Other Men's Flowers

I ordered a Gift Certificate from a well-known internet retailer of books etc. and got an email acknowledgement. Then: • After four days I c...

I wrote a post a year ago which began with a mention of rat’s testicles and a whale’s pizzle and went on to laud the virtues of The Oxfor...

… you’ve got it made (referring to sincerity; variously attributed to Groucho Marx, George Burns et al.). Or: He looked me straight in the ...

Pick pocketing, 15th January, 1680 . Elizabeth Spark and William Abbot were indicted the former being a notorious pickpocket, was as she pre...

If you are keen to catch the attention of those who stumble across your blog, and to tempt them to read it, it is easy enough to give your p...

Having, in adult years, rented four flats and owned four houses, some Victorian and all in various degrees of dilapidation, I am no mean han...

When so many people nowadays think of religious festivals merely as holidays or excuses for gluttony it is good to hear that the Head of the...

"Sort of makes you stop and think, doesn't it?" (S. Gross, The New Yorker)

For a (happily) short period recently The Other One was heavily occupied elsewhere for reasons not entirely unconnected with open heart surg...

In a post in October 2004 I quoted a comment on Political correctness gone mad explaining why this phrase, which at that time had appeared...

One of the world’s great tourist traps is Mont St Michel, where the Hotel Poulard became famous for the omelettes made by the proprietress. ...

A couple of days ago I wrote a piece hinting at my extensive knowledge of French poetry. This was perhaps misleading, and I was rightly take...

I mentioned a poem of Baudelaire in a post last February and was greatly impressed to hear from a friend that in her teens she had learned ...

Issued by Lord Tevye of Milchiker: "I wish it to be known that there is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that I have made loans to...

During the night, I drafted in my mind what I thought was a fairly convincing extract from a White House Press Office release announcing the...

I posted a note last year about the most successful series of books ever written by one man (14 million copies over 45 years and still sell...

In a post last month I traduced the memory of John Donne by suggesting that the title of the comedy series Last of the Summer Wine might ha...

In my last post I wrote about some famous long-dead women. They weren't very interesting, so now let’s have a happy picture of a couple ...

As I expected, responses to my offer to answer questions about the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography have come flooding in by email. ...

Monotheists seem to feel the need to give constant praise to their creator; all widely-worshipped deities are believed to expect this and to...