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Tag Archives: radio

The One That Got Away – Tai Hsin Shiek

The star-gazing Sri Lankan photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. Thomas King was fined 12s, or eight days’ hard labour, at the Thames Police Court for intoxication. While in this state he asked a pawnbroker to advance 2s on a baby. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, April 10 1907 . There are 2000 non-functioning satellites in space. Lord Reith did not want people to enjoy […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. For use during military manoeuvres the Kaiser has a portable house, made of asbestos. — The Nelson Evening Mail, June 22 1909 . A six-year-old has become a multimillionaire, reviewing toys on YouTube. The US has the world’s 2nd highest prison population, with 693 prisoners per 100,000. Icelandic sea cucumbers fetch £438 per kilogram. ‘Word up’ […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. The average salary of professors at Dublin University is £530. — The Nelson Evening Mail, March 14 1907 . The persecution of Christians is now worse than at any time in history. Toto’s ‘Africa’ is one of Myleene Klass’s all-time favourites. The Hillsborough disaster is still in the news. Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. A man is generally at his heaviest in his 40th year. — The Nelson Evening Mail, October 10 1906 . The Museum of Emotions in London has a game with yes/no answers. Adolf Hitler fixed the Nazi Party registrations, to make it seem they had more members than they did. The endnotes to David Foster […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. The honorary freedom of the borough of Rye in Sussex confers upon the freemen the privilege of kissing the mayoress. — The Nelson Evening Mail, March 21 1907 . When you register your child at birth, it immediately becomes the legal property of the state. In WW2 German physicists were able to discern the […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. Pineapples are so plentiful in Natal at certain seasons that they are not worth carting to market, and so are often given to pigs. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 27 1906 . The French king Louis XIII was known as ‘the Just’ because he was born under the sign of the Libra. Maxwell […]

My literary career thus far – as narrated by the Shipping Forecast

Good, becoming moderate. Occasionally very poor.

theASHtray, vol.13

David Walliams does Roald Dahl, AA Gill does Mary Beard, and I do children’s literature, Little Britain, Donald Sturrock, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Sunday Times, Romans, the Daily Mail, Cicero, Bettany Hughes, Time Team, the Cambridge Latin Course, constipation, movie posters, The Ides of March, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The English Patient, […]

theASHtray, vol.9

Read, watch and listen: climate-change, Maldivian politics, Jon Shenk, Mohammed Nasheed, Radiohead, Start the Week, Anne McElvoy, Geoff Dyer, Paul Farley, Andrei Tarkovsky, Tristram Shandy, Werner Herzog, Liz Mermin, large hadron colliders, Scott Waugh, Mouse McCoy, Act of Valor, Navy Seals, John McCain, Facebook, blockbusters, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, pianos, Clementi, Mozart, Telemann, and […]