The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 review an age of contradictions

 Posted on June 7, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1071 words  |  Christie Applegate

History booksReviewRichard J Evans’s sweeping history lays bare a century of freedom and oppression, progress and misruleA daughter of revolution born to a new world father and an old world mother, Flora Tristan had little power in early 19th-century France. Women’s rights remained limited, and as a teenager Flora was pressured into marrying a Montmartre artisan with whom she suffered a life of “endless torture”. But in 1825, Flora left her husband and exerted her independence: she travelled to Peru, wrote feminist pamphlets, and while visiting Britain sneaked into the House of Commons dressed as a Turkish man. [Read More]

Controversial country song Rich Men North of Richmond makes US chart history | Country

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  668 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

Country This article is more than 4 months oldControversial country song Rich Men North of Richmond makes US chart historyThis article is more than 4 months oldOliver Anthony becomes first artist to debut at top of Billboard Hot 100 despite having no prior chart history, with a song that has drawn backlash for its stereotypes of welfare recipients Oliver Anthony’s Rich Men North of Richmond, the out-of-nowhere country song that went viral earlier this month, has debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making him the first artist to do this with no prior chart history in any form. [Read More]

Jimi Hendrix's childhood home demolished | Jimi Hendrix

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  401 words  |  Delta Gatti

Jimi Hendrix This article is more than 14 years oldJimi Hendrix's childhood home demolishedThis article is more than 14 years oldDespite the efforts of Seattle real-estate developers, the house in which the guitar legend discovered music has been torn downWith its peeling paint and boarded-up windows, Seattle authorities declared the shack on 4th Street, Renton, an "eyesore" that had to be removed. But as the demolition crews rolled in earlier this week, rock'n'roll fans mourned the loss of what wasn't simply a stack of crumbling wood, but the childhood home of Jimi Hendrix. [Read More]

Lowlife with small brain and big mouth: Trump hits out at ex-aide Kelly | Donald Trump

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  645 words  |  Brenda Moya

Donald Trump This article is more than 3 months old‘Lowlife with small brain and big mouth’: Trump hits out at ex-aide KellyThis article is more than 3 months oldRemarks made days after former chief of staff confirmed reports about Trump’s derogatory attitude to members of US military Donald Trump called his former chief of staff John Kelly a “lowlife with a very small brain and a very big mouth” after the former marine general confirmed reports about the ex-president’s derogatory attitude to members of the US armed forces. [Read More]

Suella Bravermans small boats crackdown is performative cruelty at its worst | Enver Solomon

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  998 words  |  Christie Applegate

OpinionImmigration and asylum This article is more than 10 months oldSuella Braverman’s small boats crackdown is performative cruelty at its worstThis article is more than 10 months oldEnver SolomonUK government plans to remove ‘illegals’ will be chaotic, costly and cause untold human misery Here we go again. Just 20 months ago, the then home secretary stood up in parliament and declared new legislation that would crack down on Channel crossings. “Anyone who arrives illegally will be deemed inadmissible and either returned to the country they arrived from or a safe country” said Priti Patel. [Read More]

Verne Troyers tragic death underlines the harm Mini-Me caused people with dwarfism | Verne Troyer

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  881 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

Verne Troyer This article is more than 5 years oldVerne Troyer’s tragic death underlines the harm Mini-Me caused people with dwarfismThis article is more than 5 years oldEugene GrantThe role of the aggressive, biddable pet in the Austin Powers films did huge damage to the dwarfism community and our struggle for respect I have dwarfism. I was 13 when Verne Troyer hit our screens as Mini-Me in Austin Powers sequel The Spy Who Shagged Me. [Read More]

African Gothic review incest and madness in Afrikaaner horror story

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  474 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

TheatreReviewPark theatre, London Two siblings in an isolated farmhouse role-play traumatic episodes from their childhood in this flesh-creeping metaphor for colonial decline This play certainly delivers what it says on the tin. It’s an early work, dating from 1986, by the prolific South African playwright Reza de Wet, who died of leukaemia in 2012. While many of her plays offer subtle variations on Chekhov, this one is an all-too-predictable horror story about the inexorable decay of Afrikaaner culture. [Read More]

Dorothy M Richardson deserves the recognition she is finally receiving | Fiction

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  720 words  |  Delta Gatti

Books blogFictionDorothy M Richardson deserves the recognition she is finally receivingRichardson’s modernist masterpiece Pointed Roofs earned her a place alongside Woolf, Joyce and Proust. As a plaque is unveiled in her honour 100 years later, the celebrations seem long overdue A hundred years ago, Gerald Duckworth’s publishing company brought out a little book by an unknown writer about a student teacher in Germany. It was called Pointed Roofs, and its author was Dorothy M Richardson. [Read More]

How far would you go to save your cat? For me, it started with a contraband drug

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  11 minutes  |  2179 words  |  Brenda Moya

CatsFIP is typically a fatal illness for felines. There is a treatment – but it’s nearly impossible to obtain in the US I don’t need an alarm. Instead, I wake to the sound of a tiny body smashing into various pieces of furniture. Snoots is a hunter, a howler and the craziest cat I’ve ever known. He’s a dog chaser, a wall scaler, and not a moment goes by when he doesn’t have something to say. [Read More]

Readers recommend songs about hats: the results

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  650 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

Readers recommendMusicFrom a fez to beret, a pill-box hat to a baseball cap, these suggestions span time, style and cultureJack Kennedy may not have killed the hat, but he was certainly lingering at the scene of the crime. Headwear was no longer compulsory for men when Kennedy took to the podium to give his inaugural address as president in 1961. Watch the video of his speech, however, and as he instructs the audience to ask not what their country can do for them, but what they can do for their country, there are surely some blokes in the background thinking: " [Read More]