People are always reported as dying after a short illness, or after a long illness. Why does no one ever die after a medium-length illness?

And why are deaths reported as *untimely?" Is there such a thing as a "timely" death?

Bill Russell once said (I think quoting his father), "Choose your enemies well, because you're going to become just like them."

I'm afraid it's crossed the Channel already. A teacher friend in Germany says she has to be very careful with her 'articles.' There's some weird thing she has to say to make it clear that anything, e.g. a table, can be masculine, feminine, neuter, or any of the other 96 official genders. It's the v...

Am always happy to hear from non-Brits not living in Britain about what is best for the British! Some unique insights here. Let me know when you're ready to learn how to grill a steak, Paul. I'm up for it! You bring the assault weapons and I'll bring a banjo!! You know you have to give up universal...

Am always happy to hear from non-Brits not living in Britain about what is best for the British!

Some unique insights here.

Let me know when you're ready to learn how to grill a steak, Paul.

That, in my experience, is the main element missing in British life.

I don't think anyone has ever dared to try to fit numbers into the relationship. Possibly for good reason, because it all probably depends very heavily on what your starting point is: are you going, for example, from 1% to 2% interest, or from 7% to 8%? And that's without looking at the prevailing r...

Well, of course it won't work unless EVERYONE believes! (Looking at you, Daniel!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUyK6t ... ngeSociety

So Stanley Johnson who declared that Lord Heseltine had wiped the floor with the two talking heads is Boris Johnson's father -- ? lol In America's politics, it has been completely predictable that when some Trumpublican initiative -- usually a tax cut for the wealthy -- failed to deliver what had be...

Instrumentation notes: five string bass in Winehouse-Weller; seeing more and more of these, or maybe just starting to notice that I've been seeing them. New standard?

Nice to see uilleann pipes in the Bothy video.

Instead of shooting down these "objects" ...

retrieve.jpg

Mid-air retrieval

Most of them are too high up; the one shot down off the Carolinas was too high up even to be shot down with bullets rather than a missile.

In the spirit of Daniel's highlighting of female vocalists, here is something of otherworldly beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miVfjOd ... eKiriLover

After you've seen one Jason Statham or Liam Neeson movie, is there any reason to see another?

I mean (spoiler alert), the plot is always that whatever the odds, Statham will beat up and Neeson will outsmart and out-technique whoever they need to in order to succeed at whatever they're trying to do.

Via the scenic detour of a defamation suit against Sleepy.  Sleepy is not the police, nor a vigilante (I hope). He has to obey the law not be it.  I suspect he's going to come back and say his data is from the Napoleonic Wars and that no one living cares. And we've got all excited about nothing. Bu...

Adding on to what DavidJN wrote, in every instance I know of where a complaint is made about some supervisor's allegedly illegal behavior, if you can't present the body, the weapon, video recording of the crime, audio recording of a confession, clear demonstration of motive and opportunity, and seve...

Brits gotta express their freedumb somehow, don't they?

At least it's not as stupid as "rolling coal."