arrival of Italian lingerie depicting Hindu deities in the boutiques of Godhra, Gujarat, where it has been protested by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in a move that will presumably lead to catastrophic inter-communal rioting. This ritual coyness is very difficult to understand for those of us originating from a part…
Apparently the Spanish language police may soon approve servidor (“server”), as well as some other important and popular web terms. What we need to know now is which word the trog who inhabits that dark, hot room in the basement of the Real Academia used when, some years ago, he made his original budget application…
I think Adbusters is meant to be satirical and hard-hitting, but if I had children then I’d be quite happy if they started out looking like this, just so long as they didn’t end up looking like this. (I also liked Evil Pundit of Doom‘s Homer. Here you get big yellow rounded-cylindrical marker buoys bobbing…
If I’d been running Homeland Security yesterday I’d have arrested every grubby fruit vendor I could find. To my knowledge no US president has ever been shot or blown up on July 4th but, as Doctor Zebra notes,
Many thanks to Stefan Geens for the plug on the fine MemeFirst re Kaleboel’s long battle with Rafael Ramos, La Vanguardia’s London-based illiterate plagiarist, and Josep Maria Casasús, the man paid to be the paper’s ombudsman. We’re going to nail the buggers.