I read in the 1980s about a French singer who had a wonderful, evocative voice who was not well known. The reason being her voice sounded very much like Edith Piaf and, of course, France already had Edith Piaf they didn’t need another. Or rather the record studios and those who owned Edith’s rights didn’t…
Unexpected but clever
It is a very interesting and clever slight of intellectual hands to take an animal that could not have survived against the wild beasts of the world unless it worked together as a team, and make that animal think it is in a culture where working for its individual aims is not only in its…
What They Won’t Say
Despite the legal articles on genocide being very clear on intent, the charge is still inveighed against the Israeli military in Gaza. In 1945 the Allies felt they had seen something new which needed to be defined and they decided that the deliberate attempt in whole or in part to massacre an entire ethnic group…
Too Simple
Simples, were at one time, the pure element sample used by alchemists. One can see how that transferred to a general meaning of simple – not complex. This would appear to be a change of use or an additional meaning that often happens in language. Simplifying langue is also a natural occurrence as we dropped…
Regime
When you break your routine and get up at say, 5 am and listen to the radio and look at the dawn you see and hear a quite different world to one you are used to. Radio 4 doesn’t run overnight so they join up with the BBC World Service and you hear al kinds…
Inventions
What is the single most important invention of the human race? By important do you mean the best, the most pervasive, the most used, the longest in existence? I mean what is the most ubiquitous invention in the entire history of the human race? That’s easy: money. #money
A spoken poem
Cosmic Time By me
The New Olympics
The original Olympics were based on many fighting skills and as such all the events had a strong physical element. In the new Olympics, having become more benign as a culture over the 2,000 years, we had an art category though one of the organisers won the sculpture medal. We also had poetry. Today we…
Phone Addiction
I never mind about kids enjoying technology. I was part of the TV generation and my mother was part of the radio generation. But growing up we had set times for both. Programmes we wanted to listen to that fitted in with school and friends. I never remember a time when I was not model…
Olympics
When the host countries get the Olympics they usually do much better in the medals table as they invest heavily in their athletes for the years running up to the event. It does seem that it is money and the opportunity and training it provides that makes the most of natural ability. How else to…