I’ve been humming that song most of this week. Partly because it had a mention in the Wodehouse I carry with me on the train, and partly because it’s the only sensible reaction to what’s going on in the world right now. Really, this...whatever you wish to call it, I’ve heard everything from economic downturn (sounds so dainty and trifling) to global financial storm (will Russell Crowe star in the film?), it really could be a good thing, especially for America. Americans always seem to show their...

When I was a teenager, growing up in the late 60s/early 70s, I had what was then called a portable television set in my room. These were the days before the Walkman, the Watchman, and a good millennium before Smart Phones and iPods. Yes, the true dark ages. Wooly Mammoths roamed the earth in black and white and mono. This television's claim to portability came largely from the fact that there was a plastic handle nestled into the top of the device, but nestling a plastic handle into a 16-ton...

There are two conversations one can have when it comes to mixing fiction and booze. One is the high-minded: our greatest writers drank themselves to death and mores the pity. The other is possibly more low-brow but covers more territory: literary cocktails – the favorite drinks of writers, and haunts where they drink/drank them and famous drinks in literature. One can talk about Hemingway as either a human tragedy or a man with strong ideas about the martini – aiming sunbeams through a vermouth...