RIP Lucian Freud

Joke of the day

Courtesy of Wynne Evans...."I was taking my two children to the Natural History Museum and, going through the shop on the way out, (why are there always shops on the way out of places?), my little girl was struck by a gopping piece of pink plastic and insisted on having it. I refused and she started to scream. No way was I going to buy this garbage. She screamed louder. 'We're leaving, come on,' I said. She screamed even louder. 'We'll have to leave you behind if you don't come,' I declared and started walking away with my two year old son. She stood her ground, red faced and hysterical. We walked outside the shop (I could still see my daughter through the window) and then my son started to cry. 'What's the matter with you?' I asked, at the end of my tether. 'I really liked her!' he replied tearfully."

Boris

An ex-hack, he's hacked off that he was a hackee

St Swithun's revenge

It rained in Winchester yesterday, is pouring today, so roll on 25 August!

Painting of the day

Circles in the sky

I went to a lecture by Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Professor of Maths at Oxford, on the subject of the universe pre-Big Bang (ie over 14 thousand million years ago). He now believes that the universe is in a continuous cycle of beginning, expanding, contracting and beginning again with another Bang. He thinks black holes become relatively warm when the universe contracts and this causes them to shrivel up and that circles in the cosmic microwaves may be traces of black holes in the preceding universe. Will we all reappear in a future universe, thousands of millions of years from now? He didn't express a view about history repeating itself.

in memoriam

So. Farewell then
News of the World,
Sunday school for scandal.

You scoured the gutters
for grizzly stories

sensational
and lewd.

But hassling
the dead for your

copy source
left you really
Screwed.

Anyone for anagrams?

My feeble shot at Yingluck Shinawatra, the new Prime Minister of Thailand is - A LUCKY SWING - RAIN HAT!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I agree with Charlie Beckett of the LSE that Rebekah Brooks should not be in charge of overseeing News International's probe into phone hacking. She has a conflict of interests, having been editor at the time of the alleged sickening hacking of Milly Dowler's phone.

Song of the day

I heard Bryn Terfel singing this jolly song at The Grange last week:

I chanced upon a big brown bear
a gruff old bear was he.
He basked content within his lair,
I looked at him, and he looked at me.
And all he said was "GRRR!" Ah me.
And all he said was "GRRR!"

That big brown bear just hugged his lair,
And blinked a twinkling eye.
He ne'er as much as moved a hair,
But scared to death was trembling I.
And all he said was "GRRR!" Oh My.
And all he said was "GRRR!"

I doubted his sublime intent,
and did not stay for proof;
my heels in flight were swiftly bent,
for I'm inclined to stay aloof,
when big brown bears say "GRRR!"
Oh my, Oh my,
Oh my, Oh my, Oh my.
When big brown bears say

"WOOF!"