Just kidding. There's nothing about animals in this book. It's all about torture, as the reader realises they have spent ten bucks on something that is at least over mercifully quick. A bit like a boyfriend I used to have,…
Beer O’Clock
As I write these words, it is one in the morning, and maybe coffee would be a better bet than root beer, But I write for a global audience, and everywhere but Melbourne, soft drink lovers are awake and knocking…
Delter Dawn
Coming from Melbourne, you have to know that coffee is a serious business for me.I wouldn't call myself a coffee snob, but if it isn't espresso from one of the arcade cafes in Melbourne's centre, it's hardly worth drinking.I'm on…
Yes, Virginia, there is a God
https://youtu.be/-o9kuZcQMU8 Here's a chap literally preaching to the converted. He's not pursuing any sort of rational argument; you can tell that from his tone. But even if he were, there's two ways to shoot down his argument. First is that…
Root Petite
Driven by the advice of the team at Tehben.com, who seem to spend their lives in a passion of soft drink and smut - not that there's anything wrong with that - I've been hunting for a sample of their…
Brilliant British Bonking
Many years ago in my teenagerhood, I read a series of novels by Tom Sharpe. Great British humour: farcical, witty, earthy, full of inventiveness and wordplay.Well, Tom has returned, it seems. Stephen Cashmore has obviously studied hard at the school…
Not without charm
Every now and then a novel comes along, written as a series of letters. 84 Charing Cross Road is one, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society another. (Both books this reader heartily recommends. I have visited both places,…
The three antigraces
Yesterday I wrote about the three wisdoms (or graces, in the Eastern tradition). These are the sources of knowledge: the intellect, the teacher, the texts.There is a fourth grace. The self. Nothing happens without your involvement.Today, the three anti-graces. These…
The three wisdoms
The philosophical school of thought I follow draws on many sources, and one of them is in the Eastern tradition. Sanskrit terms are used to create an abstract model of "the subtle realm". Navigation through this world is not through…
The new Gabriel
For a while, it seemed as if the end of the Cold War had killed off an entire genre of literature.When the Berlin Wall fell - not that I cared at the time, being in kindergarten, with my reading mostly…
Blonde and Brilliant 