Arts
Postcard from Spitsbergen
Mrs Bassman operates as my trip advisor, whether it be booking overnight stays driving down to Corfu, or to places of interest on cruise ships. We have a penchant for heading up north and have [more…]
Bassman
History
Meet Captain Bear – O καπετάν Αρκούδας
Nothing reminds me more of attempting to give a coherent account of even the recent the history of the Balkans than the Monty Python gameshow “Summarise the Works of Proust in 15 seconds” (Prrrowst). It’s [more…]
Arts
Who will sing for England
I watched a documentary about The Proclaimers over the New Year. I take an interest in musicians and how they achieve success in the creative field. I’m not over-judgemental and try to find aspects [more…]
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The last betrayal?
Traitor and all round loon There are those on this site who think that the Tories are sleepwalking in a trance towards the destruction of their electoral prospects, possibly forever in their current guise. I [more…]
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Rite of Passage
The driving test! Cue stage thunder and lightning and dungeon torture screams. If your life is fairly ordinary and doesn’t include abnormal episodes, a serious accident, an illness, experience of battle – you know the [more…]
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The race for the North Pole
My interest in polar exploration was first kindled in about 1958 when a member of the Sir Vivian Fuchs expedition which completed the first trans-Antarctica crossing came to my primary school and gave us a [more…]
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You are what you eat
I was reminded in a discussion with Mrs Bassman (yes, we do have them) that in our youngest days the only place you could lay your hands on olive oil was inside the medicine cupboard. [more…]
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The Ghost of Hougoumont
The Duke of Wellington has many remarks attributed to him, but most are likely to be inventions of Victorian romanticism: early fake news. One thing we can be sure he did say, because he wrote [more…]
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Pataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions
“Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science in the home.” So warbled a winsome Paul McCartney in one of his most loathed compositions “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. Lennon despised it and McCartney wore out the last of [more…]