Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Our grand liberal, Polly Toynbee Polly, I am a fan and you have my qualified support for most of the things you say. But let me ask you this.  Micheal Rosen said that you, Polly, talk about class at length without once mentioning the word capitalism. Michael Rosen is right. It doesn't make sense to speak of class without understanding it in terms of the economic system we exist in. If class is a product of capitalism, just as serfdom was a product of feudalism, then can we ameliorate its negative effects in some way? Can you stop people accumulating power and wealth? How can you stop them if they are the ones with all the wealth and influence? Isn't it really a win for some, do well for a few others and then a lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose situation for the rest? You could legislate of course. But the legislators are not unbiased, they favour the powerful, the ones who can pay good money to work the angles in the legal system in t...

Torta Cubana from Ryan's blog When I was single and didn't have time to cook and I was working in Antonio Caso Street in Mexico city, I dared to eat this sandwich on several occasions with the promise to myself that I would not have supper and the excuse that I had not eaten breakfast.  It is the equivalent not of one meal but of three.  It's hard to eat it with delicacy and you have to approach it from the right angle. Moreover, as it is usually sold in the street and so you have to be a little careful. Only real Chilangos eat this sandwich. The sandwich is hot and weighs about three quarters of a kilo.    Between two large elongated baguette-like baps place the following ingredients in succession: 2 slices of fried ham 1 wiener schnitzel  1 fried Egg  Yellow cheese  Avocado slices 1 thin steak  2 slices of tomato  Mayonaise Rashers of bacon Leaves of iceberg lettuce  Fried onion A slice of fres...

Words from Obama's Libya speech. Some people think the only good linguist is a descriptive linguist, but they are probably wrong. There should be an official Academy of the English Language The failure to regulate language is abdication, because to ignore what we consciously think and know about the structure of words - to ignore our attitudes to them, is wrong. We can mould language, just as we can alter our DNA. For example: Conflicted is a horrible borrowing into British English, d econstruct is a vacuous term, quantum is not understood and misapplied, doors are never alarmed , blogs sounds shitty, Shiites are actually Shias , quality time and me time are shoddy, selfish concepts, substantive is rather insubstantial and the focus group should be penned up in marketing, not left to roam free. An academy could rule out the stupid and influential jargon of the half educated young invented on the bus on the way home from school. I'm going gym. They say. The young ...

A chimp Language is the defining characteristic of human beings because, mainly through language, we create our representation of the world and act on it: history, art, film making, science, maths, literature, architecture, electronics, and so on, all require us to be capable of modelling the world. Modelling the world is closely linked to our feelings about the world.We develop empathy and compassion because one human can represent how another feels in their mind. I feel your pain - I really do - and I share in your hopes and wishes. In literature we live vicariously and intensely, and some of our strongest feelings may derive, not from our own experience, but from vicarious experience. This does not entitle us to greater freedom from pain and want than an animal. But humans have to be given the opportunity to fully inhabit the world of representation and imagination. People do not live by bread alone. An essential human right is a universal education, not simply the educat...

William Blake, The Gates of Hell How do you rough up Wrath, Greed, Pride, Lust, Envy, Sloth and Gluttony?  What do you wallop them with? Blakean rhyme; with  ‘bows of burning gold, arrows of desire? How about self-flagellation? Equanimity and acceptance? We sit in theatres of cruelty - in our living rooms in front of screens, and then writers, actors and directors serve us up with large portions of evil, for entertainment. Assuredly, evil is better understood personified. Coppola, Tarantino and the Cohen brothers plagiarised the life of The Iceman, who killed over 200 people for the Mafia. These directors flaunt evil in quixotic, individual packages - they excuse themselves suggesting that they offer explanatory metaphors for capitalism, where Iago the killer is a City boy now, a speculator in futures who short sells country debt. He’s out for himself, for profit. He says: There are those who know the score and fake their respectability and honesty when they are just...

I lined up outside the Western Union offices last night to send my money back home to my family. I haven't set up a regular bank transfer yet. Bilal was driving all day and I was his second to last visit of the day. Just before Id. He'll be back home at 10.30pm. I Skype home and speak to Tere and John and Carmen is packing to go to Manchester and I'm nervous and exited for her. Eve gives me a brief and cheery hello. Tere talked to his mother for three hours. They talked and eve said they talked of everything and that they would be calling on her regularly from now on. On the first day of walking on the Camino the first person to pass me was a Japanese gentleman wearing a banner, rather affectedly. He had an aura of wealth about him, a soft carapace.he wore his body like a luxury good, stepping carefully, trying not to scuff his feet. He nodded a greeting, a liminal shiver, and walked past. It really was quite like walking the North Downs way. As I walked my mind murmu...

I had not prepared for this physically, I was badly overweight and felt unhealthy. I looked at the sign