What about my religion?

I fear commissar Franco Frattini is not thinking of protecting radical anythingarianism when he proposes introducing self-censorship in Europe. Franco (that man gets everywhere!) has taken this new-old approach to quite an extraordinary degree on his personal site. Dear Boris, Mr Frattini is from the Italian right, friends of freedom indeed…

Before/after you’ve gone

In Amsterdam Dutch the term boterbrief, “butter-letter”, is used for a marriage licence. In English a bread-and-butter letter is written to thank one’s ex-host (or -spouse, presumably) for that which one has consumed. The former has its origins in the Latin literae butyricae, a permit issued by the church enabling consumption of meat and dairy…

Nigger? Moi?

I was cycling to a barrel organ meeting last night when I passed a group of Moroccans, one of whom threw something at me while another shouted “Nigger!” If I’d been slightly more awake, I’d have done a bit of ironic chromatic inversion on Blake.

Surefire cure for toothache

From Barcelona’s Green Book: In the year of Our Lord 1839 a surgeon of the town of Sancti Spiritus in the province of Badajoz made it known to the Provincial Deputation of Seville that he had discovered a surefire remedy for toothache, which consisted of biting on the neck of a guitar while someone else…