One of the highlights of my week is reading The Economist from cover to cover (normally starting with the Obituary at the wrong end). Several hours of sanity and good syntax. Come August and the Silly Season each year, I know I can take my foot off the pedal and glide through the depleted pages…
Greecing the wrong palms
Sneak, snitch, grass - those one syllable words do not convey an aura of approval. In school, where we imbibe the morality that plagues us for the rest of our lives, a telltale can expect a bigger punishment than the class-mate he is squealing on. The sheer number of synonyms (I have just used five)…
Trying to keep the relationship platonic
Following the recent news of Greece's continuing woes, and thinking about what to write, I soon realized that very little has changed since I penned the two Posts below in 2012. The country's new whacko Government has won a reprieve from a fatal dose of international hemlock by promising to come up with alternative measures…
Olympic spirit lost
My trip to New York cancelled last week courtesy of Superstorm Sandy, I decided to take advantage of the hour before anyone realized my calendar was empty to clear my desk. Forgetting the utterly ignored disposable cup of coffee nestling under a sheet of foolscap, I watched in helpless horror as it tipped drunkenly on its side and lazily cast forth its…
The Greecy pole
When it was suggested last week by a sympathetic BBC interviewer that the Italian government's decision not to fund Rome's bid for the 2020 Olympic Games had cost Italy the chance of taking its place on the world stage, the interviewee retorted sharply "Italy has been on the world stage for 2000 years". Meanwhile, the Greeks keep…
A Greek tragedy – the gods’ revenge
The scene: a windswept precipice at the very edge of Europe overlooking the Aegean Sea. A little man in a business suit stands nervously behind a robust middle-aged woman dressed in what appears, in the failing light, to be a teletubbies jumpsuit. Both are a safe distance from the cliff-face. She is evidently in charge. Two nondescript blacksuited men stand dangerously…
Tax Break 