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Feb 23

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...

Richard Farr

Jan 9

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...

RIP John le Carré - brilliant and underrated to the last

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...

Conservative hysteria about left-wing hysteria

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 30, 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...

Letting it all dangle out at The Guardian

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...

A storey on or about dinasuors in Teh Grauniad

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...

Nasty viruses and a question about precision

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...

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