I used to be a pretentious angry youg man

These days, I don't even bother to pretend.

Why, oh why, O Spotify (2)

‎'Fuck Tha Police' by N.W.A. immediately followed by an ad to become a volunteer special constable for the Met. Great job on those 'targeted ads', Spotify

- DS Hilton, marketing analyst

Smyth's sayings

If you want to believe that you make your own luck then you're going to have to wonder about your misfortunes.

Smyth's sayings

Adolescent text-speak acronyms - that's how I rofl!

Famous Seamus' genius

It is because his poetry lets in associations that might seem irrelevant or undignified that it is so deeply human.

- John Carey, on Heaney's latest collection, Human Chain

Sick note for mankind

The equipment for producing grammatical speech is built into every healthy human being.

- Denys Thompson and Stephen Tunnicliffe, Reading and Discrimination

Fewer complications

Don't write a novel;
a shopping list is better.

- Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications

InDefinition - 12

pedant, n. one who is right more often than we are.

InDefinition - 11

compliment, n. a fact we like about ourselves.

Only in English - 4

It actually makes sense that 'engrossed' and 'grossed out' mean more-or-less opposite things.

On Chatwin

In life, one does run into people who are the perfect ping-pong opponent.

- Cary Welch

Smyth's sayings

Pant jam. It's a woman's preserve.

Only in English - 2

fresh - check
freshen - check
refresh - check

refreshen - n'existe pas

Incoming (not spam)

Actual text received today:

Am English patient. Death in hotel bed. Up to shoot donuts in three hours.

- DS Hilton, cryptic bugger

Books I started reading in the last ten days

(in no particular order)

Silk - Alessandro Baricco
Collected Poems 1909-1962 - T.S. Eliot
Borges and the Eternal Orang-utans - Luis Fernando Verissimo
The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker
Born Standing Up - Steve Martin
The Abortion: an historical romance 1966 - Richard Brautigan
Under the Sun: the letters of Bruce Chatwin - ed. Elizabeth Chatwin & Nicholas Shakespeare