A S H Smyth › I came, I saw, I conkered

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Author Archives: A S H Smyth

I came, I saw, I conkered

Thursday, September 7, 2017

A little bit of seasonal nostalgia. — For The Oldie

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Tagged autumn, blogs, conkers, education, life, sport, The Oldie, trees | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, September 4, 2017

. The typewriter is more largely used in Mexico than in France. — The Nelson Evening Mail, August 2 1906 . In 1943 a British pilot made an emergency landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, only to have it surrender to him. Kelo trees live for up to 3,500 years, and remain standing for another 700. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged air travel, arachnids, Arthur C Clarke, coffee, death, dictionaries, Egypt, electricity, food, France, fruit, humour, Italy, José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Manchester, marketing, Mexico, Michael Jackson, Mozart, music, Nelson Evening Mail, painting, Pliny the Elder, politics, Spinal Tap, the Labour Party, trees, typewriters, Walliston, war | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, August 28, 2017

. On the body of a man who committed suicide in the canal at New Gravel Lane, Stepney, a hospital card was found marked “delusions”.’ — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 6 1909 . The new Norwegian Bible translation is by no means a rush job. Gieves & Hawkes is the cheapest Top 10 London tailor. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged America, antelopes, art, Charles X, children, China, clothing, cricket, death, Egypt, engineering, England, finance, Gieves & Hawkes, giraffes, kung fu, London, Natalie Imbruglia, Nelson Evening Mail, Norwegian, Pukka Pies, religion, Rudolf Hess, sex, Shostakovich, Spandau Prison, Sri Lanka, Victor Hugo, West Indies, work, writing | Comments (0)

An unsigned note

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Oldie readers will need no reminding that the heart of John le Carré’s ‘Circus’ – indeed, of his entire ouevre – is one George Smiley OBE. From Call for the Dead (in ’61) to the classic ‘Karla trilogy’, and on til (almost) the collapse of Communism, he battled foe and, sometimes, friend, quite often in […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Tagged Communism, George Smiley, illustration, John le Carré, London, maps, Mike Hall, Penguin, publishing, spies, The Oldie, Waterstone's | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, August 21, 2017

. From the deepest pit we may see the stars. — The Nelson Evening Mail, August 28 1906 . Armadillos are incapable of irony. Greek prostitutes bill their clients in six-minute units. One of the stars of early-Nineties cult TV show Twin Peaks was called Suburbis Polaski. It is rarely useful to have studied Latin. A ‘wineglassful’ is an […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged apothecaries, armadillos, astronomy, Call The Midwife, cars, chess, children, China, cookery, drink, eyes, finance, Greece, Humpy Koneru, India, James Dyson, Latin, measurements, meat, Nelson Evening Mail, New Zealand, real tennis, sex, soap, Suburbis Polaski, Trevor Nunn, TV, Twin Peaks, urine, vegetables | Comments (1)

Late-summer afternoon

Friday, August 18, 2017

Kids cricket, lambs out, blackberries in the hedgerows. A rope-like dog-turd.

Filed in Poetry | Tagged children, cricket, dogs, haiku, summer, The Pikey Laureate | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, May 22, 2017

. There are more fragrant white flowers than of any other colour. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 13 1908 . The inhabitants of Ipswich are the least passionate in the UK, having sex on average only 18 times per annum. Gazelles are quite amenable to snuff. Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was a fully-trained football referee and […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged Aberystwyth, Americans, anatomy, children, Déodat-Guy-Sylvain-Tancrède Gratet de Dolomieu, drink, eBay, film, football, gazelles, Great Portland Street, Ipswich, James IV, Jesse James, languages, literature, mineralogy, Nelson Evening Mail, obscenity, Scotland, sex, Shostakovich, tennis, the Bible, the French, tobacco, UK, wives, writing | Comments (1)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, April 3, 2017

. By a recent edict, the cultivation of opium in China must cease entirely by the year 1917 The crop is reduced by one-tenth each year, and all those using opium in 1917 will be banished. — The Nelson Evening Mail, June 14 1907 . The Sports Direct on Baker Street has actually closed down. A […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged America, apparel, China, dreams, drugs, economics, education, Eton, flora, food, forna, guesswork, London, maths, men, Nelson Evening Mail, philosophy, Poetry, poets, scuba diving, sexy primes, Sports Direct, Truth, war, work | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 27, 2017

. A lady of limited means residing in the country says that her garden clothes herself and her daughter. — The Nelson Evening Mail, August 31 1906 . There is a typo in Punjabi birth certificates. Since January 2013, a Russian cruise ship has been drifting unmanned in the North Atlantic. Toxic trolls are pushing Vicky […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged Americans, books, coffee, Concrete Society, drink, farts, food, health, horticulture, India, insanity, Jan Ladislav Dussek, kettles, London, masturbation, Mother's Day, music, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, officialdom, Richard Dawkins, Russia, sea-faring, the Atlantic, the Punjab, tigers, trolls, typos | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 20, 2017

. There are always 1,200,000 people afloat on the seas of the world. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 22 1907 . It is a German conceit, that the vertebrae are absolutely undeveloped skulls. Vladivostock is 1000km east of Beijing. The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association allows for two spaces after a full stop […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Tagged anatomy, children, China, crime, dogs, education, Germans, government, health, Iceland, irony, jeans, Journalism, law, music, Nazism, Nelson Evening Mail, nomenclature, photography, psychology, Russia, sea-faring, Sri Lanka, Treblinka, trousers, writing | Comments (0)