Archive for August, 2007

I am not a mole

What appealed to him about the Underground was the idea of descending into the earth in one part of the city and then shortly afterwards emerging up and out onto the street in a completely different place. This was teletransportation for the industrial age. But he subsequently realised that this was essentially a love of […]

He’s got it on tap

If you want something to represent the stupidity and pointlessness of contemporary existence, then I suggest you look to the gunk that arrives day and night in my Thunderbird inbox. I was briefly cheered, however, when I noticed a message this morning. The header said it was from “Digby Faucett”, though the content of the […]

Negative Betting

Subject: Re: Booker Prize special Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:37:45 +0100 (BST) From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: Peter Fletcher [email] Dear Mr Fletcher, Thank you for your e-mail. I regret to inform you that this is a bet we will not be covering. If we can be of any further assistance, please contact us again […]

On the Marketing of Automobiles

Large billboard posters around my city recently advertised a Lexus saloon with the following slogan: MOVES YOU In more ways than one. Can you see what they’ve done there? I was tempted to explain how the slogan worked, and why I thought it was a clever use of words, but then I realised that, like […]

The Arc of the Horizon

I have changed the default time settings of this website to GMT. It is the right thing to do. I am not a budgerigar.

Talk to me

I’ve grown tired of all of the kind words and fantastic offers sent to me by computers. If nothing else when I look at the site stats it makes me look much more popular than I really am. So I’ve turned off the comments, for now at least. Except for this post. Because I do […]

A Lunchtime Discovery

At lunchtime yesterday I was forced to conclude that I did not have anything in my kitchen or food storage areas that I wanted for lunch. This was because I did not have any fish and chips from the chip shop. And I’m glad because my trip to the chip shop was not only an […]

All Present and Correct

One of the supermarkets where I sometimes buy my grapes sells them in plastic bags with a zip. This is so that none of the grapes can escape.