I saw bits of Shackleton, all Kenneth Branagh posturing, and know what every schoolboy knew about the man. Namely that he was the Brit who didn’t make it to the South Pole, as opposed to the one who did and died. Damn those pesky, dog-eating, i[…]

Condiments I Have Known # 1: Pickapeppa Sauce. A fairly recent discovery this, as there’s only one place in Brighton where you can buy the stuff. It’s imported from Shooter’s Hill in Jamaica and is made from tomatoes, onions, sugar,[…]

People who have known me for some time will remember there was a period about three years ago when I was actively pursuing the purchase of a greyhound. I love dog racing, and unlike the gee-gees I am actually quite good at judging the nick of a greyh[…]

One Minute Record Reviews: featuring my mom.
Freeway feat. Peedi Crakk – “Flipside”: “This sounds like the music from Halloween.”
R. Kelly – “Snake (Remix)”: Mom: “What’s R. Kelly’s fi[…]

THE VAMPYRE by Tom Holland
Aka “The Very Secret Diary of Lord Byron (who is really a VAMPIRE do you see!!!!)”.
Dear diary.
Week 1: England does not have enough wenches. I am getting my grebt platonic chum HOBBHOUSE and going to lands wher[…]

What I’ve Been Listening To[…]

I’m really intrigued by recent comparative studies of music and language processing; it seems that linguistics has more in common with musical rules than was previously thought. There are a lot of links: language and music are both universal; t[…]

Guest Editor Wanted: As you might know I’m getting married on November 1st, and I’ll be away for a couple of weeks after that. Popular will go on hiatus, and my co-editors will of course not be affected at all, so the other FT weblogs wil[…]

Mathematics and the people who inhabit it: this is the beginning of a nice idea (portraits of three mathematicians each with their favourite equation), though the webpage resolution does the algebra no favours, and I wish artist Lynn Hughes had taken[…]

Robin celebrates the British media ignoring Nigella Lawson picking an Eminem track on Desert Island Discs. But Alexis Petridis says that people did make a fuss (and that it was a Dr.Dre track). Who will lead me through this web of lies?!? On the face[…]