Filed under: Christopher Hitchens
This is a hilarious article on Hitchens by Hitchens going to spas and whatnot. There’s one photo of him which is positively shameless!
Filed under: Iraq
This guy’s been the bane of our existence in Iraq since day one.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Interesting interview with Hirsi Ali on the French 20 heures this evening. She was accompanied by the French spokeswoman for human rights, whose name escapes me right now.
J.S.
Filed under: Canada
This article describes how, despite having brought in a new law ostensibly to avoid this situation, muslim women in Canada who are veiled are not required to remove the veil when identifying themselves at a voting booth.
“There is a point where it touches on the orderly process of the voting,” he said.
Really? I think that this is the exact kind of civil disobedience that should be encouraged in this kind of circumstance.
J.S.
Filed under: Poetry
If there was any doubt to the power and majesty of certain poetry, then one need look no further than this gallant paraphrase by Amanda Mabillard of a sonnet by Shakespeare. Here are the last two lines in the original:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
And here is the paraphrase.
And yet I think my love as rare
As any woman who has been misrepresented by ridiculous comparisons.
J.S.
Filed under: Smoking
This piece, from aldaily, is about a museum in Paris about the history of smoking. Of real interest though is that the article mentions that come January 1st there will be a full smoking ban in Paris. I have a hard time believing this, but I suppose it’s possible.
J.S.
Filed under: Language
Eggcorns are the “spontaneous reshapings of known expressions”. Wikipedia has an entry on it here. I have to say I notice these all the time in regular speech, and am probably doing it myself as well. For example, I heard a woman say “tempt faith” instead of “tempt fate”. She had the briefest of hesitations before going with “faith”, which was rather suspenseful to watch. I say “down the pipe” instead of “down the pike” even though the latter is supposedly in existence longer. Also, where I live halfhazard rules the roost over haphazard.
J.S.
