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  • Published on

    I can feel the future trembling: RIP Richie Havens

    Reviews
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    Last week the TV news channels like BBC and CNN droned on for hours about the death of Margaret Thatcher, but this week they gave a single minute to the passing of Richie Havens—a gifted singer and songwriter who helped to forge the consciousness of the hippie generation. Since there are unlikely to be any eulogies of Richie on TV, I feel duty bound to rattle on for ten minutes about this heroic person.
  • Published on

    Google kills Frommer's kills me

    Publishing Writing

    The life of a guidebook writer can be full of surprises, such as world-famous clients suddenly disappearing overnight.

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    I was just about to go out for a Friday evening meal with a few friends, to enjoy a few beers and some witty conversation, then thought that before I left home I should check my email to keep my inbox clear for the weekend.

    Big mistake.
  • Published on

    Can you trust tripadvisor?

    Reviews
    Can you trust
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    ?
    When Stephen Kaufer was planning a holiday in Mexico about a decade ago, he couldn’t decide which hotel to book, and a thought occurred to him that might have occurred to any holiday-maker: “Wouldn’t it be neat if there was a website where anybody could review any hotel or restaurant and share it with the world?” Wish you’d got in there first? Kaufer’s tripadvisor.com is now the world’s most popular travel website by a country mile with around 60 million visitors a month and growing. But is it really the answer to everyone’s travel-related prayers?
  • Published on

    Welcome to twenty thirteen!

    Reviews
    It's official. By a landslide (well, 3-0), visitors to this website have voted for the shorter version of how to say this year, so the vote is now closed, and I hope you'll all go around calling this year 'twenty thirteen' rather than 'two thousand (and) thirteen'.

    To be truthful, I'm relieved about this, as it seems pretty obvious to me, but I still hear people calling it 'two thousand and thirteen' every day, particularly news announcers on the BBC and CNN, who I would think should know better. After all, we didn't run around at the end of the last millennium talking about 'one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine', did we? And can you imagine us texting each other at the end of this millennium, saying 'OK. C u at 4pm on 4 March two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine'? No way, we'll need shorter ways to communicate by then...if indeed humans are communicating at all.

    So thanks for your participation - all three of you - and enjoy all the wonders that twenty thirteen has in store!
  • Published on

    So what year is this?

    Reviews
    Don't get me wrong - I'm not that hungover that I still don't know which year we're in, but I'm having a problem with how to say it, so please help me out here and let me know how you say the name of this year.
    When I hear people say 2013, they seem to be split about 50-50 between these two ways, so let's see what you think is correct.
  • Published on

    I wanna go like Mo

    Personal
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    On the afternoon of 1st January this year I got one of those emails you hope you’ll never get, with the succinct title ‘sad news’. I took a deep breath and opened it. It was from Lisa, the partner of Mo, a friend of mine, saying that they’d been partying like everyone else on New Year’s Eve, and when they got home, Mo sat down in the kitchen and asked for a drink of water. As Lisa turned to the fridge, Mo’s heart gave out and he keeled over. Gone. Departed.