Yesterday I came across a new reason(as if I needed more!) not to make long term plans. It's "Model Autophagy Disorder" - basically, the AI slop vacuum cleaners/generators might start to feed on what they've already spat out. As I put on Bluesky - "I'm old enough to remember when "MAD" meant Yanks and Russians... Continue Reading →
I think I will do three submissions per issue until the end of the year, then call it a day.
I've been fascinated by Private Eye since late 1995, when my late friend Dev Cropper introduced me to it (or explained it better than I was currently understanding). Yes, it is not perfect, but - other than me of course - what is? Anyway, I've started pitching satire to them. Yet to be successful. You... Continue Reading →
There are Things I Have to Do. I went for a yomp to feed moorhens and swans (and shed lard - I go out with a weighted jacket - ten kilos of 1 and 2 pence coins and also, latterly, a backpack with a few bricks) to map out some of these TIHD, and avoid... Continue Reading →
This, from a chapter in "The Cambridge History of Violence" (2020) is rather good. The chapter is by Professor Peter H Wilson. The key advantage of regular troops was that their tighter discipline allowed them to fight in close-order formations designed to maximise the potential of the available weaponry. Discipline had several roots and its... Continue Reading →
The set-up in The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is that the Bad People have managed to end women’s economic independence at the tap of a few keys on a keyboard. You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most... Continue Reading →
What this project is about. This one is from Book 13. Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611), Glaucus and Scylla (1580-82), oil on canvas, 110 × 81 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Wikimedia Commons. How long it took to read this (aloud): 4 mins 30s What it’s “about”: Scylla on the beach, ‘wooed’ by Glaucus unsuccessfully. Changing Stories:... Continue Reading →
What this project is about. This one is from Book 13. Polyphemus and Galatea — Institute for the Study of the Ancient World How long it took to read this (aloud): 12 mins 57s What it’s “about”: Cyclops as incel/’unsuccessful’ suitor. Compare that Onion story “Romantic Comedy Behavior Gets Real-Life Man Arrested” April 7, 1999.... Continue Reading →
What this project is about. This one is from Book 13. Pompeo Batoni (1708–1787), Aeneas Fleeing from Troy (1753), oil on canvas, 76.7 × 97 cm, Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Italy. Wikimedia Commons. How long it took to read this (aloud): 8 mins 41s What it’s “about”: Aeneas - the Roman knock-off of Ulysses (as per... Continue Reading →
What this project is about. This one is from Book 13. Bernard Picart (1673–1733), Memnon, son of Eos and Tithonus (date not known), engraving, further details not known. Wikimedia Commons. How long it took to read this (aloud): 3 mins 56s What it’s “about”: Mum wants her dead son remembered. Words I didn’t know: none... Continue Reading →
