August 29th - September 4th 2005
Sunday Msg
Saturday Borough Market
Friday Bugger
Thursday Hollyhock
Wednesday Fine writing
Tuesday Floared
Monday Last meal
Sunday 4th September 2005
The next time someone complains about the time it took for your msg to reach them, tell them that, in 1762, when Britain and Spain found themselves at war, the British sent an urgent message to their forces in India urging an immediate attack on the enemy colony of Manila.
The message took seven months to arrive.
Happily for the British, however, their subsequent surprise attack proved completely successful - because word had yet to reach the Spanish that war had broken out in the first place.
Saturday 3rd September 2005
Borough Market, Summer 2005
Friday 2nd September 2005
Bertie Hope-Davies died, as obituarists say, "unmarried" and never disguised, or obtruded, his inclinations but bubbled rather than seethed with indignation at the expression "gay".
"Queer", he told Christopher (Lord) Thynne, was a bit rude - he wished he knew the right word.
Thynne reported a conversation he had had with David (Duke of) Beaufort.
Beaufort: "I did so like meeting your friend Hope-Davies and one would never have thought" - long pause - "that he was a bugger."
"That's the word!" cried Hope-Davies, delighted: "Bugger."
Thursday 1st September 2005
Wednesday 31st August 2005
We all know that Brighton is as gay as Dollywood and has more poofs and dykes per square mile than probably any other place in Britain, but it is at Brighton Pride when you see see the absolute vicissitude of the gay community.
- Matt Joshua maintaining QX's reputation for fine writing in a recent piece on Brighton Pride (Leaving aside 'at...when', I especially admire that 'probably')
Tuesday 30th August 2005
God forbid that sub-editors should ply their punny craft amidst a funeral, especially the funeral of a national hero.
Unless, of course, that funeral is 200 years old.
Hence, presumably, the Telegraph's front-page headline (sadly not evident on the actual piece) for its story about how 500 oarsmen will re-enact the funeral flotilla of Lord Nelson on September 16th: Oarsome spectacle
Monday 29th August 2005
Constrain your thoughts, if you will, to the mythology of the recent London bombings (the facts will only cloud your judgement).
Recall the three steely-eyed suicidalists, Underground-bound - a trio given depth and colour by the counterpointed indecision of the fourth bomber, 18-year-old Hasib Hussain, who not only blew himself up on a bus (my dear, the bathos) but did so almost an hour later than the others.
Absorb the late-breaking information that Hussain is said to have spent much of that tense hour on his mobile, trying to contact his colleagues for guidance ('Tubes fucked. Pls advise."). Only to infer, from their lack of response, that they were gone ahead of him to Paradise.
Now add to that the under-reported yet curiously piquant leak featured in the Independent last week to the effect that Hussain spent that time in, where else, McDonalds.
And the King's Cross McDonalds, at that.
Does anyone want to take my bet that we'll see that last meal re-enacted on a stage in a room above a pub some time soon, tightening the material before taking it to Edinburgh?
......previous week
