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Plebeians versus November
The fourth of November means that we can try to forget that the rich and privately educated have taken over in the UK, and may be about to crown the plutocrat Mitt Romney in the USA. This is the day...
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Why Bankers won't be scared of God's Oil Man
December Dining at Eton CollegeA full-time post is currently being advertised at Eton College for a Dining Room Assistant. The wages amount to £15,272 a year. The annual fees for this school are...
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Neighing and Democracy
Pleased as I am that the U.S presidential elections were won by a cool person who seems to respect women instead of an uncool one who doesn’t, it is becoming difficult to take elections seriously....
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What the Hecuba-Actress wasn't allowed to say to the Bishops
Manual for Women BishopsMonday felt like a good day for the ancient history of women past their youth who exert societal influence. I was thrilled to be Chris Evans’ ‘Mystery Guest’ on BBC Radio 2,...
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Just how Funny is Homelessness?
As the bitter weather kicks in, it is getting harder to walk past (on the Strand, sometimes walk over) the homeless, blue as they are with cold. In London a large proportion are very young, although...
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Scythians in Seattle
Scythian looking forward to next funeralMy favourite passage in ancient history is Herodotus’ description of the dope-smoking Scythians of the Russian steppes. They were sceptical about the social...
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What Ed Miliband needs to learn from Demosthenes
It is imperative that the parliamentary opposition in the UK gets its act together.The proposed 'Welfare Uprating Bill' is set toabolish the 80-year-old connection between benefits and living...
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The Ancient Greek Boxer and the Gun-Nuts
Ancient Boxers policed by nervous umpiresIn 496 BC, sixty school children were massacred on the beautiful Aegean island of Astypalaia. The perp was Cleomedes, a fellow islander. After killing his...
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More tea, Socrates?
"Why Am I Smiling like This?"I had intended to write a light-hearted blog for the holiday season. The FOMYC (Father of My Children) thinks that I Need to Lighten Up. But what has been going round my...
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Exit Pursuing a Boar
What did the Sus scrofa say to the Canis lupus familiaris? (The text of inscription runs out here--suggested supplements welcome)After picking up a nasty dose of stomach flu while visiting members of...
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Boars, Bores, and Aristotle
Heroic Sow Teaches Young to WallowThe flu I suffered in transit to Germany made me delirious. My paracetamol-fuelled dreams featured rampaging wild boars, leading to a bout of feverish e-research in a...
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Luther, the Greek Resistance, and Tomato Sauce
Erfurt under the Weight of HistoryI am used to being surrounded by history. In England I live ten minutes away from the Burford churchyard where Oliver Cromwell had the Levellers executed in 1649. I...
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Why I am Never Going to Thailand
Gaolled for Criticising RoyaltyThis week the Thai journalist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk calmly made a ‘victory’ sign as he was led off, in chains, to begin an eleven-year sentence for criticising the Thai...
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Xenophilia Ancient and Modern
"Guest" workers had their passports confiscatedWith great relief we were told this week that as citizens of a country still in the European Union (whatever spooky plans David Cameron may be hatching)...
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When Plagiarism is a Political Issue
Schavan loses PhD and job within three days‘The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they have been in’, said the wise Dennis Potter. But for Angela Merkel, re-used (i.e. plagiarised)...
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Which Goddess is Trying to Get in Touch?
What made this hole in Lake Chebarkul?It is a huge relief that nobody--especially none of those terrified schoolchildren--seems to have been seriously injured or killed by any of the shards of the...
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The Ornithologist, the Finches, & Research Councils UK
Promoter of Birds, Badgers and ClarityThree cheers for Lord Krebs! I already liked this reluctant Peer of the Realm because he opposes badger culling. But this week his lucid brain has cut through the...
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Petronius, Profiteering, and Peer Review
Prize for the daftest email of the week sent to my work account goes to Ema Collins, ‘Acquisition Editor’ at LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. Ema says: 'While searching for dissertations and theses...
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Alienation in Weimar
I saw a spine-tingling show in a theatre, the first for many moons. In my experience you have to sit through nine evenings of tedium and mediocrity for every one of such enchantment. But that one in...
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How Not to Do Cultural History
Euterpe & Klio (Lyric Poetry & History)I haven’t done much tourism in Germany, but these eight Muses on the external frieze of the Renaissance art gallery in Erfurt are too good not to show....
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