Trump was a lot less anxious about violent crime in Washington DC on Jan 6 2021.

The Death of Hamnet Shakespeare, OTD in 1596. Apparently, on this day, Hamnet Shakespeare died and was buried.   Judith’s twin.  The only son of William Shakespeare.   And do I care? Maybe. How does the death of the boy Hamnet affect the…

The Death of Hamnet Shakespeare, OTD in 1596. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/d...

Paradoxes of the Epstein Files – Scandalous even though true. You can sort of see what Trump was doing before the 2024 election by crying up the Epstein files… After all, his repeated electoral refrain in 2016 was “Lock Her Up”. It’s t…

Paradoxes of the Epstein Files - Scandalous even though true. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/p...

Tribute to Charles Causley.

Some of the grocery divider toblerone thingies at the tills at Dunnes are now in French.

"Client Suivant".

I approve. Let's have more French signage smuggled into our everyday life.

Happy Nixon Resignation Day On this day, (August 9th, 1974), Richard Nixon resigned the American presidency. He did so in the full and certain knowledge that he was definitely going to be impeached, that he did not have the S…

Happy Nixon Resignation Day conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/h...

The most autumnal schoolboy former king was William the Conkerer.

I’m also very fond of your White Album book as it happens…

There’s always another brick. Oliver Norvell Hardy died OTD in 1957. He had been ill for a long time and had lost a deal of weight – to the point where the last photos of Oliver Norvell Hardy seem almost unrecognisable.  His partner, himself too ill to attend …

There's always another brick. Oliver Norvell Hardy died OTD in 1957. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/t...

Less than the sum of its parts? Help! Born OTD in 1965 Is it possible for an album to be less than the sum of its parts? Ian McDonald is quite scathing about the Help! album, regarding it as thin and inconsequential. And yet, looking at the track listi…

Less than the sum of its parts? Help! Born OTD in 1965 conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/08/06/l...

It does annoy me, it shouldn’t be “Venus in Furs”, it should be “Venus Implies”.

Another pretty much perfect joke from @mooseallain.bsky.social.

Happy Birthday Revolver As I’ve mentioned, my parents didn’t have that many records in the house growing up. We had the President Kennedy comedy album, Nancy Sinatra’s greatest hits (ideal if you wanted …

Happy Birthday Revolver conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/h...

Too Ugly to Fight in World War One My grandpa’s name was Conrad too.  So was my father’s.  So was the Austrian Chief of Staff’s who bore rather more direct responsibility for the outbreak of World War One than anyone in …

Too Ugly to Fight in World War One conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/t...

For whom the bell doesn’t toll. The Titanic artefact exhibit in Toronto. Yesterday we arrived in a rather scrubby and unprepossessing corner of Toronto to consider a Titanic artefacts museum. And yes, they have a real bell. As you go in, you’re given a card with a…

For whom the bell doesn't toll. The Titanic artefact exhibit in Toronto. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/f...

Alan Whicker was born OTD in 1921 “Sous la plage, les paves….” Alan Whicker kept calm, creased, dry, with a hint of melancholy as he bestrode very unEnglish landscapes being effortlessly English. He was, in a sense, replaced first by Michael Palin and then by …

Alan Whicker was born OTD in 1921 "Sous la plage, les paves...." conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/08/02/a...

Happy Birthday Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus Born today in 10 BCE.   I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by the stories told about this famously “unlikely” Roman Emperor. Claudius became a big star in the …

Happy Birthday Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/h...

Moses Supposes Erroneously. The Failed Promise, Reviewed. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2023/08/19/m...

a close up of a man in a suit and tie holding a gun . ALT: a close up of a man in a suit and tie holding a gun .

The United States of America does not have an Astronomer Royal. The equivalent position over there is the Astronomy Quarter Pounder.

Mill St Blues

Get your diction out. RIP Thomas Gray OTD 1771. In vain to me the smiling Mornings shine, And reddening Phœbus lifts his golden fire; The birds in vain their amorous descant join; Or cheerful fields resume their green attire; These ears, alas! f…

Get your diction out. RIP Thomas Gray OTD 1771. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/g...

Rochus Misch and the Death of Hitler. Rochus Misch was born OTD in 1917.  This is not an anniversary to celebrate especially, and Misch is not particularly worth commemorating.  He wasn’t a war criminal in the sense of making exe…

Rochus Misch and the Death of Hitler. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/r...

A jumped up Putney boy. Who doesn’t know his place. Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light reviewed. “I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”  Jerome K. Jerome. If nothing else, Mantel has succeed (over a great many pages) in making me interested in s…

A jumped up Putney boy. Who doesn't know his place. Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light reviewed. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/a...

Doing good or doing well? Loving Tom Lehrer at 97. Isn’t it a joy to try to pen a tribute which isn’t also an obituary?  Yes, Tom Lehrer is ninety seven years alive today.  I hope he lives another ninety seven years.  He doesn’t h…

A birthday tribute. Sadly now an obituary after all. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/04/09/d...

Nosferatu. 2024. Good be my Evil. I don’t think I’m getting less squeamish in my old age. But this didn’t really scare me all that much. Stylish it is. Gory it certainly is. But in terms of that subtle but pervasi…

conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/n...

It's bleaker than Straw Dogs.

Kingston Pen – a local attraction. So we visited yesterday morning. We weren’t visiting a person because Kingston Penitentiary was decommissioned 12 years ago and now offers tours. For many years it was the most famous prison …

Kingston Pen - a local attraction. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/07/26/k...

OTD in 1745, the first newspaper report of women’s cricket match was published. This isn’t the match. This is a much later match, played in 1779 involving the Countess of Derby and her friends. Anyhow, The Reading Mercury is the newspaper that can claim to have first rep…

OTD in 1745, the first newspaper report of women's cricket match was published. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/o...

Coleridge dies OTD in 1834. Hazlitt and Romantic failure. Hazlitt’s description of Coleridge in Spirit of the Age helps create a desperately sad little chapter. It’s the description of an aging man who has spread himself too thin. “There…

Coleridge dies OTD in 1834. Hazlitt and Romantic failure. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/c...

I'm in Canada, staying in a hotel that I think has had problems with rowdy hockey players in the past. Everywhere there are signs up forbidding "throwing ice down the corridors" and declaring "no stick fighting in the elevators".

Are Friends Electric? A Complete Unknown, belatedly reviewed. This movie, which I finally got to see on a plane yesterday, is not going to convert people to Bob Dylan. Nor will it lose any converts. If you already love these songs, you will really enjoy all o…

Are Friends Electric? A Complete Unknown, belatedly reviewed. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/a...