Spectator Blogs

Illness

, 06 Sep 2008 18:21:02 GMT

Stephen and I have discussed our differing views of Larry David before. While I'm eternally grateful to Mr D. for giving us "Seinfeld", I'm ashamed to say I still don't have a taste for "Curb Your Enthusiasm". And I struggled with that new cancer skit as well, even if it was in all in a good cause. My problem, I guess. Come to think of it, I never cared for the "Seinfeld" episode where our hero was caught snogging at the cinema during "Schindler's List". Or the weird persecution of Susan's grief-stricken parents. All a bit too]]>

Mortality

, 06 Sep 2008 18:09:21 GMT

There's no way of making the jump to Robert Novak's reflections on his brain tumour without seeming crass. I can only say that it's a deeply moving article. Depressing to think that "angry bloggers" have been having gloating at his expense. (Who are these people?) Whatever you think of Dubya, you have to give him credit for phoning Novak minutes before the columnist was about to go under the knife. Teddy Kennedy comes out of it well too.

[Via Ann Althouse]

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Alistair Campbell, music lover

, 06 Sep 2008 17:43:12 GMT

Just listened to his radio programme "Brel et Moi". Although it didn't dig very deep, Blair's press secretary made a likeable and quirky presenter. And not a single F-Word... His Times article sketches in more of the background.

Me, I'm more of a Brassens man, but I do love the manic sentiments of "La valse à mille temps".

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Reporting & mud-throwing

, 06 Sep 2008 15:15:03 GMT

Linda Chavez complains that the media have been acting like a "Democratic fifth column" and that Obama has been given an easy ride. I agree he wasn't pushed hard in the early stages of the campaign. But now? I'm not so sure. Besides, is it really true that reporters descended on Alaska in pursuit of scandal about the Palin pregnancy? Weren't they there to get some basic information about a candidate who may not have been vetted properly? One last thing: Chavez - who implies there's some story to be had about Obama's past drug use - studiedly fails]]>

Random act

, 06 Sep 2008 14:50:07 GMT

In one of my haunts, on a particularly beautiful and quiet stretch of the Thames, some kind stranger has provided a bench and a notebook for passers-by to write in.

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Final drafts

, 06 Sep 2008 12:14:17 GMT

The Washington Post comes up with a short list of great unfinished novels. Robert Musil, Scott Fitzgerald and Rebecca West all make the cut. So too, oddly enough, does Huck Finn:

I know, I know: Technically, Twain's masterpiece comes to an end, but we might have been better off if it hadn't. Twain ran out of inspiration after Huck made his wrenching decision to go to hell rather than hand Jim over to the slave-catchers. Some years later, the author decided to conclude his story by bringing back Tom Sawyer, and the silly result is perhaps the

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Not a Lefty

, 05 Sep 2008 20:48:03 GMT

There's a notion taking root inside the cocoon that the only people dissing the Hockey Mom are latte-drinking liberals and hopelessly biased reporters. Well, how about Charles Krauthammer? Or David Frum (again) who has just posted some must-read reflections on how the Republicans seem on the verge of repeating the mistakes of the Bush White House.

Apologies for linking to Frum once more, but he's one of the few GOP insiders who's not playing the role of cheerleader.

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The Girl from San Tropez

, 05 Sep 2008 20:13:36 GMT

After that reworked Stanley Kubrick clip, here's another clever marriage of words and images. The film is Roger Vadim's notorious "Et . . . Dieu créa la femme". The music comes from perhaps the greatest bossa nova record of them all, "Getz-Gilberto". If you don't already possess a copy, shame on you. I just realized it's 45 years since Stan Getz went into the studio with João Gilberto and Tom Jobim (not forgetting Gilberto's wife, Astrud, of course). Ruy Castro's terrific book, "Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World", notes that]]>

A neighbour's child

, 05 Sep 2008 18:55:04 GMT

An everyday story from Israel's hospitals, recorded by blogger Haifa Diarist. The life of a dying child from Gaza who had been stung by a scorpion was saved after he was rushed to hospital in Israel.

Where else would members of an enemy polity that does not stop waging a war of annihilation receive such care and compassion from its targets?

The Arab father of this child got the point:

‘When I stood next to the bed and saw the Jewish hands working to save my

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