Category Archives: Apparitions

It Has Not Escaped Our Notice

This one kindly sent in by our Correspondent of all things Chthonic, Mr C. D. of Leeds. I think it speaks for itself. What it is saying, though, is less clear.

 
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The Very Hungry Pupperino

On Monday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a sofa. On Tuesday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a set of six mahogany dining chairs. On Wednesday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a small semi-detached ex-Local-Authority house in Cromer, Norfolk. On Thursday, … Continue reading Continue reading

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Camp Catastrophic

Back in the early days of the present unpleasantness I was engaged to take part in a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye (no, not that one, a different one). Cognisant that Offspring2 is a keen bibliophile, I thought I could take … Continue reading Continue reading

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Shortlisted

I am ecstatic to announce that my latest tome, A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. A popular-science equivalent of the Booker Prize, the Royal Society … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in age proof, anjana ahuja, Apparitions, different, frans de waal, hot air, Isaac Asimov, Jeremy farrar, nick davidson, Peter Stott, rose Anne Kenny, Royal Society, royal society insight investment science book prize, Science Is Vital, spike, the early Asimov, the greywacke, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Shortlisted

Queuowulf

As I expect you both have, I’ve been wondering why I have felt so moved at the passing of the Queen, someone I never knew or even met. It is a feeling that many people seem to share, so much … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Apparitions, Beowulf, J R R Tolkien, Jorgmungandr, Maria Dahvana Headley, Politicrox, Queen Elizabeth II, queues, Seamus Heaney, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Queuowulf

Your Stars For August

by Harry Specks Aries: Meetings. Bloody meetings. Everyone is always on their way to one, just back from one, or, perish the thought, in one. But what are they for? Do they achieve anything? If everyone hates them so much, … Continue reading Continue reading

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Galaxies in a Grain of Sand

Take a grain of sand and hold it up at the sky at arm’s length. That grain of sand covers a patch of sky equivalent to that captured by the spectacular new image from the NASA James Webb Space Telescope … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Apparitions, Auguries of Innocence, Bill Nelson, Grain of Sand, gravitational lensing, James Webb Space Telescope, JWST, NASA, Science Is Vital, SMACS 0723, Volans, William Blake | Comments Off on Galaxies in a Grain of Sand

Your Stars For July

By Harry Specks Aries: At the beginning of the month you will see a picture of a unicycle. Possibly, it will come up in your social media feed the algorithm of which thinks you have bought one or might want … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in abbey road, Antiques Roadshow, Apparitions, beatles, Care of Magical Creatures, Dreaming, Harry Specks, Hogwarts, horoscope, nadgering iron from a late 18th-Century Herefordshire grummet-tinker's scrode, satnav, Silliness, the nadgering iron of an early 19th-Century Gloucestershire grummet-tinker's scrode, your stars | Comments Off on Your Stars For July

Pride

Here’s a story about Pride, and the best party I ever attended. It started in 2017, when the Gees had a wonderful family holiday in Northumbria. The fact that I could never seem to find Hadrian’s Wall, no matter how … Continue reading

Posted in Apparitions, Apsperg-O-Meter, camp, dirtyfilthysexy, Hadrian's Wall, LGBTQ+, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you'll always find me in the kitchen at parties | Comments Off on Pride

Passeportout

Notwithstanding inasmuch as which nobody can go really go anywhere much, even if they wanted to, which I don’t, I found – quel horreur! –  that my passport was about to expire, imminently, if not sooner, and that failure to … Continue reading

Posted in Alfred Molina, Apparitions, Carlos the Jackal, legal tender, Omid Djalili, passports, Science - Has It Gone Too Far?, the Brown Queue, travel | Comments Off on Passeportout