Trauma – after an accident

August 4, 2009

Stephen Mitchelmore writing about the impact of a serious head injury in his blog, This Space: I submitted and looked at the witness statements. One saw the cyclist fly into the air still holding the handlebars, then land to lie stock-still across the tarmac. The other witness got out of his car and ran over. [...]

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Schama on Updike

July 20, 2009

Simon Schama in surprisingly good form wriiting in The FT about Updike and more specifically his last collection of short stories, My Father’s Tears.

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Self and Nicholson – walking as a serious pastime

July 17, 2009

Geoff Nicholson and Will Self discuss the art of walking Not a spectacularly interesting exchange, but this from Will Self wasn’t bad: I very like the ‘munching on mental nothingness’ line, and it does apply to me perfectly well, too. I liken it – again – to meditation: I set off thinking programmatically – or [...]

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Gordon Brown as bludgeon

July 17, 2009

Andrew Gimson writing in The Telegraph yesterday: One of the Prime Minister’s weaknesses as a debater is that he so seldom dares to think on his feet. Tony Blair liked to seize some novel thought or suggestion and send it winging back in modified form towards his interlocutor: Mr Brown just treats whatever anyone else [...]

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Down and out – Rocky Lockridge

July 2, 2009

Not a great deal of insight in this report from The Star Ledger – a local paper in Camden, NJ. Former world champion Super Featherweight, Rocky Lockridge tells his story. Former boxing champ Rocky Lockridge is homeless in Camden Lockridge took a job working for William Jones & Son, Inc. in Camden, a drum and [...]

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Barnes on Frank O’Connor

June 27, 2009

Too good to let this pass unremarked – Julian Barnes on the underrated Frank O’Connor in The Spectator. For readers unfamiliar with his work, a good place to start is the classic GUESTS OF THE NATION. Interestingly mangled by Neil Jordan in The Crying Game. More background information on Frank O’Connor via Michael L Storey’s [...]

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Letters from Madoff investors

June 26, 2009

Interesting to see facsimilies of letters to Judge Denny Chinn. The human suffering and rage which the Madoff’s book-cooking is something to behold. Have a look at the pdf available at Nextbook. The one from Phylis Lerner on page 41 is particularly striking.

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Not making the call

June 8, 2009

He [Buddy McGirt] got it that the 28-year-old Paulie was smarting from his lopsided loss to the Hitman, and was searching for reasons why. So, when he didn’t get a face to face chat, or even a phone call from Paulie, informing him that he’d be working with another trainer, Buddy McGirt wasn’t all that [...]

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Synecdoche, New York

June 7, 2009

From David Edelstein in New York Magazine: There’s something appealingly anti-psychological about Charlie Kaufman. As a Jew who explores the inner lives of anxious neurotic depressive solipsists, he could be expected to build his works around repressed traumas and cathartic revelations: very Freudian, very twentieth century. But Kaufman goes in the opposite direction. The whirlpool [...]

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Mandelson on Brown – leaked email

June 7, 2009

From The Daily Mail: Lord Mandelson discusses the difficulties in making Mr Brown more popular. ‘You need to understand just how complex Gordon is. We are all complex but Gordon has developed fewer ways of masking and managing his insecurities. ‘You have to be careful you don’t make it worse/more difficult for him to change [...]

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