Bored of the same old blogs? A couple of suggestions for those interested in news and thoughts on the more depressing parts of the world. Firstly, The Stupidest Man on Earth - subtitle "on war and stuff". It's written by Jari, a very well travelled Finnish journalist, a real old school hack (and I mean that in the nice sense); he probably even has one of those khaki vest with about a hundred little pockets on them used by genuine foreign correspondents for some secret purpose not revealed to the general public.
Next is the [My]State Failure Blog, I found this by following a link from The Stupidest Man on earth, only to realise that I met the guy who writes it, Péter, at the conference I was at in Stockholm last week. Small world eh? Péter was, unsurprisingly, giving a paper on state failure. It is more theoretical than Jari's blog, so will appeal to the IR and political science types out there, but still written in an approachable way if you are in to that sort of thing.
But I'm sure you're not bored with this blog of course... and just to tease you, I'm debating whether to include in the weekly climbing post a picture from last weekend of a man doing a climb whilst wearing a pink tutu, fishnet stockings and fairy wings on his helmet. But I'm sure the serious-minded readers of this blog wouldn't be interested in something so silly?
I don't get a heck (sorry) from your latest discussion about political systems, holding breath, devastation, and crappy (sorry) books because I need to look up almost each word in a dictionary (what makes any reading boring), so I'd love to see something silly, anything...
ReplyDeletePlease =)
Ok then - just for you my dear, men in tutus it is! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your climbing posts I don't read about climbing the hardest lines or the ascending the most dangerous routes. But I do read about a purity of style, I read words like onsight, clean and traditional. I read about ethics and a serious sport, please don't cheapen this with anything as silly as a man in a tutu.
ReplyDeleteAn anonymous but regular reader
Here, here. I agree with the last comment. You talk about the beauty of the line, aesthetics run through blog posts. Where could the aesthetics be in a man in a tutu?
ReplyDeleteTerry
Yes I don't want to see anything so stupid.
ReplyDeleteJane
How could someone who takes pictures of autumn leaves, then post something so silly?
ReplyDeleteFrancis
If you stoop this low, we'll start to hear about pulling on gear, hanging on the rope and where will that lead?
ReplyDeleteGert
You Englishmen is very funny. Pink tutu is very funny. We have exactly same humour. We love Benny Hill.
ReplyDeleteYou have serious readers on this site?
ReplyDeleteAs for the hundred secret pockets, I'm sorry to report that they're mostly filled with pencil nubs and wet wipe packets. An old school foreign correspondent was in line ahead of me when the US Secret Service turned everyone's pockets inside out before setting up interviews for Zhu Rongji some years back, and I got to see the sad exposure of said mythic item up close.
A classic moment came when a photog from the local station had to unload everything on to a table, which included every bit of survivalist gear you can imagine from his hip pouch (leatherman, flashlight, compass, the works). He tried apologizing for taking so long to de-gear by saying, "You want to be ready for anything, right?", which made one of the genuinely ready for anything Secret Service detail snarf his water.
Once upon a time there lived people with sense of humour. The END =)
ReplyDeleteNevertheless 2 vs 5 =)
you have 10 comments? Is this a record?? Fairies in tutus, fishnets and harness - see it every day if you work in London meeja mate. Go on, cheapen yourself - it's surprisingly easy to get over.
ReplyDeleteChilled out thoughts from the top of Europe, a man in a tutu would make me hot under the collar. I vote no!
ReplyDeleteOn a politically orientated blog
ReplyDeleteDesmond Tutu - yes
pink tutu - no
get a grip man!
Simon
I wonder if a trained specialist might be able to detect certain similarities in syntax, style, correctness of spelling etc. in all these sudden burst of anonymous posts?
ReplyDeleteI feel if we were on C.S.I. Gil Grisham would read through them, arch an eyebrow and say "my conclusion from the forensics is that all of these messages were most likely written by an Englishman, in his early 30s, well educated and with penchant for wearing ballerinas' garb..."
I did like the Desmond Tutu line though! :-)
You shouldn't take your climbing so seriously that you couln't accomodate a tutu-wearing extravaganza. Go for it!!!
ReplyDeleteF (a regular reader)
It's the fairy wings I'm looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteJames