RichardB

Complacency and casual disregard for human life ain’t the half of it, sometimes.

I mentioned above that the Railways Inspectorate had a battle in the nineteenth century to get fail-safe brakes adopted. They were up against not only reluctance to spend money – the so-called automatic vacuum brake was more complicated (and therefore more e…[Read more]

In the news this morning: several actresses walked out of the César awards (the French Oscars) after convicted rapist Roman Polanski won Best Director for his film ‘J’Accuse’ (‘An Officer and a Spy’). Obviously the French film academy considers that a work should be judged on its own merits rather on the morals of who’s responsible for it.…[Read more]

Hilary, my reactions to this are twofold. First, intense sympathy for you. What an awful let-down! Even if she did make clear what the actual purpose of the meeting was, it shows a certain sense of entitlement (as Ath said) to expect you to come running to London at the crook of a finger just for a chat about revisions. And if it never occurred to…[Read more]

I have to agree with Ath, Daeds: you are not a bad human being.

Since antisemitism has been mentioned, I’d like to highlight another problem of distinction (or lack of it). I’ve long suspected that the apparently endless fuss about antisemitism in the Labour party is due (apart, of course, from people finding any excuse they can to vilify Labour)…[Read more]

It wasn’t just white supremacy with H P Lovecraft. It was worse than that. About the only people he didn’t despise were those of what he defined as ‘Anglo-Saxon’ descent – whatever that means. He was a raging snob as well, both intellectual and social. His disgust at the ‘degenerate’ hillbillies in ‘The Dunwich Horror’ comes steaming off the page.…[Read more]

And bloody good it is too. Highly recommended. Well done.

Oh yeah, oh Lord, I got them ol’ Brexit blues…

My writing has been dead in the water for a while now, and while the main cause of that is the totally negative results of my last submissions Brexit hasn’t helped. Like Alan, I’ve found the whole business, from first to last, intensely dispiriting, for more reasons than I can, or would even want…[Read more]

Oh, and yes, there is a comp / challenge (set by Athelstone again), but I’m afraid you’ve missed the boat. There’s still a regular monthly comp running though.

Yes indeed. Don’t anybody take this amiss, as those who do post are lovely people and I value you all, but the Den has remained a rather small place, things do get a bit quiet and dull sometimes, and I still miss the liveliness of the Cloud. So yes, it’s great to see you back, Skylark.

I have a friend (though I don’t see much of him now), of a much more practical bent than me, who for nearly twenty years kept the first new car he’d bought back in the seventies (a Vauxhall Viva – remember them?) doing all his own maintenance and servicing. He doesn’t do that anymore. You can’t service a modern car without a garage’s specialist…[Read more]