Monthly Archives: February 2007

BEATING TIME

Another poem from the collection entitled VALUE. Once again, it seems like the work of a slightly deranged person I’m not sure I’d want to know, though some of the cultural references still mean something to me. Translate ‘the new … Continue reading

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Toffee

After all this wearisome political stuff, I thought it was time to post a picture of Toffee. I found her in a cardboard box marked Omaggio (Free) outside a pet food shop. She was just over three weeks old and … Continue reading

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DICO? DICEVO…

Prodi’s cobbled together a twelve-point list designed to hold the centre-left coalition together until the end of the legislation. It’s sufficiently vague to work for a while at least and, faced with the alternatives of a technical government or, even … Continue reading

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Crisis? Just ask Giulio

It was inevitable that sooner or later Romano Prodi’s government, with a majority of one in the Senate, would stumble and fall. And it isn’t surprising that two of the people responsible for yesterday’s defeat should represent fringe elements of … Continue reading

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Running Babel to advantage

Like some mythological beast, the university language centre I work in is about to undergo what looks like its final metamorphosis. Its first director treated it as a centre of power and money cow, running the place as an occasionally … Continue reading

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A question of priorities

It‘s interesting that the Anglican church appears to prefer the homophobic Archbishop Arsehole of Nigeria to the rather more gay-friendly Episcopalians in the States. It‘s none of my business, of course, but wouldn‘t it be a little closer to the … Continue reading

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Navigation

Another great story by Vanessa Gebbie, in the Steel City Review. The Marc Lowe piece is pretty fine as well.

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Phylogenetic, ontogenetic… As long as our mothers love us

Berlusconi totty, Mara Carfagna, ex showgirl transformed into member of parliament for the capo’s ‘political’ party,Forza Italia, announced a couple of days ago that gay couples couldn’t be considered families because they were ‘constitutionally sterile’. Tell that to a broody … Continue reading

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Fancy a cracker?

According to one of the weirdest sites I know (and only available in Italian, I’m afraid), the world is even filthier than we thought. Sexual imagery and language is everywhere. Nothing is safe. Even a humble biscuit has its own … Continue reading

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The house above the cork forest (4)

Things go from bad to worse. It turns out that the land attached to the house is surrounded by common land, the boundaries of which are time-honoured but undefined. There seems to be a goat path running along the north-eastern … Continue reading

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