Will Ferrell: clown. Top Hollywood star Will Ferrell last night appeared in University College Dublin to accept a prestigious award in front of 1,500 students. The 40-year-old star of ‘Anchorman’ was dressed in the full Irish rugby kit as he accepted the James Joyce Award from the Literary and Historical Society for his outstanding contribution
Things that make you despair: young journalists who have never read Scoop. In a better world that would be a sacking offence. Clive publishes a reminder of the novel’s glories as part of his excellent Notebook feature: “Come to think of it,” he added moodily, “there’s no point in answering anyway. Look at mine.” CABLE
Among the many idiocies stuffed into Mitt Romney’s race-quitting speech at CPAC, this one, for which admittedly he cannot bear full responsibility, is a peach: Simon Peres, in a visit to Boston, was asked what he thought about the war in Iraq. “First,” he said, “I must put something in context. America is unique in
So says Time Magazine’s (and friend to this blog) Jay Newton-Small: For anyone who thinks this race might be a tie, and yes, David Axelrod, that includes you, there’s a lot of evidence today that Obama is now the frontrunner. He leads in number of states won, he leads by his own campaign’s tally in
From Is There More to Life Than Shoes: In the court case brought against him for breach of contract over a referendum on the EU Constitution, Brown’s personal barrister has just told the court that “manifesto pledges are not subject to legitimate expectation”. Given the content of most political manifestos, isn’t this a welcome relief?
Are books dead? No, just different. Or, rather, story-telling adapts to new technology. To wit, Japan. As the New York Times reports: TOKYO — Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a
Ross and Rod despair, quite naturally, over this poll asking American teenagers to name the “10 Most Famous Americans”. Presidents and First Ladies were excluded from the poll. It’s an illuminating view of how American history is taught these days. anyway, The results were: 1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67% 2. Rosa Parks: 60% 3.
According to Mitt Romney, Europe is doomed because we’re all a bunch of godless pornographers. Yes, really. But then, here’s what the Church of England has been up to, just today. Exhibit A: Let there be Darkness. LONDON (AFP) – Two senior Church of England bishops called
Vital US election issue: which Hogwarts house would each candidate be in? The Economist reveals all here. In other news, CNN and Fox remain unwatchable. Fancy that! How to choose between ghastly Lou Dobbs and David Gergen on the former and Bill O’Reilly on the latter?
Norm’s poll of your favourite English-language novelists has reported its findings. Not a great surprise that Austen and Dickens come first and second. But really, how can Norm’s erudite readers have placed Philip Roth third (albeit a very distant third) and Ian McEwan sixth? This suggests a serious lack of, well, judgement. Wodehouse, for the
Have I mentioned that this (admittedly old) ghastliness is enough on its own to make me wish Democrats select Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton? Well, it’s enough to make me reach for my Browning anyway: Bill Clinton suggested during a TV appearance that, should his wife be elected president of the United States, he
TNR’s John Judis looks at the exit polls and gets to the nub of the matter, not just for tonight but for the campaign for the rest of the year: while Obama has clearly caught up to, and perhaps passed, Clinton in the battle for the nomination, they continue to have complementary strengths and weaknesses. To
Shockingly, Massachusetts, perhaps the most racist state* in the country (well, north of the Mason-Dixon line anyway) votes for the white candidate not the black one. This, apparently, is a massive victory for the Clinton campaign. Some of us are less surprised. *Well, Boston anyway – a city famously unfriendly to blacks, even those who
Sure, Fox and CNN are almost unwatchable (I’m tempted to switch to Al-Jazeera English) but the good folk at The Economist remind one that the BBC is perhaps even worse: 9:10 : Katty Kay (yes, that’s really her name), a BBC anchor, pronounced Hillary Clinton the victor in Tennessee: this was especially notable, says Katty,
Top Brit-blogger Iain Dale asks Ten Questions about the US election: 10. How long before Mitt Romney’s money runs out?9. What circumstances would encourage Michael Bloomberg to run as an Independent?8. Who will Al Gore endorse and when?7. How long will Huckabee’s ego hold?6. When and if should Bill Clinton be put out on the
Ordinaily Derek Conway wouldn’t interest this blog. But the Tory MP, who has had the party whip withdrawn after defrauding the taxpayer by paying his sons to “work” as his parliamentary researchers has performed a great service nonetheless. Though, Mr Conway was reprimanded by the Standards Committee after “no record” was found of Freddie Conway
As Jason Zengerle says, this sort of thing trumps anything the “Wife of a Man from Hope” can produce. Even cynics and Kennedy-haters are permitted to smile at this. Speaking at Ted Kennedy’s endorsement palooza yesterday Obama told this story: It’s about whether we’re going to seize this moment to write the next great American
Switch off your radios: I shall be on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme at around 5.45pm talking about, of all things, state-sponsored Gaelic TV. It may not surprise readers that I consider this a perfectly senseless boondoggle. by the standards of government waste it is, for sure, trivial and harmless stuff. To the extent that
A classic, touching American story by my friend Nancy Trejos in the Washington Post’s magazine: SAT ON THE AVIANCA FLIGHT FROM BOGOTA TO PEREIRA, my forehead pressed against the window, staring out into the clouds. It was September 11, 2007, and I was flying over Colombia, my father’s homeland. I had been there only once
An endorsement Obama could have done without. He better hope McCain wins the GOP nomination because any other Republican candidate will be happy to use this to argue that Obama is the terrorists’ friend. More than 80 volunteer lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees today endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid. The attorneys said in