The Virtual Stoa

Eileen Desmond, Irish Labour politician and minister for Health and Social Welfare in the early 1980s; born Kinsale, Co. Cork, 29 December 1932, died 6 January 2005.

I’m not quite sure what my options are right now. I turn 34 in just over a couple of weeks time. Now according to the BBC, I’ve got a few days during which I can join the Army, as the MoD has, apparently, raised the recruitment age from 26 to 33. So I may have to make a decision in a hurry. (Advice, please.)

On the other hand, this army webpage seems to think that 30 is the cut-off, unless I want to be an officer, in which case it was 29, which seems like a very long time ago.

On the other, other hand, if I want to play the tuba in an Army band, I’ve still got a few years left in which to make up my mind. They’ll still take me up until the end of 2009, (though I suppose I’d also have to learn the tuba).

On a dark and muddy walk last night, I found out that Port Meadow was flooded. That’s not so unusual, but I thought I’d come back and take some pictures this morning anyway. They’re over the fold. Local interest only.

(more…)

Jean de Boe, Belgian militant, anarchist, syndicalist and antifascist, born 20 March 1889, died 2 January 1974.

Harry Magdoff, American socialist, one of the editors of Monthly Review, born 21 August 1913, died 1 January 2005.

Louis-Auguste Blanqui, French insurrectionary socialist. Pic of his grave here. More info here, with some original texts handily archived here. Born 8 February 1805, died 1 January 1881.

I’ve just returned home after a period of wandering over the last few weeks that has taken me to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Houston, Las Vegas, San Francisco — and to the elephant seals on the beach outside Hearst Castle.

Oxford seems unchanged, and I’m pleased to learn from the telly that Life of Brian was marketed in Sweden with the slogan, “The film that is so funny, it was banned in Norway”.