Patrick > Recent Status Updates

Slight breaking of suspension of disbelief that the whole thing appears to be set in a funeral parlour a stone's throw from my old flat on the meadows where there's um, no funeral parlour... but it's probably just me that's going to be bothered by that...

Appears to feature real musicians in made-up bands. At least I don't think Kathleen Hanna was ever in a band called 'million eyes'

Nearing the end "The New Politics reformers had fantasised a pure politics, a politics of unyielding principle - an antipolitics. But in the real world, politics without equivocation or compromise is impossible. Thus an unintended consequence for the would-be antipolitician. Announcing one's inflexibility sabotages him in advance. Every time he makes a political decision, he looks like a sellout."

Am struggling to get my head around his explanation of exactly *how* the 'ground effect' Lotus 77 was basically taking the principle by which swans take off from the water and reversing it to get it to stick to the track... But at least he provides diagrams

"Using only a typewriter and reams of paper, Joyce was attempting to do to early 20th century Dublin what RockStar North, the Scottish developers of the video Game Grand Theft Auto V, did to early 21st century Los Angeles... Ulysses is admittedly not often compared to Grand Theft Auto V, but I suspect those familiar with both titles will let the analogy stand."

Wondering if 'haribo' is journalese for cocaine

"A man was put on trial in Newcastle for bestiality: he had been having sex with his pet Irish setter. His barrister was able to call the dog as a witness, its paws hooked over the top of the witness box, its hindlegs shaking a little with the effort of standing. The hound confirmed its consent in the matter. The man walked free. On the court steps he made a long speech about the love that dare not bark its name..."

"...in that respect, it was rather like a modern civil service: for it must often have been a team of slaves who read the documents, advised the emperor on the appropriate course of action, and no doubt drafted many of the decisions and replies..."

Philomena Cunk, who knows her oats, described the TV adaptation as "the Archers, but with pictures". I see what she means