tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67743882024-03-14T01:21:40.434+01:00Chase me, ladies, I'm in the cavalry``What price ellipsoidal balls! chase me, ladies, I'm in the cavalry!'' (James Joyce) Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.comBlogger1205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-72919912763123963872018-05-06T19:36:00.001+01:002018-05-06T19:56:52.148+01:00P.G. Wodehouse, 1957<div class="p1">
"Humourists have been scared out of the business by the touchiness now prevailing in every section of the community. Wherever you look, on every shoulder there is a chip, in every eye a cold glitter warning you, if you know what's good for you, not to start anything. </div>
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"Never," said one of the columnists the other day, "have I heard such complaining as I have heard this las year. My last month's mail has continued outraged yelps on pieces I have written concerning dogs, diets, ulcers, cats and kings. I wrote a piece laughing at the modern tendency of singers to cry, and you would have thought I had assaulted womanhood."</div>
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A few days before the heavyweight championship between Rocky Marciano and Roland La Starza, an Australian journalist who interviewed the latter was greatly struck by his replies to questions.</div>
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"Roland," he wrote, "is a very intelligent young man. He has brains. Though it may be," he added, "that I merely think he has because I have been taking so much of late to tennis players. Tennis players are just one cut mental above the wallaby."</div>
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I have never met a wallaby, so cannot say from personal experience how abundantly - or poorly - equipped such animals are with the little grey cells, but of one thing I am sure and that is that letters poured in on the writer from Friends of The Wallaby, The International League for Promoting Fair Play for Wallabies and so on, protesting hotly against the injustice of classing them lower in the intellectual scale than tennis players. Pointing out, no doubt, that, while the average run-of-the-mill wallaby is perhaps not an Einstein, it would never dream of bounding about the place shouting "forty love" and similar ill-balanced observations. </div>
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So there we are, and if you ask me what is to be done about it, I have no solution to suggest. In fact, it is what the French would call an impasse. Only they say amh-parrse. Silly, of course, but you know what Frenchmen are. (And now to await the flood of strongly protesting letters from Faure, Pinay, Maurice Chevalier, Mendes-France, Oo-La-La and Indignant Parisienne.)</div>
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They say it is possible even today to be funny about porcupines and remain unscathed, but I very much doubt it. Just try it and see how quickly you find your letter-box full of communications beginning: </div>
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Sir, </div>
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With reference to your recent tasteless and uncalled-for comments on the porcupine…"</div>
Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-70711495669950470202017-07-30T17:01:00.002+01:002017-07-30T17:03:51.837+01:00Advanced Irony Studies <div class="p1">
<b>Chapter 7: </b><b>The double-bluff irony impasse </b></div>
This arises when person A makes an ironic comment, to which person B replies mock-seriously in the same vein. Then person A, fearing a misunderstanding, says, no, I was joking, and person B says yes, I know, so was I. And an embarrassed silence endures for a few moments.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-59724325688907729922016-11-19T20:31:00.000+01:002016-12-23T14:13:07.647+01:00<div class="p1">
In the U.S. election of 1796, the President of the U.S. Philosophical Society (Jefferson) ran against the founder of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Adams). The most popular musician around that time was Ludwig Van. </div>
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Looking back from the age of Trump, Clinton and Bieber, it's clear that things have gone to shit to an extent that hasn't been seen since Rome fell. I don't want to labour the point, but if standards continue to decline at this rate for another couple of centuries, the President of the United States would be literally a chimp, and music would be more hideous than any yowling yet produced by man or beast.</div>
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Obviously, life won't get <i>that</i> bad. I'm not saying that things will stop getting worse, but pace of decline has to slow.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-90166715395184258432016-06-06T18:49:00.002+01:002016-06-06T18:50:44.266+01:00The World Needs Donald Trump<div class="p1">
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<li>Hillary Clinton: "He should not have the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1142955378"></span>nuclear codes<span id="goog_1142955379"></span></a> because it’s very easy to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because someone got under his very thin skin.''</li>
<li>Noam Chomsky on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/20/noam-chomsky-on-donald-trump-almost-a-death-knell-for-the-human-species" target="_blank">Trump</a>: "Almost a death knell for the human species."</li>
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Both Clinton and Chomsky take it as read that the election of Trump and subsequent annihilation of the human race would be a sub-optimal outcome. Neither bothers to explain why this is the case; they just assume their audiences share their prejudices. No doubt Clinton's strategists have calculated that human extinction doesn't poll well in swing states. </div>
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Yet for a polar bear or a sea cucumber, fewer humans might be just what the doctor ordered. Two hundred years from now the planet will probably be in pretty good shape, if Trump delivers on his pledge to wipe out our odious rat-like species. That's another thing I don't like about Clinton- she's so <i>homo-centric</i>. Just because <i>she</i> isn't a sea cucumber, she acts as though no one is. </div>
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The latest polls show that only 0.2% of Americans would welcome a nuclear confrontation with China. But 0.2% is equivalent to the population of El Paso, Texas. What gives Clinton the right to single out El Paso in this way? I can't tell you how angry this makes me. </div>
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I think Trump's policies make a lot of sense, but I'm completely high right now. </div>
Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-48835454919969255032016-04-06T03:58:00.000+01:002016-04-06T03:58:46.593+01:00Blessed are the Tax Evaders <div class="p1">
In the debate about the Panama Papers everyone seems to hold it as self-evident that the British government is a good cause, and that declining to pay it taxes is equivalent to stealing from the poor box. </div>
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Far from being a good cause, entire government departments in Britain are working for the triumph of evil, or behave as if they were. Depriving them of revenue is one of the few constraints on their capacity for malevolence, along with a free press, independent juries and some other things that I don't remember right now. </div>
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Their ID cards scheme, for example, was shelved for lack of money. If it weren't for heroes like Jimmy Carr and the Starbucks Corporation, we would by now be queuing up to be fingerprinted and have tracking chips implanted in our foreheads. </div>
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Blair took us to war in Iraq, Afghanistan and some other places that I don't remember right now. No doubt he would have liked to start some sh*t in other lands, but he couldn't because we were broke. If it weren't for heroes like News Corp and the Arctic Monkeys, we would probably now be at war with Chechnya, or some bloody place. </div>
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Paying taxes to the British government is no better than buying South African grapefruit during the apartheid regime. Whenever I say that, it starts a row, but the truth is the truth. </div>
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Not long ago, Google executives were hauled before a select committee to justify why they don't pay much tax in Britain. Our dim, resentful MPs took it as read that Google had behaved in a way of which it should be ashamed. But what is so special about Britain that anyone should donate it money if they don't have to? </div>
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Google has a duty to maximise returns to its shareholders. One of its biggest shareholders is Norway's state pension fund. Why is it better that Osborne should get his paws on this money rather than its rightful owners, the Norwegian pensioners? This is wealth created by other people's brains and energy, owned by Scandinavian codgers, and they feel entitled to wet their beaks. It is simply monstrous. </div>
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I do my bit to keep money out of their clutches, in my own small way. For example, whenever I return to Britain from abroad I always bring back cigarettes to sell. I like to think that, over the years, I have saved the lives of half a dozen Arabs by doing this (and earned myself literally tens of pounds!) </div>
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But as well as biffing the residents of hot, dusty places, does Her Majesty's Government not provide us with schools and hospitals? It does, up to a point, but you could say as much for Hezbollah and Kim Jong-un. And that have plenty of money to pay for these things already, if they had the slightest notion of how to go about it. </div>
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Perhaps if we gave them half of our GDP, rather than a piffling 40%, we could have functioning trains, and school children who can speak French? You can believe that if you like, but it doesn't seem awfully plausible to me. </div>
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You could make a case for the rich paying more tax so that the poor pay less, but there's zero chance of that happening. It is more likely that a rich man shall pass through the eye of a camel with a millstone hanged about his neck, as it says in the Bible. Any extra money they wring from the wealthy will just vanish into the Treasury's bottomless pit, never to be heard from again. The poor won't have their taxes cut in our lifetimes under any realistic scenario. </div>
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So I looked into the idea of paying taxes, and decided it was not for me. </div>
Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-43099763575046804442015-06-15T21:49:00.000+01:002020-02-23T16:25:57.104+01:00<div class="p1">
Disappointed to see the Mail on Sunday's Peter Hitchens stealing peanuts in the British Airways lounge yesterday. When his flight to Tenerife was called he looked around furtively and crammed about eight packets into his underpants. </div>
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"Give over, ah wor fair starving," the oaf roared, in his broad Yorkshire accent, when I remonstrated with him. </div>
Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-45765382314957327592015-01-02T00:32:00.000+01:002015-01-02T00:32:17.331+01:00Colombia's most feared terrorist, alias El Paisa, drinks Bailey's Irish Cream according to <a href="http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/alias-el-paisa-sus-confidencias/399625-3" target="_blank">this</a> report. I went right off him when I read that. What a gigantic wooftah.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-50582806365471210872014-06-23T16:54:00.000+01:002015-01-02T00:34:28.729+01:00Where wealth accumulates...<div class="p1">
In <i>Capital in the Twenty-First Century</i>, French economist Thomas Piketty documents how wealth is becoming concentrated in ever fewer hands. </div>
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This might not be a problem were it not that capital is increasingly owned by <i>shitheads</i>. No doubt Piketty's capital/income ratio was on the high side in Tsarist Russia and medieval Florence, and they invented Tolstoy and the renaissance. </div>
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But look at <a href="http://richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">these</a> shitheads. What will they invent? </div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Yeah, I know I don't deserve it, but<br />I'm damned if I'll give it back.</span>"</i><br />
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Are such people going to emulate Lorenzo the Magnificent and sponsor artists and scholars? Or is it more likely that they will order up fine wines and pour them over their bell-ends, howling with mirth while the planet goes to hell? Piketty fails to address this question.<br />
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It simply isn't sustainable that so many of the world's resources are controlled by people with the cultural level of baboons. As Zola* put it:<br />
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<i>"On the morning when they felt their strength, millions of workers would be face to face with a few thousand idlers…. Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing towards the harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the earth."</i><br />
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*<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Italian footballer. Managed West Ham.</span><br />
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Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-57881208341360711342014-03-15T22:50:00.000+01:002014-03-15T23:21:18.680+01:00Kingsley Amis on Tony Benn <div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1394921609574_13" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-top: 0.1em; padding: 0px;">
It is no part of my business to discuss what gets politicians into office <span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1394921609574_2740" style="font-size: 10pt;">or debars them from it, but in the case of two noteworthy contenders of our time, J. Enoch Powell and Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the reason for their failure to reach the top is surely obvious. They both look barmy. I understand this as an elastic term which would include Benn's appearance of general dislocation as well as Powell's of more specific derangement... </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">Benn I have run into only once, early in his career, when by a misunderstanding he arrived on my doorstep expected but not heralded by any name. The door was one of the those with a glass panel affording </span><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1394894933721_8167" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">a preview of the caller. At the first sign of the present arrival the thought flashed into my mind, "Who is this English cunt?" The distinguishing adjective is important. There are Scottish cunts, there are even Welsh cunts, and God knows there are American cunts, but the one in question could have come from nowhere else but this green and pleasant land.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1394921609574_56" style="font-size: 10pt;">Other guests arrived at the same time and my silent question went unanswered for the moment. I offered drinks. Someone asked for a gin and tonic. I turned to the cunt. "Same for you?" He reacted much as if I had said, "Glass of baby's blood?"...</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1394921609574_49" style="font-size: 10pt;">Benn at any rate gives an impression of physical harmlessness: he would never, you feel, for for your throat. Not so Enoch Powell. </span></div>
<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1394894933721_8167" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br />(Kingsley Amis, Memoirs)</span>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-85713645500714492002013-08-28T20:38:00.000+01:002013-08-28T20:41:43.458+01:00Letter of Complaint to the Home Office <div class="yiv1417435352p1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377550678424_2492" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
Sir, </div>
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I watched the BBC's program "Luther", a fly-on-the wall documentary about the Serious Crime Unit in London. Your detectives are a fine body of men, working hard to keep the public safe from satanists, diamond thieves and nutters armed with hammers. I salute them. </div>
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But what hideous neckties they all wear! Talk about a serious crime! I had to stop watching. And what's the point of even <i>wearing</i> a tie if you're going to subvert the whole idea by leaving the knot half-way down your front, like a teenage oik t<span class="yiv1417435352s1">rudging unwillingly to school?</span> </div>
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Is it any wonder that the streets of London are full of glue sniffers, if this is the example the police set? </div>
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I've voted Conservative all my life, but this is the final straw. </div>
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Yours faithfully, </div>
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Maynard Dingethorpe </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3MOY9xWitE/Uh5RMxICpSI/AAAAAAAAASE/oga583loyio/s1600/Luther.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c3MOY9xWitE/Uh5RMxICpSI/AAAAAAAAASE/oga583loyio/s400/Luther.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
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Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-28229526782228472142013-04-15T01:34:00.000+01:002013-04-15T01:34:41.197+01:00Daily Mail Comments That Work as Poetry<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307753/Margaret-Thatcher-dead-Arthur-Scargills-satisfaction-seeing-bitter-enemy.html#ixzz2QUEMspJh" target="_blank">ARTHUR SCARGILL</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">I saw him once <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">On a train <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">In second class<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">Extremely miserable<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">And made no eye contact <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">He got off <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com60tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-64531390955193151322012-12-26T07:41:00.002+01:002012-12-26T08:03:27.386+01:00<br />
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Fiscal cliffs. North Korean missiles. And now <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/24/paul-daniels-questions-savile-accusers?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">they</a> want me to worry about who TV magician
Paul Daniels knobbed, or didn't knob, in the 1970s?<br />
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Let he who has never kicked a teenage hitchhiker out of a car, then sped away with the lights off, cast the first stone.<br />
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I learn from <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4712279/paul-daniels-schoolgirl-clinch.html" target="_blank">The Sun</a> that Daniels used to be "plagued" by groupies. Just when I think I'm finally starting to understand women, I read something like that, and it's back to the drawing board.<br />
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Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-89772217785073380472012-11-21T05:20:00.000+01:002012-11-21T05:27:37.098+01:00WHILE ENGLAND SLEPT......the China Men were developing the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084033/The-leaning-tower--Pizza-Huts-salad-bar-Diner-devises-3ft-pile-round-rules-local-restaurant.html?ITO=1490">Salad Tower</a>. <br />
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I wouldn't want to meet one of those on a dark night.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-4229038875592052512012-04-29T05:42:00.011+01:002012-05-04T02:49:38.917+01:00LETTER OF COMPLAINT TO HUGH HEFNER<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Dear Mr Hefner,<br />After a long day in my truck there are few things I dig more than to unwind with your wonderful magazine. Unfortunately, these days one is obliged to wade through a large amount of extraneous material to get at the hot coeds and the amateur babes:<br /><br /></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">KRUGMAN: The recession officially ended in June 2009 because that was the point when some things—industrial production, GDP, but not employment—started to go up again. But I say we’re still in a depression. I’ve taken to calling what we’re in the Lesser Depression. It’s not as bad as the Great Depression, but it’s like the Great Depression. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Try as I might, I just can’t fap to this. Who IS this person, and whose idea was it to put him in the magazine? Does the Journal of Economic Thought publish interviews with Carmen Electra?<br /><br />Please don't lose sight of your core business. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">PLAYBOY REPLIES: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">We are forwarding your comments to the appropriate department for handling.<br /><br />If you should need further assistance, please be sure to include all previous e-mail correspondence.<br /><br />Thank you for subscribing to Playboy Magazine.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Bobbiejo</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">------</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">We have again forwarded your comments on to the appropriate dept for handling. Please keep in mind that they receive several inquiries and they will handle as they feel is appropriate.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.</span></span></p><p id="yui_3_2_0_1_1335674721227134" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">If you should need further assistance, please be sure to include all previous e-mail correspondence.<br /><br />Thank you for subscribing to Playboy Magazine.<br /><br />Sincerely,</span></span></p><p id="yui_3_2_0_1_1335674721227137" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br />Kris</span></span></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">----</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(69, 69, 69); "><p class="yiv983339153MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Hi Mr. Hutton,</span></span></span></p><p class="yiv983339153MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Thank you for your note. We are always interested in feed-back. Please send your future opinions to the email below.</span></span></span></p><p class="yiv983339153MsoNormal" id="yui_3_2_0_1_1335674433646162" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="yiv983339153MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><a rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: underline; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">letters@playboy.com</span></span></span></a></p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-63821293871806250272012-04-05T03:44:00.001+01:002012-04-05T03:44:42.309+01:00<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Does anyone know how to export the comments from Echo to Blogger? It's a pain in the dong. </span>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-1638629498866441042012-03-11T03:47:00.002+01:002012-03-11T03:56:30.017+01:00Yet another Brahms concert degenerates into a <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/11183105-417/orchestra-brawl-fistfight-in-elite-seats-stuns-symphony-patrons.html">snarling punch up</a>.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-19195977254455946632012-02-21T00:57:00.000+01:002012-02-21T00:58:10.342+01:00Bought a new Zippo lighter today. I don’t smoke, but it’s handy for setting fire to fields of sugar cane to flush out enemy snipers. <br /><br />Brush up on your counterinsurgency skills.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-11642326123013525642011-11-29T13:18:00.002+01:002011-11-29T13:23:36.294+01:00A <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/11/norwegian-mass-murder-anders-breivik/45479/">psychiatric report</a> has ruled that Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in a killing spree, is unfit to stand trial. It turns out he's a nutter.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-83646837673467764372011-11-25T20:08:00.004+01:002011-11-25T20:16:14.720+01:00Twenty injured in act of 'competitive shopping'<span style="font-style:italic;">A woman who <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/pepper-spray-wal-mart-competitive-shopping.html">pepper-sprayed</a> other shoppers at the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch had armed herself with the caustic spray to gain an advantage in the fight for merchandise at the Black Friday sale.</span><br /><br />Excellent. A higher marginal propensity to consume among retarded Americans is precisely what is needed to get us out of this slump. I see this as a strong buy signal for stocks.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-49857027004060348782011-11-15T17:29:00.004+01:002011-11-15T17:37:44.909+01:00I just read Morgue for Whores, <a href="http://alicublog.blogspot.com/">Roy Edroso</a>'s first novel. <br /><br />I don't know if you can imagine a plot by Martin Amis, with dialogue by Guy Ritchie, about a crime-fighting dog. Well, it's nothing like that, mercifully. In many ways, it's the <span style="font-style:italic;">opposite</span> of that. <br /><br />You can buy it <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/89726">here</a>. Three thumbs up. Recommended. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ve9RTjFGj34/TsKVBgc8CkI/AAAAAAAAAQw/yjpTwd6Zqsc/s1600/Morgue.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 175px; height: 280px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ve9RTjFGj34/TsKVBgc8CkI/AAAAAAAAAQw/yjpTwd6Zqsc/s400/Morgue.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675262333563963970" /></a>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-13488292524885416442011-11-10T01:05:00.011+01:002011-11-10T02:44:56.158+01:00THE SAFEST INVESTMENTThe only really safe investment is wine, at times like these. If it goes up, you make a profit; and if it goes down you can drink it. Whereas when your shares or your nickel futures crash, that's that. The money has somehow vanished out of existence, as though you had you set fire to a pile of £50 notes. <br /><br />Just this afternoon, while the bond markets were panicking, I invested in a case of Tesco Lambrusco Rosé Light (was £5 a bottle, now £2.35) and some Peruvian chardonnays (maison fondée en 1998; 39 Clubcard points.) These vintages could easily have doubled in value by the time I retire in 2035. <br /><br />The key to understanding the Eurozone crisis is this: the ECB aren't incompetent; they are sadists. Until you've grasped that, none of it makes any sense. They <span style="font-style:italic;">want</span> people to starve to death. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Links:</span> <br />-<a href="http://www.wineinvestment.org/">Fine wine investments</a><br />-<a href="http://www.tesco.com/wine/zone/default.aspx?name=specialoffers">Tesco special offers</a>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-18812713008869271812011-11-03T02:18:00.004+01:002011-11-03T02:29:11.791+01:00England, 2011The Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Mayor of London were all in the Bullingdon Club, we're occupying Kabul, our parliament still has bishops in it, and now we’re <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/uk-military-iran-attack-nuclear">preparing for war</a> with the Persians. <br /><br />On the other hand, it looks as though the ban on monarchs marrying papists may soon be lifted.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-83798530695518745802011-10-31T00:48:00.008+01:002011-10-31T02:09:36.240+01:00The heart always sinks when South Americans say they are preparing the traditional dish of some province. You know you're in for beans again, perhaps with offal and fried snout of pig. <br /><br />If you're lucky, you might also get some foul root which, because it tastes worse than hyena anus, they think is an aphrodisiac.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-36739098762709852462011-10-11T01:40:00.000+01:002011-10-11T01:41:26.229+01:00Them bankers, at Goldman Sachs and that, they should pay them bankers the same wages our boys get in Afghanistan. <br /><br />Stay tuned. More opinions later.Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6774388.post-59262050645210101912011-10-09T22:45:00.004+01:002011-10-09T22:55:15.701+01:00William Perez, Colombian politician / mobster, was released from jail <a href="http://www.semana.com/nacion/pelea-casanare/165094-3.aspx">54 times</a> for dental work. <br /><br />That’s a lot of dental work. He must look like Liberace by now. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gzwqi0EOtwo/TpIWwJUsnOI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/iXKCfqFLtdA/s1600/1315363826_willian-perez.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gzwqi0EOtwo/TpIWwJUsnOI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/iXKCfqFLtdA/s400/1315363826_willian-perez.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661612697950395618" /></a>Harry Huttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03784066423714221289noreply@blogger.com1