Category: Liberals & locals

1833-1938

I am the way, but which way?

“To the old rugged cross I will ever be true; / Its shame and reproach gladly bear; / Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away, / Where His glory forever I’ll share.” Yes, but wouldn’t it be helpful if more wayside crosses, like this one, somewhere near Le Malzieu, indicated the…

Breogán redux

Featuring Sophie Tucker’s “There’s Something Spanish In My Eyes”

Run like a gypsy

With Imanol Arias as El Lute, retired generaliser George Borrow, and walking and running style as social differentiators.

The Turks' gypsy hangman on the point of giving the Greek hero a new walking style in a scene from a Greek shadow puppet play (<a href='http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=3291073&partid=1&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&titleSubject=on&physicalAttribute=on&numpages=10&images=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx&currentPage=6'>British Museum</a>). An Ottoman custom? A Barcelona cop tells me that his Algerian colleagues stamp on the ankles of bagsnatchers, making them easier to identify and capture next time.

Daily Mail confuses Rudyard Kipling with George MacDonald Fraser

Here (thanks JD): Rudyard Kipling, renowned for his brilliant books celebrating marital glory at the height of the British Empire, was also left a broken man when John – a chronically short sighted teenager – was cut down in the mud and rain of northern France. So perhaps not really. I suppose Kipling might now…