Flann O’Brien – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

April tweets

Just the usual load of nonsense.

Jimmy Brennan panning for gold in the Sperrins, Tyrone in 1983.

An organ-grinder at Archway

Pleasures and treasures of the Edwardian street, by a descendant of Scottish banditti.

Hackney Brook restoration scheme

Iain Sinclair wrote of when “global warming rolls a warm sea [up] the course of the old Hackney Brook.” The flow’s going to be the other way. Let me explain.

Shark jumping on Wick Road near St. Dominic's Primary School following the reinstatement of Hackney Brook.

Two versions of Flann O’Brien’s “The workman’s friend”

With some relevant chunks of Henry Fielding.

Contemporary etching of Fielding from his <em>Jonathan Wild the Great</em>.

Did the Hapsburgs (or whoever) really force Jews to adopt absurd surnames in the late 18th century?

Or is it a proto-Nazi myth?