See Parts One, Two, and Three to get caught up. The rugby pitch, such as it was, looked vaguely like a re-enactment setting for the Battle of the Somme. There was some grass, yes, but between the ongoing drizzle and the previous days of rain, it was mostly muck. And puddles. Lots of puddles. And rivulets—even mini-waterfalls—between lots of puddles. Above, only gray, drizzling sky. I also happened to notice four or five bodies of water on the so-called pitch which looked to qualify as genuine ponds. Some looked six or seven inches deep. Maybe more. A thought flashed across my mind: Those are deep enough to potentially drown in, if, say, a few guys tackled me, drove me face first into one, and didn't get up quickly enough. This didn't look ...
It's been another busy week here at SteynOnline. In case you missed it, here's how the last seven days looked to Mark: ~The week began with Tal Bachman's continued reflections on rugby and athleticism throughout the ages. ~A few hours later, Mark acknowledged the passing of novelty songwriter Rolf Harris with a refresh of his Song of the Week take on "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport." ~Mark paid his Memorial Day respects with a special audio edition of The Mark Steyn Show. ~The Mark Steyn Show returned in video form that evening with a cross-continental edition featuring Michele Bachmann on the WHO, Jo Nova on climate finance, and Ros Jones on the perils of "public health." ~On Tuesday's Steyn Show, Mark checked in with Gordon Chang and Liam ...
While we often think of nostalgia as an emotion that helps shape our memories or a longing for the past; a romantic feeling, it has to be remembered that nostalgia was once regarded, like melancholy, as a kind of mental illness, sometimes considered fatal in soldiers and sailors kept away from their homes for too long. Director Wong Kar-wai, talking about his 2000 film In the Mood for Love – regarded today as his masterpiece – said that "the film is about a period that's been lost and actually is like a dream." The specific period he was talking about was Hong Kong in the early '60s, the city his parents moved to when he was five, escaping the turmoil threatening Shanghai with the first stirrings of Mao's Cultural Revolution. Working with ...
SteynOnline is back in the cruise biz, with Snerdley, Eva, Leilani and more...
Mark answers questions from Steyn Club members around the world...
Laura Rosen Cohen rounds up the Interenet from the new Trans World Airlines to a chilly dip with the King...
Snerdley & Steyn do their best to find a decent gay bar in Kampala...
As Mark discussed on a recent Clubland Q&A, actor and pop singer Ed Ames died a couple of weeks back. Here's what Mark had to say about him: Ed Ames died this week, at the grand age of 95. I spent a very pleasant week with him on a National Review cruise a few years ago, he was a fan of mine and he's missus even more so. And I was a fan of his and his marvelous, rich singing voice, such a beautiful voice. And I just love to hear him sing ballads. You'll know if you listen to my show on Serenade Radio our Song of the Week. A few weeks back, I played his version of "Try To Remember," which I particularly love. He started with his....and I think actually also just the other week I actually played another one of his from his Brothers days, the ...
Rolf Harris died earlier this month - a decade after the total implosion of his celebrity, and with the announcement being held for the best part of a fortnight from his hasty shovelling into the crematorium. He was a "national treasure" on at least two continents - until one day he wasn't. And, notwithstanding two years of headlines about "Paedos at the Beeb!" re Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall, Jonathan King and others, it was still something of a shock to hear that Rolf Harris had been found guilty of twelve counts of indecent assault on young girls in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. As I said when he was charged, it would mark the demise of his small but enduring catalogue...
A remote fantastical kingdom far from Europe's chancelleries of power... An unpopular monarch on the eve of his coronation... A ruling class of plotters and would-be usurpers... ...and a gentleman adventurer on holiday. No, not Ruritania in the nineteenth century, but the United Kingdom in the twenty-first. My new book is both a sequel to and a contemporary inversion of Anthony Hope's classic of 1894, The Prisoner of Zenda...
Mark's contemporary inversion of Anthony Hope's classic The Prisoner of Zenda: The Prisoner of Windsor...
Steyn remembers Tim Ball, hounded into penury and death by the deadbeat Michael Mann...