‘Actors go into it because it gives us the chance to play people a great deal more interesting than we are, and to say things infinitely wittier and more intelligent than anything we could think of.’ Prunella Scales. Prunella Scales died last week at the ripe old age of 93. Those of you who may …
Continue reading “An ode to Prunella Scales aka Sybil Fawlty”
It is only when one has lost all things, that one knows that one possesses it. Oscar Wilde. Tucked away in an insignificant corner of my morning daily was the news that the legendary, if controversial Irish novelist, playwright and poet Oscar Wilde’s library card was reissued 130 years after being revoked over a gay …
Sugar / Oh, honey, honey / You are my candy girl / And you got me wanting you The Archies. I had no cause to worry about diabetes all these years. Never even entertained a passing thought about sugar, other than adding two heaped teaspoonfuls to my tea or coffee every morning or evening. That …
Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird passed away on September 22nd, widely mourned, at the ripe young age of 92 in his home town in Barnsley, Yorkshire. Peacefully in his sleep. Which is nothing less than the great man deserved. Now I can hear many youngsters, who follow cricket, reading this column, assuming youngsters read the newspapers (digitally …
Caveat: Some of what you are about to read happened. Some of it did not, though it could so easily have. Either way, a pinch of salt would help garnish the offering. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is celebrating his 75th birthday, his platinum jubilee, which came about on September 17. The present continuous tense …
Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost. Martina Navratilova. We had the Big Three. We now have the Big Two and a half. I am, of course, talking tennis. Federer and Nadal hung up their rackets recently, at different times, amidst much emotional, tear-jerking fanfare. The third of that …
There is a growing trend amongst several prominent personages in our country and around the world to shoot off letters, usually in high dudgeon, to various heads of state. Errors of omission and commission, on the part of Presidents and Prime Ministers are pointed out in pitiless detail, and advice is freely offered on how …
Turn this crazy bird around / I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight. Joni Mitchell. ‘Are you veg or non-veg?’ As an opening gambit for a conversation with a perfect stranger, I found this a rather unconventional question. Why would someone you did not know from Adam be asking you about your dietary habits, …
I was a poor student. Let me unburden myself of that albatross. Now that I have long since retired and not looking for a job, that admission comes quite easily. Whether it was during my school days and later on in university, I was one of those who just about scraped through his exams, year …
I’m suspicious of people who don’t like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn’t like a person. Bill Murray. In case you are wondering if I woke up rather late and decided to pen my impressions on the late Frederick Forsyth’s 50-year-old novel The Dogs of War, his hugely successful effort after his …
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