In scenes that would not look out of place in the Natalie Portman Oscar winning film Black Swan, Miss Garritano, a ballerina at Milan’s famous La Scala opera house, described how dancers suffered from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, as they frantically tried to please teachers and opera chiefs with “the perfect body.”

Maybe not the right word, but one who prances around in the background rather than getting the starring role?

More Dangerous State than Courageous and quite probably with more accurate economics in it. It’s not about economics, of course, it’s a thriller. Not that having more “accurate economics” is going to be difficult. The Pogo strip managed that.

I therefore need a copy of this book but it seems to be out of print. Second hand copies are £50. Which seems a tad over the top. And I’m not convinced about the publisher’s “print on demand” promises: I’ve been waiting for two weeks for an answer to an inquiry email.

Does anyone have a copy that they can post to me? I’ll send it back after I’ve read it and taken notes.

Update: This particular problem is now solved. Ta v. much to all.

as part of an otherwise entirely credible series by respected left figures such as Richard Seymour, Nina Power and Laurie Penny.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky’s Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called Meals To Die For.

Men, by and large, leave this subject alone. Somewhere it’s a given that men don’t have anything too reflective to say about sex, or they feel silenced by feminists. Where is the male Suzanne Portnoy, the male Melissa P? What men will write honestly about their highs and lows, their triumphs, their sexual sorrows? What man is brave enough to express himself freely about his desires? Few. My guess is that male sexuality has been so heavily associated with violence that men suffer an even stronger taboo than woman. Best keep quiet.

Umm, might I suggest Philip Roth?

You know, Portnoy’s Complaint?

and conclude that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’. Yes, Mr. tendentious English major without an understanding of standard errors, it is.

OK, prance, preen etc.

So I know that Naughton reads The Register and that he’s even known to read (some) of what I write there.

So I see his column today. And it covers the very subject I covered for The Register recently.

Yes, his piece is very different. And I certainly don’t complain for I picked up the point from a Reuters investigation anyway (which could also be his source of course).

It’s just that what amuses is that the point being made is about how the Kindle is being overwhelmed with people offering either derivative or even directly copied pieces……

Explanation here and download here.

Some of the Moorish/Iberian techniques and combinations, if not the actual recipes, look familiar from the modern day Algarve.

For those seriously into cooking could be fun to try out a dish or two.

But on the whole, because a barrister’s performance in court is so open to scrutiny and objective judgement, the good, male or female, will succeed.

So, err, none then.

Or at least none specific to women.

So what’s the point of the whole article other than to plug Ms. Jacob’s novel?

One wonders which executive, editor, at the paper she is the mistress/friend of?

Look, for example, at this propaganda from Sesame Street:

Music is there to be enjoyed by those of all races and ages. Such subversion of all that is good and holy, eh?

The radio show was better than the TV one and possibly better than the novels. As for the movie…..yurk.

There are books on our shelves we haven’t read and doubtless never will, that each of us has probably put to one side in the belief that we will read them later on, perhaps even in another life. The terrible grief of the dying as they realise their last hour is upon them and they still haven’t read Proust.

Jean-Claude Carrière

Which figures it is depends on the country: Twain* never said many of the things that Americans attribute to him and even if he did, some of those were repetitions of points made by others.For us in the UK it seems to be Churchill.

It could have been either of them who originated the “two certain things in life, death and taxes” and it could have been one of myriads of other people**. I really don’t know: but I would bet that a likely attribution in the US would be Twain, in the UK, Churchill. Similarly, I’ve seen Disraeli’s*** “lies, damned lies and statistics” attributed to both.

Which brings us to this:

In the words of the famous political theorist, JCR Clarkson

“Socialism is such a crap system, it took a nation populated by Germans… and made it poor“

He may have said it but the original is actually PJ O’Rourke. Who himself, I’m told, is actually the most quoted person in the modern dictionary of quotations. It is always acceptable to quote the Peej, on the basis that if you’re going to nick jokes make sure you nick good ones.

But one should actually quote him….

* Twain obviously did say some very good things original to him. But more gets attributed than he actually said.

** Oscar Wilde is a very different case as he made a point of repeating others’ quips.

*** Was it Dizzy?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-West/214360245248176?sk=wall

Now for the favour: once a “fan” page gets at least 25 likes, you get certain extras from Facebook, such as a custom name. If you have a Facebook account, I’d like to ask you to click on the above link, and then click the “Like” button next to my name. This will help get me over the 25 threshold. Nothing else will happen to your account.

22 Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

A defining moment in Jewish American literature now most famous for a masturbation scene featuring a piece of liver. Disappointingly, this is not as interesting as it sounds.

Many of Worstall’s conclusions are contrary to the conventional wisdom, but Worstall arrives at them by starting with the positions presented by major environmentalists.

He then pares away the demonstrably wrong. Next, he starts with the solutions postulated by environmentalists and filters them through a rigorous economic analysis. The results often are startling and frequently hilarious.

Worstall is not opposed to environmentalism. He wants a cleaner planet. He even makes a large chunk of income from recycling metals.

But Worstall is unwilling to undertake human sacrifice for Gaia, especially when he shows that market solutions offer the same environmental benefits without unnecessary discomfort.

…..

Worstall is that most annoying of heretics, one that uses orthodox dogma to demonstrate the ridiculousness of accepted doctrine.

Given that that was what I was actually trying to do I like this review.