Ricky Jay RIP
Ricky Jay, scholar of magic and mountebanks, “the greatest sleight of hand artist of his generation”, has died Here is a 1993 New Yorker profile of this extraordinary man. It…
Category: time passes
“he was an affectionate husband and tender father, in friendship steady and sincere; to all beneath him courteous, truly just and therefore universally esteemed and beloved. He lived under the influence of religion and died cheerfully supported by it ” – the grave of Jeffry Prendergast, buried in 1713 by his 99 year old father who would live to 111
Readers may note I am partial to the wisdom of gravestones , or even just a striking epitaph. . Trying to find out more about the holy well I came…
An Italian poem of World War I – “Last Rite”, Clemente Rebora
The current TLS has a piece by NS Thompson on Italian poets of the First World War, along with translations by Thompson of some of their works. Futurism, which glorified…
Fighting Talk
The power drips from the open wounds. The big guns lie silent, resting for the next time. The phantom stalks the air, peering Into the muzzles, bathing in their Dominion,…
Shrewstruck
From “The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names” by John Wright It may sound extraordinary, but until recently the shrew had a most fearsome reputation.…
A family holiday with David Mamet
David Mamet’s reputation seems to have taken a bit of a nosedive in recent years. His “coming out” as an unapologetic free market conservative may have something to do with…
The perils of double bluffs – Operation Ottrington
A while back I posted on the unintended consequences of too secret a secret codeword. Here’s a bit from Jonathan Gawne’s “Ghosts of the ETO: American Tactical Deception Units in the…
“Happiness means knowing how to limit some needs which only diminish us”
From Laudato Si, Pope Francis, 2015. Sections 222-223: Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep…
Séamus Sweeney 