1209 days ago
I got a bit of grief about an article I wrote about the village in which I live on the basis that it covered what I felt had happened to me and what would happen to me here. But surely that is what writing is all about? If it is to be genuine and from the heart it is about what you actually experience. This brings me to Arwa Mahdawi writing the the Guardian about what a ghastly and hostile place Britain has become over the past year since Brexit. She is utterly entitled to that opinion though it is not one that, for instance, my wife, like Arwa, a British born person of colour (and fellow deluded lefty) would recognise. But there is something which differentiates the Mrs from Arwa…my wife actually lives here. Arwa lives in New York and admits to having not been back in old Blighty for more than a year.
1408 days ago
In the period January 1 to June 4, there were around 160 million interactions between US cops and US citizens. That resulted in 429 citizens being shot by the Police of whom 88 were black. Blacks were over-represented in this category but they are also disproportionately represented both in terms of victims of violent crime but also perps. This is not exactly genocide as some in BlackLivesMatter claim. Yet some in the media do not view it this way. Meet Holly Baxter of a failing British Deadwood Press turned, as a result of crashing sales, internet-only rag The Independent.
3044 days ago
Almost thirty years ago, when I lived with the folks who are now godparents to my daughter in Prospect Heights Brooklyn, they went away for a weekend leaving me in charge of the dogs and cat. One of the dogs crapped in the house and in clearing up the mess I contrived to block the downstairs loo. Red faced, I confessed on their return.
There was well concealed displeasure but clearly they viewed me as daft. I am staying with the same folks, now in Crown Heights Brooklyn, and tonight they went out to a play leaving me in charge of my daughter and a cat called Parker who has certain lavatorial issues.
I am sure you can guess what happened next. Yup,
3293 days ago
Tom’s Diner is trending on twitter as Britney has a new version of the Suzanne Vega classic out and I must admit to rather liking it. The original is about a diner in Manhattan where Miss Vega used to have breakfast before heading off to work as a receptionist. But for me Tom’s is a diner called Tom's Restaurant which was a Saturday fixture where I lived in Brooklyn, in Prospect Heights.
It is an old family run gaffe, managed by a Greek American family since 1936, as much coffee as you want and all sorts of pancakes on a cold autumn morning. Those are my memories of Tom’s. It used to be a Saturday treat back in the mid-eighties when I lived there.
These days the brownstones in Prospect Heights change hands for $1.5-2 million and it is a neighbourhood where the old families, the Afro-Americans, the liberal old guard are moving out to be replaced by smart young couples from Wall Street. Back in 1985-6 it was a bit different.
The folks I lived with had a dog. He was a harmless beast but
