I wasn’t to going to say anything about the death of Amy Winehouse. I can’t imagine any greater pain than burying a child, especially one you’ve watched digging her own grave. But then this morning I read what happened last night in the street outside her house. I suppose it could be called a wake,…

  Today I lift and paste, without apology, from Inspector Gadget’s most recent post. I do it because, having just returned from the UK  his theme is very much on my mind, and because I really can’t improve on what he says. If nothing else, I hope it will encourage you to read his excellent…

When I haven’t blogged for a week there are inevitably too many subjects queued for take-off for me to confine myself to a single theme. I’ll begin with the most recent: custard pies.  Aside from the fact that Rupert Murdoch’s attacker made the police look like plonkers, wasn’t there something sublimely English about the choice…

I have a question about the subduing of an unruly passenger on yesterday’s United Airlines flight 944 from Chicago to Frankfurt. Who provided the duct tape? Do cabin crews routinely carry duct tape? Is it with the peanuts in the drinks’ trolley? Was there perhaps a home-repair enthusiast on board, the kind of guy who never leaves home without a…

This is John Atkinson Grimshaw, a Victorian painter who’s having a well-deserved revival, in my life and in the wider world. My first husband and I had his Liverpool Quay by Moonlight on our dining room wall for many years. It received the curled lip from some of our more progressive friends  –   why have a Grimshaw when…

Here it is, folks. Proof positive that Ed Miliband is a robot. Watch it to the end. If you can bear to.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PZtVm8wtyFI

 Old Glory flew from the deck outside our kitchen today. Of course given the current state of the US economy the word ‘Independence’ rings a bit hollow but Mr F is a patriot, albeit an absent one. It can be a delicate subject. ‘If you love America why did you leave?’ is a perfectly legitimate…