The head of the Balearics tourism authority, Juan Carlos Alía, has just had to resign following the revelation – brought out by some smart work by socialist deputy, Antonio Diéguez – that he tried to include a trip to one of Moscow’s top brothels, Rasputin, on his expenses claim. Alía was in Moscow to give…
The quote in all the obits for OED superhero Robert Burchfield is his description of English as “a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib”. Even if French dogs did like accordions as much as their masters are alleged to, it would do little to encourage the terminally oppressed Quebec…
I used to sing and play lead moon-whistle with a novelty orchestra which had somehow come to the understanding that when the drummer cried, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Reggie Perrin!”, we would manoeuvre clumsily into a decrepit Jamaican shuffle of a type which would probably not have won the favour of Mr Marley. That was…
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a highly talented Somali immigrant who started as a cleaning lady and, although still only in her mid-30s, was elected last time round to the lower chamber of the Dutch parliament on the VVD (liberal-right) ticket. She has been threatened frequently since being elected for describing Islam as a backward religion,…
If I’d been running Homeland Security yesterday I’d have arrested every grubby fruit vendor I could find. To my knowledge no US president has ever been shot or blown up on July 4th but, as Doctor Zebra notes,
From DotJournalism: Mr Kobré, author of the photojournalism bible ‘Photojournalism – The Professionals’ Approach’, says that even leading sites in the US and the UK such as the BBC and Guardian Unlimited have often ‘ghettoised’ and ‘segregated’ pictures from text. He says that while there has been a revolution in the use of photojournalism in…
The cultural naivety of Irish political atavism is evident in this placard. NO RED CARPET FOR KILLER BUSH, it says. Smart opponents would have tried to change the meaning of the red from whatever it originally was to reflect the blood which they would have us believe Bush is spilling needlessly.
Max Weber is apparently alive, well, and recycling his thoughts on social stratification as differentiated market pitches for Ming Pao: Ming Pao in Hong Kong – the most influential Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong Ming Pao in Canada – the most read chinese newspaper in Vancouver and Toronto Ming Pao in New York – the…
Stalin apologist Rafael Poch has published an article in La Vanguardia which belittles, falsifies, misrepresents the Normandy landings. That’s a common line here, where quite large numbers of people still believe that Stalin (substitute Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Companys etc as you will) was a benevolent (although misunderstood) genius. All’s quiet on the domestic front…
Polifònica Industrial, the choir of which I am apparently director, is singing and prancing around at the Marató de l’Espectacle at the Mercat de les Flors at 22:25, tonight, Friday. We are going to perform a mild parody of some West African light music with a text in favour of the commercialisation of popular beverages.…