"You write novels. I can"t do that. I can only do this sort of thing," she said, meaning her just-published memoirs. Margaret Thatcher knew the potency of flattery, knew how to appeal to male vanity. Naturally I was indeed flattered, even while I knew that she didn"t really rate the ...
The American victory in the Ryder Cup was convincing and thoroughly deserved. They played brilliantly, none more so than Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson. Mickelson may spray his drives wildly, but the quality of his recovery play, chipping, and putting was exceptional. As for Reed, what can one ...
Scene: The Cambridge University Union in, as I remember, 1958. The invited speaker, Sir Oswald Mosley, the former leader of the British Union of Fascists, got up to his feet. A student dashed forward and hurled a custard pie into his face. Mosley produced a handkerchief, wiped his cheek, and said, ...
UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) achieved its primary goal in June when Britain voted to leave the European Union. Its triumphant leader, Nigel Farage, resigned (though he remains a member of the European Parliament). Diane James, also an MEP, has now been elected as the new UKIP leader. ...
A cease-fire in Syria brokered by the USA and Russia may hold for a bit, or it may have been thoroughly broken by the time you read this. Any optimism has to be tempered in the light of experience. The Middle East has been in a state of war for a very long time. Even if this negotiated cease-fire ...
The Bible tells us that our allotted span is threescore years and ten. Advances in medicine and public health"sanitation, for example"have made nonsense of this in the developed countries of the West where life expectancy is being pushed well up into the 80s, at least among the affluent. ...
Whatever the result of this decidedly odd presidential election may be, one thing is clear: The next occupant of the White House will be old enough to qualify for a place in a retirement home. Of course, people in general age more slowly now, and comparatively few settle serenely into old age when ...
Sociologists often talk or write nonsense. Sometimes they dress up the bleeding obvious in pretentious language. Sometimes they merely seem determined to demonstrate that they are more intelligent and understand things better than the rest of us. And sometimes this makes them seem fools or greater ...
Back in the 1960s, enthusiasm for Mao's China was common on the left. Lots of young people liked to be seen with copies of the Chairman's Little Red Book. Since I don"t remember anyone doing more than brandishing it, I may have been justified in joking that the title was wrongly spelled, and ...
I was watching the synchronized diving"one does odd things at Olympics time"and when Viktor Minibaev and Nikita Shleikher, the Russian competitors, stepped onto the platform, the British commentators remarked that they were greeted with boos. This was tough for the Russian boys, and may ...
