There’s another clutch of reviews of The Wisdom of Whores posted to the “What They’re Saying” page.
They include Rachel Holmes in The Times (she thinks I’m a nerd, in the best possible way), Michael Fitzpatrick in The Guardian (who seems vaguely disapproving), Stephanie Merritt in the Observer (who is seduced by the mysteries of epidemiology), [...]
It’s been a busy day on the airwaves. Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I managed to hit BBC World TV’s HardTalk interview and be on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week, both in one day.
On HardTalk, Stephen Sackur spent a lot of time quizzing me about my mafia connections. Comments have ranged from [...]
Britain’s Office of Government Commerce says its mission is to “drive up standards and procurement”. To help in this dynamic task, they’ve got a new logo.
As I understand it, procurement is illegal in the UK, at least when it comes to procuring partners for pleasure. But if you turn the new logo on its side, [...]
Last night, I happened to be trawling around some of London’s gay entertainment establishments. I was struck by how much things have changed since John Ashbery was moved to write his classic elegy to AIDS, How to Continue. Here it is, lest we forget.
How to Continue” by John Ashbery
Oh there once was a woman
and she [...]
Some readers may have had yesterday’s literary post zoned out by the language police. By happy coincidence, Blog Around the Clock drew my attention to the cuss-o-meter, and I ran The Wisdom through it. Just 16.6% of my posts are grubby, which shows there’s lot more science than sex on this blog. I [...]
London’s a great city to walk around; reading an anthology of London poetry before embarking on another epic city walk, I came across a couple of gems from the Scottish poet William Dunbar. Here’s Dunbar’s description of courtship, in a modern translation:
“His pretty beard was combed and trimmed, but it was spattered with broth, and [...]
Last night I waded in to an interesting discussion about Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss at the (always interesting) Dana Centre. One woman observed that the selective memory loss that goes with Alzheimer’s could be a blessing, because it allowed people to wipe away recent bitterness and return to happier stages in their relationships.
Interesting ideas [...]
Professors are baring their souls and tastes on line, Stephanie Rosenblum of The New York Times reports with some incredulity. She rightly questions whether sharing your taste in music and your cat snaps with students really makes you a better teacher.
“Sam Gosling, a psychologist and an associate professor at the University of Texas at [...]
Some US States may be adding “sex offender” to the charge sheet of HIV-infected people having unprotected sex, but Britain is heading in the opposite direction. At least I think so.
New guidance issued by the Crown Prosecution Service suggests that people can’t be convicted for one-off acts of risk or folly. The original law [...]
Tom Levenson of the World’s Best Illuminated Blog the The Inverse Square tagged me with the 123 meme. The rules:
* look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute
* look for the fifth sentence
* then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
I’m [...]
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