Forum: The Lounge
16th May 2023, 20:30
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Replies: 40
Views: 3,089
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Forum: The Lounge
16th February 2023, 18:34
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Replies: 2,089
Views: 300,398
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Forum: The Lounge
9th February 2023, 21:33
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Replies: 2,031
Views: 245,260
Re: What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
Just finished Great Expectations. Wonderful book. Harold Bloom, the literary critic, described Dickens as a writer of realistic fairy tales. He combines two things that don't normally go together –...
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Forum: The Lounge
12th January 2023, 12:34
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Replies: 13
Views: 766
Re: Things you'd like to get into
If I had lots of money and didn't need to work, I'd do a degree in art history and spend my time wandering around art galleries. I'd also hire a private tutor to teach me to paint.
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Forum: The Lounge
6th January 2023, 17:47
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Replies: 2
Views: 511
Books You Plan to Read in 2023
Do you have a vague list in mind? At some point I want to read (or re-read) the following:
Harold Bloom: The Western Canon
Thomas Halliday: Otherlands
Conan Doyle: The Sign of the Four
Merlin...
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Forum: The Social Anxiety Room
29th December 2022, 14:29
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Replies: 21
Views: 4,350
Re: The allure of small towns/villages
What small towns and villages? You'd have to search pretty hard to find a sleepy/peaceful hideaway. Most of the villages around here have had awful new estates added on to them. And the little...
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Forum: The Lounge
29th December 2022, 14:24
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Replies: 8,166
Views: 848,729
Re: TV programs you're watching?
I find 95% of the stuff on TV unwatchable. I also find most films unwatchable. Over xmas, about the only thing I could stand were repeats of Father Ted and University Challenge. I've also been...
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Forum: The Lounge
28th December 2022, 19:43
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Replies: 2,031
Views: 245,260
Re: What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
Harold Bloom: Take Arms Against A Sea of Troubles. Bloom wrote this a few weeks before his death. It's a wonderful celebration of literature and how it can heal pain and help you cope with life.
...
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Forum: The Lounge
11th December 2022, 14:05
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Replies: 288
Views: 10,166
Re: World Cup 2022 thread
England won’t get that close to winning the World Cup for a long time (if ever). It is SO flippin hard. Such chances don’t come around very often. I mean, Morocco in the semi finals and then a...
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Forum: The Lounge
2nd December 2022, 15:52
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Replies: 288
Views: 10,166
Re: World Cup 2022 thread
England were mediocre even in 1966. We were very lucky to win. I remember my grandfather saying that Argentina would have beaten us had the game been played on neutral ground.
I’ve got a theory...
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Forum: The Lounge
29th November 2022, 23:05
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Replies: 288
Views: 10,166
Re: World Cup 2022 thread
I don’t know why you think England fans expect to win all the time. That may have been true in 1950, but it sure as hell isn’t true today. We’ve had so many humiliations over the years it has...
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Forum: The Lounge
29th November 2022, 12:21
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Replies: 288
Views: 10,166
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Forum: The Lounge
28th November 2022, 22:43
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Replies: 288
Views: 10,166
Re: World Cup 2022 thread
I often wonder how a British/U.K. team would do at The World Cup. Or even a football equivalent of the British and Irish lions. If we’d played as a British-Irish team since 1966 (and called...
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Forum: The Lounge
15th November 2022, 14:00
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Replies: 2,031
Views: 245,260
Re: What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
I’ve still not made up my mind on literary biographies. Sometimes I think we should focus solely on the work (people who are so keen to ‘de-colonise’ the libraries and ‘cancel’ dead...
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Forum: The Lounge
8th November 2022, 20:03
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Replies: 2,089
Views: 300,398
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Forum: The Lounge
1st November 2022, 23:03
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Replies: 2,031
Views: 245,260
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Forum: The Lounge
25th October 2022, 15:32
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Replies: 16
Views: 2,936
Re: Where would you like to be right now?
Somewhere quiet. Somewhere with no cars or noise or people or screeching chavs. Ideally walking in the Highlands or the Lake District, with blue sky and sun shining through brown leaves. It would be...
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Forum: The Social Anxiety Room
14th October 2022, 22:07
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Replies: 24
Views: 4,519
Re: when did SA start for you?
My SA is just a symptom of a deeper personality disorder (an insular-avoidant-paranoid PD). I knew something was wrong by eight or nine. After that things got progressively worse. It probably peaked...
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Forum: The Lounge
8th October 2022, 21:56
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Replies: 49
Views: 4,061
Re: Favourite Comedian
True. He definitely needs Merchant. Gervais is a clever guy, and has a brilliant comic mind, but he has no taste. He likes the idea of pushing boundaries and being a bit edgy. That's fine so long as...
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Forum: The Lounge
8th October 2022, 15:38
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Replies: 49
Views: 4,061
Re: Favourite Comedian
Rick Mayall, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry (his general Melchett is my all time favourite character), John Cleese (the real genius behind Python...also, Fawlty Towers have never been bettered), Simon...
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Forum: The Lounge
6th September 2022, 12:50
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Replies: 2,431
Views: 218,451
Re: The Weather Thread!
STILL horrible and humid in Essex. Jesus, we are a week into September. I am desperate for some cold air. I think I have felt hot and sweaty and uncomfortable every day for pretty much two months...
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Forum: The Lounge
3rd September 2022, 16:24
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Replies: 29
Views: 2,207
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Forum: The Lounge
3rd September 2022, 16:22
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Replies: 2,431
Views: 218,451
Re: The Weather Thread!
Ugghh, 3rd September and it's really humid in Essex. Muggy last night as well. First time I can walk down the street in a coat and scarf I shall be grinning with joy.
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Forum: The Lounge
29th August 2022, 17:51
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Replies: 31
Views: 1,609
Re: Positives about the UK…
For me, it’s the cultural and intellectual history. The U.K. is one of the most intellectually stimulating places in the world. It feeds the imagination like nowhere else (with the possible...
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Forum: The Lounge
24th August 2022, 14:12
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Replies: 2,031
Views: 245,260
Re: What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
P G Wodehouse: The Code of the Woosters. Sublime. The man wasn't a novelist, he was a comic poet. Stephen Fry said of Wodehouse's language "you don't analyze such sunlit perfection, you merely bask...
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