Christmad thought from Karim, which might bring to mind Leo Tolstoy or Norah Jones (or even Mark Twain–“The house was as empty as a beer closet in premises where painters have been at work”), but which is certainly all his own.
Fernando Navarro suggests that both I and Joseph Townsend are wrong. The Spanish word for executioner, verdugo, he says, was applied originally to a rod cut green, verde, and used to administer beatings. If Townsend was wrong, then his confusion or that of his informer might have arisen if (a) executioners were clothed in, or…
I know where I should be grazing this Christmas, thanks to the Archbishop of York: We are so lucky in this country to have churches that are nearer our homes than most supermarkets. I encourage you to take advantage of that this Christmas. Unfortunately there’s no way he can be referring to the Queen’s churches,…
Abdul Bari Jahani told IWPR, “This is in fact not a poem, but a list of tribes.” The old Yugoslav one worked on the same basis, with each republic having a section of its own anthem included, which is why it took hours to play at football matches.