Feb. 23, 1821. Definitely not writ in water.
John Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome, aged 25, two hundred years ago today. Requiescat in pace. Whenever I think of famous dead...
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Richard Farr
- Jan 8, 2021
Footnotes to Plato?
Alfred North Whitehead is often (mis-) quoted as saying that all philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. I was asked the other day...
Richard Farr
- Dec 14, 2020
RIP John le Carré - brilliant and underrated to the last
I met him when I was eleven or twelve, because one of his sons was in my class. He arrived in a Rolls Royce, talked affably in the...
Richard Farr
- Dec 9, 2020
Time's wingèd chariot
I was amused and a little disturbed recently to stumble upon both a couple of life expectancy calculators (here's one) and a page on the...
Richard Farr
- Oct 12, 2020
It's a Humpty Trumpty World
Language matters; three words that matter more than most right now - because our politicians are encouraging us to get it all wrong about...
Richard Farr
- Aug 27, 2020
Conservative hysteria about left-wing hysteria
At the GOP convention, Mike Pence has been winning back some nervous Wisconsin voters by promising that Donald Trump, man of Law and...
Richard Farr
- Jul 22, 2020
First names and social distancing
Not being of the Fascism-Curious Party, I will vote for Joe Biden in the Fall. Being sufficiently revolted by the FCP that I have...
Richard Farr
- Jul 16, 2020
Spartan talk
Above: Edgar Degas and Jacques Louis David with competing erotic visions of the Spartans. Or Lacedaemonians. Rooting about in Thucydides,...
Richard Farr
- Jun 3, 2020
Tim Allen and the doorknob question
Recently I was sent an opinion-piece written by the comedian Tim Allen; it defends (or anyway announces) a list of "conservative"...
Richard Farr
- May 11, 2020
Privacy creep
As Orwell almost said, Little DoubleThinker Is Scamming You. This morning The New York Times treated us to a piece by one of their...
Richard Farr
- Apr 29, 2020
Absolutely incredibly modified
Captain Tom Moore, NHS fundraising colossus, has been promoted to Colonel on his 100th birthday. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace,...
Richard Farr
- Apr 20, 2020
Alice in Freedumland
Jefferson's house has been set on fire. Ignorance is one of the chief accelerants. But perhaps that cuts two ways. (1) At the Michigan...
Richard Farr
- Apr 10, 2020
Letting it all dangle out at The Guardian
Breaking news: the Dutch Province of North Holland may be safer than cars and more environmentally friendly than planes!! Eh? Oh wait....
Richard Farr
- Mar 27, 2020
The Pied Piper of Pennsylvania Avenue
We received this frightening little postcard yesterday. The contrast between the front and the back says so much. On the back there is...
Richard Farr
- Mar 27, 2020
The uselessness of Eric Ambler
In the years leading up to the Second World War, Eric Ambler wrote some of the most influential thrillers ever published - more or less...
Richard Farr
- Mar 17, 2020
A storey on or about dinasuors in Teh Grauniad
I love The Guardian: it's one of the best news sources in the world. I feel guilty about The Guardian: I use it every day and ought to...
Richard Farr
- Feb 27, 2020
Nasty viruses and a question about precision
Listening to NPR yesterday, I was informed (is that the right word?): "There are only 60 confirmed cases of infection by the Covid-19...
Richard Farr
- Feb 18, 2020
Kafka's progress
Today's quote of the day from The Browser - which I recommend to everyone - struck a cord for me. It's a commonplace in our culture to...
Richard Farr
- Jan 31, 2020
American politics: the mistake of the Moderatists
My old friend Aristotle is well known for the claim that moderation is a virtue - indeed, that we can locate virtue at the point of...
Richard Farr
- Jan 3, 2020
It was a peach while it lasted
For three years now, an oily moral poison has been leaking from the wrecked hull of that stately grand dame of the democratic oceans, the...