When you punch a hole in something, you've got a natural axis around which things can spin...like your life, and the bullet hole at its center.  So when you are putting your jetlagged self to bed at 10:30 PM, and trying not to remember that you have stayed up all night...in fact, past the night, it being 6:30 London time, your time, what is there to do but get a quick blast of the radio news?  Revealing that another bullet has punched a neurological hole in a woman whom voters just asked Read more [...]

When Tony Bennett complains that he's left his heart in San Francisco, I want to text him this message: how careless.  Get it together, Tony.  If you can't keep track of things, don't travel.  I say that quite vociferously, having had a similar experience early in my life, and in a city in which little cable cars most definitely do not climb halfway to any stars.  London.  Immense, shambling, vibrant and stupefying London.In late autumn, Jane and I tried to tell each other, Read more [...]

My computer bears the somewhat out of date label 'Intel inside,' a reference to the device's source of semiconductor inspiration - and this blog deserves something similar. 'Cold inside.' Also inspiring, in fact, urging along the writing process like nothing else. Yes, it is cold in Gloucestershire. It has been very cold, well below zero for several days last week. But now it is normal, about 5°C, which is cold, but no big deal. What has happened seems deeply rooted in the British national character. Read more [...]