Unreliably Witnessed
October 2010
58 posts
Do writers retire? →
guardian.co.uk
Silly question. Of course they do. Unlike in my working life, where it has become increasingly apparent that the coalition government wants me to keep working until my last dying breath at three score and ten so that they don’t have to endure me being a strain upon the nation’s meagre coffers, I actually took early retirement from writing at the age of 38, much to the relief of the guardians of the English language and the protectors of the humble metaphor.
“an years bit monday when using like hard wants song writing wants talk kids article finished makes friends only need look crazy used my today hell my place reading won’t photo try an years bit monday when using like hard wants song writing wants talk kids article finished makes friends only need look crazy used my today hell my place reading won’t photo try an years bit monday when using like hard wants song writing wants talk kids article finished makes friends only need look crazy used my buy updated”
The text above is the entirety of a spam email I received today. I wish all my spam email was this engaging. It’s almost poetry. Or perhaps a Beckett monologue. I wish I’d written it.
“I have a negative urge to procreate. I have the urge to kill other people’s children. I have a long-established phobia of children. They actually terrify me.”
—Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields [via]
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“It’s only a matter of time before the word ‘Clegg’ enters the dictionary as a noun meaning ‘agonised, doe-eyed apologist’. Or maybe it’ll become a verb. Years from now, teachers will ask their pupils to stop ‘clegging on’ about how the dog ate their homework and just bloody hand it in on time.”
—Charlie Brooker | All hail the human face of the coalition: Nick Clegg – sad-eyed defender of the new reality
Sony retires the cassette Walkman after 30 years →
mashable.com
Er. What? They were still making it? Really?
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Martin Amis on Philip Larkin's women →
guardian.co.uk
Yes. Martin Amis. Writing about Philip Larkin and his relationships with women. Oh, how I laughed.
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On This Deity →
onthisdeity.com
Julian Cope and his wife are writing a blog “commemorating culture heroes and excavating world events.” I am, admittedly, something of a Cope fan, but objectively this is still a brilliant and very informative read.
“There is one stark symbol of how unjust the response to this economic disaster caused by bankers is. They have just paid themselves £7bn in bonuses – much of it our money – to reward themselves for failure. That’s the same sum Osborne took from the benefits of the British poor yesterday, who did nothing to cause this crash. And he has the chutzpah to brag about ‘fairness’.”
—Johann Hari: A colder, crueller country – for no gain
