Category Archives: Personal

Another month of Indolence and Procrastination. Just Commonplace entries added. (November 1, 2010)

The first half of September was spent, very pleasantly, staying with our son, James and his wife, Lien, in Santa Clara, California. This visit was marked by the second ace in my golfing career, on the 16^th hole at the Santa Teresa Golf Club, outside San Jose, on September 11th. The hole measures 170 yards, is slightly downhill, although a dip lies in front of the green. The pin was placed just right of a bunker on the left, between the front and centre of the green. The extraordinary aspect of the shot was that it came towards the end of an excruciatingly slow five-and-a-quarter hour round. I am not known for my patience when dealing with slow play, and we had to wait on the tee for ten minutes.  I thus had plenty of time to make adjustments for altitude (about 120 feet above sea-level), wind-speed (5-10 miles per hour), and pin placement, and accordingly put the tee down a bit further back in my stance, and took a little off my 5-wood (!). Immediately the ball was in the air, my son observed that it was going straight at the pin, and then said that the ball must be very close to the hole. I can no longer see 170 yards away, so I just hoped I didn’t have one of those dreadful three-foot knee-knockers for birdie. But when we got up to the green, there was no sign of the ball. Had it gone over the green? No, it was in the cup, and the pleasure was magnified by the fact that my wife, my son, and one of his closest friends were there to witness it. And when my son (after leaving a putt short) pointed out how spongy that particular green was, I was able to remark that I really could not comment. (October 31, 2010)

The usual updates. No progress on the web-site! (September 30, 2010)

I did get the FrontPage book out, but made no progress. Too many other interesting things going on! Just the normal updates. (August 31, 2010)

Updates to Commonplace entries made. It is my intention, in August, to get out my copy of Microsoft FrontPage, Step by Step, and learn how to redesign this website. And I know a lot of people will tell me I shouldn’t be using that product. (July 31, 2010)

I spent most of June on an enjoyable trip to the UK, where I was pleased to link up again with many friends and family members. I spent an afternoon and morning in Oxford, primarily to meet members of the Bodleian Library, but also to see the Wilfred Thesiger exhibition at the Pitt-Rivers museum (a bit thin and disappointing) and the John Aubrey and The Advancement of Learning exhibition at the Bodleian (brilliant). I also spent a day in London, first at the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library (truly magnificent and unmissable), and last at the Rude Britannia exhibition at the Tate, which consisted of a rather bizarre and not broadly representative collection. A natural segue between these two shows was a visit to the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell Street near the British Museum, where an excellent exhibition of Ronald Searle’s work is running. The permanent collection there contained another example of the intriguing ‘map as an octopus’ theme highlighted at Magnificent Maps, as well as showing Gillray’s Doublures of Characters that was on show at the Tate as well. I also enjoyed a visit to Sissinghurst, eyeing the volumes in Harold Nicholson’s Library with rather more rapt attention than the assuredly beautiful flowers in the famous garden just beyond.

I have duly updated Commonplace entries, and one or two other documents. (June 30, 2010)

My biographical entry on Gordon Kaufmann was published on-line in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography on May 27. It is featured on the following page of the ODNB: http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/prelims/may10/, with the entry itself viewable at  http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/98440.html. (Viewing ODNB entries normally requires a subscription, but the OUP makes some available as promotional pieces.)

This month’s Commonplace entries are a little thin, as I have spent considerable time reading books about espionage. First was Christopher Andrew’s monumental, recently published history of MI5, The Defence Of The Realm (for some absurd reason titled Defend The Realm in the USA). The revelations and anecdotes in this volume (919 pages of text) have prompted in me a number of side-tracks of research on personalities and events, on which I shall report in due time. I followed this up by reading John Costello’s superbly researched Mask of Treachery (1988, 621 pages), which had been sitting on one of my bookshelves for some years. I was amazed that Andrew does not even list this volume in the bibliography of either Defend The Realm or The Sword and the Shield (1999, co-authored with Vasili Mitrokhin, which I read a few years ago). In Chapter One of the latter, Andrew rather condescendingly reports: “The first approach to a western writer offering material from KGB archives intended to create the ‘positive’ image was to the mercurial John Costello, a freelance British historian who combined flair for research with a penchant for conspiracy theory.” In a footnote he adds: “Costello’s untimely death in 1996 has been variously attributed by conspiracy theorists to the machination  of British or Russian intelligence.  While Costello was somewhat naive in his attitude to the SVR [Russian (post-Soviet) Intelligence Service], there is no suggestion that either he or any of the other western authors (some of them distinguished scholars) of the collaborative histories authorized by the SVR have been Russian agents.” The book that Andrew is presumably alluding to is Deadly Illusions (1993), co-authored by Costello and Oleg Tsarev, which Andrew recognizes in both the works mentioned above.  Anybody who reads Mask of Treachery  (even though Costello does conclude it with the now debunked assertion that Guy Liddell was probably the KGB agent ‘Elli’, now revealed by Russian archives to be Leo Long) could not conceivably imagine that Costello was impelled by other than pure motivations, or that he could be attracted to a particular line of argument by a conspiratorial Russian secret service. And so why does Andrew ignore his earlier book? Defend The Realm has already been critiqued as something of a cover-up, and Andrew’s silence about Mask Of Treachery casts further doubt on the academic freedom he claims he was granted by MI5 in recording the ‘official history’. Lastly, a rather quicker read was Ben Macintyre’s Operation Mincemeat, a lively and more broadly researched version of Ewen Montagu’s The Man Who Never Was.

Astute readers of my article on George Orwell (‘Orwell’s Clock‘) will remember that I used scornful references by Orwell to the appearance of Rolls Royces on the streets of London as a symbol of his shallow economic thinking. Over the years, I have been collecting, from my reading, examples of famous (and infamous) individuals exploiting the opulence suggested by the Rolls Royce to advertise their newly found richness or importance, as well as a few other references that caught my eye. Many of those quoted have been writers of a leftist slant, who clearly should have known better. I thought it was time to post these citations, and they can be found here (‘Rolls Royces’).

I shall be leaving for a three-week vacation/holiday in the UK on May 31, and thus am closing this month’s updates today.  (May 29, 2010)

Another month: not much to report. The normal updates to Commonplace 2010 and Hyperbolic Contrasts. A good day to remember the shadow of Percy Hotspur hovering over the town. (May 1, 2010)

When my chiropractor gave me the all-clear on April 1st, telling me that the degenerated disk in my neck was healed, he told me: ‘Now you can go and play golf!’ ‘Wow!’, I said, not having played golf before. ‘That sounds fun!’  Joking apart, I was able to play 54 holes without (physical) pain over the weekend with my wife and son James, who was visiting us from Santa Clara on a business trip between Orlando and Austin. So  to sufferers of bulging disks I can heartily recommend the treatment – Spinal Decompression Therapy – as something to be investigated in place of invasive surgery – something I have undergone eight times on my lower back. It works by using delicate machinery to widen gently the vertebrae around the damaged disk to allow the disk to be rebuilt with fluid and tissue from the surrounding area. It appears to have worked for me.                                               I duly completed our census form on the right day, and sent it off on April 2nd. And then, in the mail on April 3rd, we received another set of forms, and a threatening letter indicating that ‘This is your last chance to respond by mail before a Census Bureau Representative contacts you.’ The letter went on to say that our answers ‘will only be used for statistical purposes’. If I do get the 2 a.m. knock on the door to be hauled off to the Lubianka for not filling in the sections on race and ethnicity (see ‘The 2010 US Census’) , I shall be sure to ask them whether they can define what ‘Chicano’ means, and what kind of statistical conclusions they think they can arrive at if they base them on such subjective and meaningless data. That there are not enough Chamorrans represented on the Brunswick County School Board, perhaps? I shall keep you informed. (April 5, 2010)

Today is the day when the US National Census takes place. To read my somewhat jaundiced take on this event, please click on ‘The 2010 US Census’. I have also added a substantial number of items to my Commonplace entries (see Commonplace 2010), and one new example of Hyperbolic Contrast (see ‘Hyperbolic Contrast Examples’) Today also marks the completion of my first set of sessions of Spinal Decompression Therapy to repair the degenerated disk in my neck. I shall be reporting on the success of this treatment shortly. And congratulations to my old school, Whitgift, which won the Daily Mail National Rugby U-18 Championship at Twickenham yesterday, easily beating RGS, Newcastle 34-10! (April 1, 2010)

I have recovered enough to spend time adding Commonplace entries, and further examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (March 6, 2010)

I have had to suspend any updates to the site for a while, owing to acute tendinitis in my neck and shoulder. (February 10, 2010)

Final Commonplace entries for 2009 have been posted. Happy New Year! (January 10, 2010)

I had another ‘Listener’ puzzle published in the (London) Times of December 5th – entitled ‘Resident’. I have also updated the sorted lists of the Top 400 (actually 396) tracks. You will find selections there for every year from 1957 to 2009, apart from 1992 and 1998. What was wrong with those years? Any suggestions? (December 16, 2009)

In this month’s (partial) Commonplace entries, readers will notice some passages taken from the two volumes of autobiography by Kenneth Clark (Lord Clark of ‘Civilization’), which I read at the beginning of this month. These volumes were predictably urbane and agreeable, but also notable by virtue of the vast number of ‘dearest and closest friends’ that Clark admitted to having. Indeed, one might say that his convivial existence makes that of Lord Weidenfeld look like a hermit’s. Maybe also predictably, many of these friends turn out to be prize bores, from whom other guests at Saltwood Castle have to be protected . Clark is also very discreet about the sickness from which his beloved wife ails, and which consumes him very tenderly in her dying days. By inspecting Clark’s biographical entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, I was able to learn that she was an alcoholic – something he was clearly reluctant to admit in the 1970s. I also discovered that, at Clark’s memorial service, attendees were astonished to learn that Clark had become a Catholic shortly before he died. I know that I could never live with myself were I to undergo a deathbed conversion to Catholicism. So, on that note, I shall wish all my most loyal and closest readers the compliments of the season, as I am off to Maui for three weeks, and shall not be able to update the website until mid-January. (December 16, 2009)

I have added the monthly updates to my Commonplace book, and a couple more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I regret I have still not succeeded in re-designing the website. One avenue of opportunity turned out to be unproductive, and I have an obstinate reluctance to go back to ‘FrontPage for Dummies’. I have added several new items to the Playlists of Top Tracks (which brings the total close to the very tidy number of 400), but have not updated the full sorted indices yet. (November 30, 2009)

An update to my query about the bawdy piece attributed to Byron appears in the ‘From My Library’ section, and can be accessed directly by this link: AmblerWaughByron. The customary Commonplace updates have been added, as well as a few more Hyperbolic Contrast examples. (October 31, 2009)

This month includes a new entry ‘From My Library’. It concerns a mystery piece of verse encountered in the works of Alec Waugh and Eric Ambler, and can be found here. (Warning: this should not to be viewed by the especially sensitive or puritanical surfer.) I also add a month’s new Commonplace entries, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (October 1, 2009)

The Kaufmann piece is almost finished. Another month of Commonplace entries, as well as a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I also present a special anniversary crossword  (Sexagesimal) designed for my brother, who will be sixty years old later this month. It is, however appropriate for anybody celebrating that particular birthday. (September 1, 2009)

Yet another month. No progress on the website. (Action promised when my Kaufmann biographical piece is finished). Another set of Commonplace entries.  (August 1, 2009)

And another month – spent largely abroad. Another set of Commonplace entries. (July 1, 2009)

Another month passes; another month of Commonplace entries and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (May 31, 2009)

The Wilmington Star-News published today my Op-Ed piece on the notorious Beach Plan. Unfortunately it is not available at the newspaper’s website. (May 27, 2009)

A repeat of the previous month: just new Commonplace Entries, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. More news on the Top 360 tracks (for that is what they have become) soon. (May 1, 2009)

 I have added Commonplace Entries for March 2009, as well as some new examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. Not much action otherwise, as March has been a busy month. (April 1, 2009)

I have added Commonplace Entries for February 2009, as well as some new examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (March 1, 2009)

After a gap of over twenty years, I have resumed my efforts at professional crossword compilation, and a Listener crossword of mine will be published in tomorrow’s Times of London (February 21st). The title – At Arm’s Length. (February 20, 2009)

The Beach Plan! For those of you interested in analysis of the latest goings-on concerning the notorious Beach Plan, please click here IntroToInsuranceWindstorm  to read more about the report from the John Locke Foundation, and my response to its author. (January 24, 2009)

I see Tottenham Hotspur has a goalkeeper named Ben Alnwick playing for the side. Is that his real name? But whom else could he play for? (January 21, 2009)

The John Locke Foundation has published a report on the notorious North Carolina Beach Plan (see notes below, and under Articles, Reports), which can be found athttp://www.johnlocke.org/policy_reports/display_story.html?id=191.  While this report sheds some bright light on some of the financial structures of the insurance industry, my opinion is that it raises more questions than it answers (e.g. what has Wayne Goodwin’s role been in all this? what exactly are ‘coastal counties’, why have rates increased while the Beach plan has monopolized Wind and Hail business, but liabilities apparently increased even more?) and I am a little disappointed in it. I intend to contact the report’s author (with whom I was in contact before the report came out), as soon as I have time to get round to it. (January 16, 2009)

After a month’s abeyance, I have returned to update the site with Commonplace entries for December, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I wish a happy 2009 to all visitors! (December 31, 2008)