Category Archive: LIFE
Christmas in Estonia
(By Hugo Jakobsen, 3 October 1919 – 8 October 2010) “It begins on Christmas Eve, the 24th of December. It is cold and dark outside and the snow is gently falling. Our family is ready to go to Church to attend the special Christmas service. We enter a Church full of people and find our seats. In front of the altar is a huge Christmas tree lit up with wax candles. Further to the right is a nativity scene: the baby Jesus in the manger attended by his parents Maria and Joseph. The Lutheran minister tells us the story of…
Continue Reading →Heartstopper
GRAND FINAL: Norwood v Glenelg, 22 September 2024 As Woody Allen once wrote, sometimes to have a little luck is the most brilliant plan. Glenelg rode its luck in 2024, having undertaken to strive for more in the wake of its brilliant 2023 campaign. But this year was to prove no easy road: Norwood and Sturt dominated the minor round, finishing first and second. And the Tigers, lumbering behind those two teams, were generally winning by narrow margins: they lost Lachie Hosie, one of the great attacking spears from its trident, early in the season, and coming home in the…
Continue Reading →Henry ‘Chips’ Channon Diaries Volume 1
(1918 – 1938) (Edited by Simon Heffer) In the elusive search for historical truth, contemporary records such as diaries, even unreliable ones, can be valuable. Private diaries in particular, as they can break free of censorship, even self-censorship to a degree. Furthermore, insider diaries can give great insight into the mores of the times. Classic examples include Pepys, Boswell, Francis Kilvert, Anne Frank and Alan Clark. Henry “Chips” Channon (the nickname came when he roomed at Christ Church College, Oxford with a friend nicknamed “Fish”) was born in 1897 in Chicago, son of a wealthy family; served with the Red…
Continue Reading →Vale Donald
Donald Sutherland (17 July 1935 to 20 June 2024) No, they haven’t assassinated Donald Trump, yet. Rather, we honour today the passing of a Donald on the other end of the political spectrum, (if that device still applies). He was sui generis – not handsome, but suited to starring roles, not a ‘character actor’, but he enlivened many otherwise humdrum films with superb vignettes. As to the latter, think of his smiling treacherous Irishman in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), his spooky firebug in Backdraft (1991), his perfect playing as Mr. X in JFK (1991), the smiling-assassin Big-Boss in Disclosure…
Continue Reading →Eurovision 2024
Malmö in Sweden got to host dear old sparkly Eurovison after Loreena’s win in 2023. Loreena was welded into a silver cocktail glass at the end of the evening and pushed onto the stage under a fringe of shredded shower curtains where she writhed and sang a rather wan version of her 2023 winning entry. Her stringy beige bodysuit shrank in the wash so her stylists had glued some robotic bits onto it. Very Eurovision. Looks 5/5, song 1/5. Our hosts this year were normal size, not angry and only two in number. It looks like Graeme Norton said, “I’m…
Continue Reading →