Just reminded me of this gem in a recent LRB re Yitzhak Shamir: “When Shamir met the UN official Brian Urquhart for the first time [as foreign minister], he greeted him warmly. ‘I am so happy to meet… (View Post)

Although I think this is probably a function of interesting behaviour on the part of the universities rather than the SLC. The latest Private Eye had an article about certain unis playing fast and lo… (View Post)

For years I thought 99 Red Balloons (or luftballons) was a song about Able Archer - both out in around the same time and the song deals with a nuclear war sparked by a misunderstanding etc. But that … (View Post)

Fair enough - I misunderstood, sorry. As I recall it during the Ukraine related spike the opposition gave the Conservative government flack for not doing enough (and they ended up with a very expensi… (View Post)

Beat me to it. Who would have thought it would be tough to talk to the leaders of Iran when you’ve killed one, most of their family and many of the other plausible candidates. 4D chess with these gen… (View Post)