Archive for April, 2008
April 30, 2008
I’ve been forgetting to mention the books I’m reading. This month I finished two which have nothing in common except being less about trains than their titles suggest…
Off the Rails by Lisa St Aubin de Teran is subtitled “Memoirs of a train addict”, but as it turns out trains are only a tangential part of the story. It seems to be out of print, which is why I haven’t linked to it, but in any case I would heartily recommend not reading it. What it loses in loving descriptions of trains and train journeys it gains in loving descriptions of Lisa St Aubin de Teran and how wonderful she is. I’ve no doubt it’s true, but it didn’t endear her to me, nor make for an enjoyable read. Plus, I wanted to read about trains, so I was doubly disappointed.
Closely Observed Trains, on the other hand, is a light, sweet, melancholy read that I forgive for not having very much to do with trains. I enjoyed it very much at the time, but – having moved on to very different things since – can’t remember all that much about it.
Neither of them is as much fun as my favourite book about trains, which now I come to think of it is also not about trains. But Murder on the Orient Express, which runs it a close second, is. That’s how you write a train book that stays in print, Lisa!
Tags:Bohumil Hrabal, Books, Lisa St Aubin de Teran, trains
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April 29, 2008
Listening to the radio this morning, I came to the conclusion that there are some words which should be banned from news reporting. “Terror” instead of “terrorism” is the obvious one – it’s pointless and it leads to nonsensical coinages like the one above, which I have seen more than once.
But there are others which are just lazy. The one which raised my ire earlier was a reference to the “fuel crisis” which, at this stage, barely even counts as a crisis for the people it’s happening to, let alone the rest of us. Then the increasingly belligerent John Humphrys, in a conversation with David Cameron (for whom I have no love) during which Cameron barely edged a word in, used the word “fiasco” to refer to an event so unfiascolike (what? it’s a word) that I can’t even remember what it was.
I propose a ban on lazy clichés in news reporting. No crises, no fiascos, no terror. The only exception should be use of the suffix “-gate” to describe a faintly scandalous occurence, which should be made compulsory where the location of the event already ends in “gate”. I want to see a story about Tessa Jowell roaming around SE14 dressed in combat gear and waving an Uzi described as “New Cross Gategate”.
Tags:cliché, John Humphrys, terror, terrorism
Posted in Language | Leave a Comment »
April 26, 2008
The sun is out! And someone somewhere is having a barbeque. I couldn’t be happier.
Tags:barbeque, summer, sun
Posted in Reasons to be cheerful | Leave a Comment »
April 25, 2008
Yesterday was National Walk to Work Day. I didn’t manage to walk to work (I barely managed to get out of bed), but I did walk home, through some of the unloveliest parts of south London. And yet. There’s so much more you see when you’re at ground level – much more, even, than you see from the bus, which I have always thought of as a fairly intimate means of travel. But I had never really noticed the war memorial at Stockwell, much less the lists of names engraved on it of Stockwell residents who died in the two world wars; including what looked like a whole family whose surname was “Burnley”, who I only noticed because Palace are playing Burney next weekend so the word jumped out at me. But there’s a story behind every name, and they’re probably all worth hearing.
Anyway, including a brief stop at the war memorial, two even briefer stops to smell lilac growing in people’s front gardens (lilac coming second in my list of smells that make me think of childhood summers, the first being hyacinths) and ten minutes in MK One buying wedding outfit accessories (not my wedding, someone else’s), the whole thing took an hour and a half. Which is…manageable. I might even do it again. But not today.
Tags:hyacinths, lilac, National Walk to Work Day, Stockwell
Posted in Flowers, London | Leave a Comment »
April 22, 2008
There is, of course, a long tradition of unnecessary capitalisation. A bus just drove past with an advert on the side, and the advert said:
JESUS said: When the Son of Man comes, will He find Faith on the Earth?
I understand why everything is capped up, but it makes it very difficult to read.
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April 22, 2008
Strange Maps has a “news map” of the US today, with the size of the states adjusted according to how many news wire stories, from various sources, originated in each of them over a four-year period. Unstartlingly, Washington, New York and California are the three biggest news generators, and all three are vastly oversized in the map, although of course California is just really big, so it doesn’t increase as dramatically as the other two. I’ve never been to California, but I’d like to think that everything about it is just really big.
They link to an article in Science News which talks more generally about the art (or science, or both) of representing more than simple geographical facts using maps. It’s interesting, if you have time to read it.
All of which reminded me of that picture of the earth at night which is still one of the best things I’ve ever found on the internet. Apart from being – well, pretty, it gets more interesting the more you look at it. My favourite things about it are:
- How bright all the big cities are, but especially Paris and Tokyo
- How defined the Nile is – it looks like it’s been drawn on in a single brush stroke
- How empty Australia is
- The fact that North Korea is so dark that South Korea looks like an island. That one’s a bit terrifying, for various reasons, but it’s still interesting.
Tags:maps
Posted in Stuff | 1 Comment »
April 18, 2008
I would like to take a moment to record that as of 5pm BST (though it doesn’t feel like it) on April 18 2008, I am the top hit on Google for “poo slough”. My work here is done.
Posted in Uncategorised | Leave a Comment »
April 18, 2008
Enlightenment! It’s the fault of foreigners, naturally.
Edited so I don’t have to link to the Daily Mail, since the BBC now has the story too:
A foul smell hanging over southern England is being blamed on easterly winds bringing either farming or industrial smells across the Channel.
Labelled “Euro-whiff” by the Met Office, the source of the smell – alternately described as sulphur and manure – is under investigation.
Take another look at that:
Labelled “Euro-whiff” by the Met Office
The Met Office is the UK’s national weather service, responsible for processing and interpreting reams of information gathered from satellites and weather stations in order to warn us when we’re about to be flooded, or burned, or blown away. They even issue the Shipping Forecast, for heaven’s sake – these are serious people, people! So I am underwhelmed that their initial response is to call it a “Euro-whiff”. It doesn’t seem an appropriately businesslike reaction.
Tags:BBC, London, Met Office, sewage, Shipping Forecast
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