The demon barber of Calais, a 17th century Sweeney Todd

I believe the current early chronology of versions containing all the basic motifs is as follows: Joseph Fouché was a politician and administrator, and the delightfully wicked creator under Bonaparte of something vaguely resembling the modern police service. According to PBS, he wrote in something called Archives of the police of a series of murders…

Bowman Ales live

Loopy and Ray used to be charcoal burners. There’s no really good way of drinking charcoal, so fortunately for us they gave it up.

Barred

A man who has been away for twenty years walks into the bar. The young waiter looks up at him and says, “You’re barred.” “Yes,” he replies, “but how did you know?”

Redundant e

Q: How do you form a Spanish barbarism from an English word beginning with “s”? A: Easy, you add a preliminary “e”, so that, for example, smoking (ie a dinner jacket, a tuxedo) becomes esmoquin. Q: How do you correct a Spanish barbarism beginning with “es”, thus demonstrating to your Spanish public your intimate knowledge…

Ciutadans and blogs

For a modernising party, Ciutadans have got off to a terrible start in their dealings with the new media, including some quite startling and prolonged incompetence in dealing with the guys at Nihil Obstat and Barcepundit. Now it seems that Ernesto Hernández Busto has been told by those on high to turn off Ciutadans en…

Tío Lele and OkieDokie.com

Just had a chat with an associate of “Tío Lele”, responsible for a protection, ahem, scheme in Poble Nou and other parts. It is said that everyone’s favourite uncle is a bit disturbed about the apparent lack of progress on his website, which it had been understood would be appearing on OkieDokie.com.

The standing water

I know a little bit about the subject but not enough to figure why Blake uses the definite article in the hellish proverb “Expect poison from the standing water.” (Neither can others, which is why “Expect poison from standing water” gits almost as many ghits (currently 400:382 in favour of literal accuracy).