War and amusements – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

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 â€“ a chronically short sighted teenager â€“ was cut down in the mud and rain of northern France. So perhaps not really. I suppose Kipling might now…

Paradise and town-planning

The Turks and Jews of Istanbul demonstrate that co-existence is not impossible.

Brown hands Mandelson Keys of Heaven

But perhaps Mandy should read Matthew before taking it as a compliment.

Le Monde ditches Gordon Brown, sticks pig’s nose on him

Bad enough the Guardian throwing in its lot with the Comment is Free mob, but even the French left establishment seems to be deserting the Sheriff of Rochdale, who is heading rapidly down this page. Looks like a superimposed Flash-type console, but ain’t. Strange. Re Mandelson: if someone else can arrange a stake, I’ll procure…

Samaranch

Check out Liga Loca on silent minutes and Manuel Stimulo on how “a stupid communist French idea about promoting peace among nations through sports events in which their citizens would participate as amateur idiots [was transformed] into a powerhouse steamtrain of propaganda for competition, professionalism, the Triumph of the Will, battering the weak into submission,…

Alectryon, the Ancient Greek model for our cuckold’s horns?

With a field study of the nymphomaniacs of Goa and brief notes on the early history of composite grafts.

La fête de l'Ordre des Cocus devant le trône de Sa Majesté, Infidélité/The celebration of the Order of Cuckoldry before the throne of her majesty, Infidelity. French print, ca. 1815. <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Order-cuckoldry-ca1815-French-satire.jpg'>CC from Wikimedia Commons</a>.

The Snow Virgin ain’t afraid of the rain

Not that it ever rains in Villanueva de la Jara, Cuenca.

Accompanying the big A

In which I proffer my experience in the service of the East European mafia as a model for helping us help the Aricept generation.

Cover of The World magazine of Jan. 18, 1914 featuring Francis Grierson as Psychic Pianist. Public Domain over at <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Psychic_pianist.jpg'>Wikimedia Commons</a>

Stay in a hotel whose previous owners were beaten to death and buried in the garden

This is surely where this took place, and this must have been one of the last guests pre-mortem. I liked the unconsciously gruesome comments on TripAdvisor about the chilly welcome and subsidence on the tennis court, and a couple of the photos are thoroughly spooky. This and more on FollowTheBaldie.com‘s customised hiking tours.

Otra Liga es posible

An Iberian proposal would slash wage costs, free up time and talent for cashflow-friendly shagshow opportunities, and assimilate football to mainstream Peninsular cultural practice.