Cometh the hour, cometh the man. George Osborne is going to be one of the most hated public figures of our time. But he can take it This afternoon George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave the most important speech of his life – and maybe ours. Is this a full [...]
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Being Indulgent
Practical, understated chic. Perfect for a weekend in the Cotswolds. With calves like that maybe his Jupiter’s in Aquarius! “Just bought a pair of boots,” he muttered, trying not to look too pleased. I thought for a minute. We already live with a small river of his shoes that [...]
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Nobody’s Perfect: the astrology of Curtis and Monroe
Two kids from the wrong side of the tracks play pretend. Norma Jean Mortensen teaching Bernie Schwartz how to kiss – one of the sweetest scenes on celluloid. That great movie Some Like it Hot. still makes me laugh. Of course, Norma Jean and Bernie had blossomed into Marilyn Monroe and [...]
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A God for Every Sign – yay
I find reading old astrology books a very good way to get to sleep. Dane Rudhyar is marvellously soporific. I hope some of it will filter into my dreams, and be reborn as a brilliant insight. Last night I turned to CEO Carter, who is an old stand-by in the wee small hours. And in […]
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A Fairytale Ending for Milibands
Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons. When he died his oldest son took the mill, his middle son took the donkey, and that left the youngest son with nothing but the cat. Well, we know who got the better deal in the end. Puss-in-boots helps the youngest son to […]
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The generation that won’t shut up
Gustave Doré’s Red Riding Hood. Usually, conversational gambits at the school gates go something like this: “How is Ermyntrude settling in?” “Isn’t the traffic awful?” “A bit nippy this morning eh?” Not the most thrilling set of references. So [...]
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David Cameron, Jupiter and death
David Cameron with his first son Ivan in 2002. Ivan died in 2009. It’s remarkable how often in families a death and a birth happen in quick succession. Poor David Cameron lost his father today just weeks after his wife gave birth to that darling baby. My wise friend Judith, who has seen [...]
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How I struck oil on holiday
On Winchelsea Beach, the mud is dark sable. Sometimes, you slither across the top of it. But sometimes your foot sinks right in, mud spurts between your toes. And sometimes, you sink much deeper, over your ankles, up to the knees. When that happens, your feet encounter another texture, silkier [...]
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Times are changing
This is from an old copy of the defunct magazine Punch. I can never see the joke, but it does seem appropriate. We had dinner with an entertainingly gloomy Irishman last night. He’s clearly enjoying the credit crunch a lot – because it means that he can wallow in deepest pessimism, [...]
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When it rains…
I’ve been looking at pictures of the Biblical floods in Pakistan, listening to the statistics – more people affected by this than by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. Is this possible? So I found a map and realised that the area being flooded is the Indus Valley itself, one of the [...]
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Cork that gusher – yadda yadda yadda
My mother phoned up this morning to tell me that she had her very own gusher staying with her – in the form of a dear friend who talks a lot. He’s lovely but he chatters so much that she feels as if she’s drowning in a sea of words. I happen to know he’s […]
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Vampire Squid – Pluto vs Neptune?
I was taking a shower this morning with my five year old and she started to play a game about a “vampire squid” which was attacking us around the curtain. (Yes, apparently there is such a thing.) That’s a pretty scary monster, right. Well, it also seemed rather a good image [...]
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