Vox cani

Sarah C has tagged me with this one, so I'll have a go...

1) Total number of books I've owned: I don't tend to buy books; they're lovely things, but I never get around to reading them, and I'm not one for dipping in, so it's a waste to own many. I'd guess I've maybe 100, give or take 300, but I'm not sure at all. All I read nowadays is the paper and then academic stuff, and for the latter I use libraries to the exclusion of buying: the facilities here are phenomenal, so why not?

2) The last book I bought: The Magic Finger- Roald Dahl; it came free with some Shreddies, but I wanted the book more, so I was paying for that. Even at a whopping 56-pages, it's sat with a receipt bookmarking it half-way through...

3) The last book I read: erm, that's hard, I've read most of the Groundwork of The Metaphysics of Morals just recently, but I think there are around 17 pages left... If I were free, I'd taken half-finished books to cafés, not fresh ones of which to read pitiably small portions. Thinking about it, I read through one or two Asterix books last time I was properly ill, so probably those.

4) Five books that mean a lot to me (in no particular order): Anna Karenin (my version is called that, not Karenina, in fact I think I have two versions like that) is my favourite book: to my mind Tolstoy understands psychology and love from the inside better than anyone I've read. Brave New World blew me away when I read it. That's not particularly cool of me, but I really like dystopian novels, and I liked how much was good about Bernard's painful world. 1984 replaced BNW as my favourite book a few years ago, before AK came along. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is the most exciting and potentially convincing philosophy I've yet read. It seems like what he's constructing might actually be real; most seem like they're fiddling, deluded. Of course all of what I've read of him is relevant to trying to understand any of him, but on this list I have to pick one. L'Etranger, by Albert Camus, remains so far as I know the only book I have completed in French. I read it on and off for a couple of years, and I think I may owe the book to my old school, but it's nice to have. Meursault's blamelessness is rather beautiful, I find. That's 5, but the Bible actually has a bunch of cool shit in it, and is only excluded by virtue of itself and Shakespeare being traditionally not eligible for such lists.

5) Tag five people and have them fill this out on their blogs: I'll go better than Chris, and tag two: Willow, and Risa, but I'm not doing 5...

The grinder is adjusted to the tightest it can be without sounding scary or
smoking whilst it grinds. The coffee flies out into the grounds container,
having attained a consistency whereby some sticks to the smooth plastic walls,
and it has a natural tendency to save impressions, like flour when pressed by
something dry. About 1.25 spoons of beans is fine for the espresso machine head.
As much as can be fitted in of the grounds should then go into the head, but
without being compacted. This is the secret; the grounds must be as loose in it
as they can be. If layers are pressed down it'll be a wall, not a filter. Coffee
is dropped onto coffee and settles itself, until no more will stay on top. That
the edges are covered is good, but this should not be acheived a the cost of
having to press down the coffee. The top can be smoothed merely by running a
tamper across to draw off excess, without tamping down. When the water is sent
through this, it draws coffee with it, gathering plenty. Ideally, the cup is
saved from the drips soon after the flow is stopped, before the drips dry out
naturally. It's ready to drink almost immediately.

Tsyzu is pulled out. He did not answer the bell for the 12th round! Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton is the new IBF Light Welterweight CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!
If the papers still ignore him and Clinton Woods; it'll be bloody criminal. What a star! Without seeing a thing; that was one of the greatest performances I have known. YEY!

Tsyzu tiring; he's cut, and Hatton got the low blow. Tsyzu's 35, and was talking of his next fight; Hatton's 27, and in the best shape of his life. Oh man. In ten minutes we could have a new champion. Go on!

Hatton did a low reply. Two can play it seems. I don't like that. Boxing's dirty enough without it.

This sounds like a corker of a fight, damnit! Hatton is focussing on the body it seems, both of them are starting to mark up, although it's been there longer on Hatton. Tsyzu is playing the clever defensive game, not Hopkins, but making Hatton miss and using that. Tsyzu is ahead on points with most of the BBC crew, and the challenger is the one who does the work imho... Low blow from Tsyzu put Hatton down. I don't like that in this sort of fight. It's not like Tsyzu hasn't the experience; if he puts it low then it's not obvious he didn't mean to. They say he looks tired...

Once upon a time, the BBC and ITV used to show boxing on primetime TV. Right now; they're showing reapeats of their respective chart music programmes... So what have we? Live radio coverage on Radio Five, and the visuals are on Sky Box Office.
In any case though; Manchester's wonderful undefeated Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton, (38-0-0, 28 KOs) is challenging Kosta Tyzu, one of the world's best fighters, for the IBF Light Welterweight Championship of The World (31-1-1, 25 KOs), and I am damn well going to listen. Heall yeah. Go Ricky! Go Ricky! Go Ricky!

Well I've long been a bit of an ardent of old Sarkozy, though without taking a political position in support or not, but having ended up suggesting over at Chris's that I might volunteer, I fear I now have no choice but to take up the Sarkozy watch baton. Having that pic above appear almost immediately when I was wondering whether or not to give this a go, the choice was made for me. So here we go...

What's going on? Well, as France-Echos would have it, "Sarkozy gonzales" has been daytripping down South to Perpignan (where I have a good friend, incidentally) in response to riots. He's had a rather inspired idea, that the state won't tolerate any violence. He's shoring up his populist credentials with some nice, lock 'em up talk, of crackdowns and prison, and they're helping us to take this all seriously by suggesting nicknames like "l'homme de fer" (the man of iron). At least it's not carbonised....

Why would he need to? Well he is the man of action, as we can tell from the pic, and it looks like he has some way to go to shore up the Tebbitt vote, having rather notoriously argued for positive discrimination in aid of Arabic names... "Le fils de [The son of] Mohamed et de Latifa doit être aidé davantage que [must be helped before] le fils de [the son of] Cécilia et Nicolas". You have to respect that sort of boldness; or alternatively you can claim that in the country of the tournantes, he's managed to make the French second-class citizens...

And the final flourish? Our author asks Sarkozy for his ex-wife's phone number. If Paxman gives up, I would love to see that sort of question on Newsnight...

Fridge access here in Magdalen is pretty damn good; one in every room (though
one of mate's doesn't work), but freezer access is less so. This, it turns out,
can be a great thing. A Tesco rocket lolly left in the freezer compartment
becomes not so much an ice lolly, as a slushee on a stick, and that, my friends,
is fucking lovely!