Issue 75

Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. .. smoke. I can’t see that having any long-term effect. I think kids generally see smoking as a measure of maturity and sophistication for one thing, and if parents and oldies are agin it, it must be especially worth doing for another. Maybe that’s the clue. Maybe it’s time for…

.. take his daughter roller-skating. Out of curiosity I opened the German phrase book at random, and the first phrase that I saw was ‘Ist hier in der Nähe ein Atomkraftwerk?’ which translates as, ‘Is there an atomic power station around here?’ A curious question to ask when you come to think about it, and…

..“Geordie” (which the Danes renamed ‘Skotten svinger hammeren’), “The Belles of St Trinians” and ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’ were soon to delight us with their gentility and niceness. No, these were films of gritty realism, difficult subject matter and controversy. Films that made one think rather than leave the cinema with a warm fuzzy feeling. I…

..simple, but in any case I’m generally pleased with the result. It seems that a lot of second-guessing has been replaced with an instinctive but apparently reliable certainty about what is required and how to get it. I don’t know if it’s a style exactly, but it’s a good starting point. No thought yet as…

.. species into a myriad breeds many of whom would be lucky to survive for more than a week in the wild. I may be wrong but a snotty, gasping little creature like a pug with its appalling sinus problems has no evolutionary niche apart from the second floor of a high rise apartment. A…

Dick’s Toolbox cont. .. the Iraqi population believe that they are worse than before their country was ‘liberated’. No matter – we now have a new democratic Iraqi government that represents the forces of truth, hope, and unification but which, as ‘The Age’ noted, took five months to elect a Prime Minister who still hasn’t…