These are excerpts of the current news articles. For a full list and full stories click the News link above.
Jackie Collins – a surprising culture shifter
Jackie Collins created a new genre of wildly popular romantic (sexual) fiction which sent 500 million books flying off airport stands all over the world. She was ahead of her time in writing strong female characters who fought for what they wanted in the bedroom and in their careers. Her carefully crafted shoulder-padded, over-made-up public … Read more
New Israeli PM – turning a page on the past
Naftali Bennett was sworn in last night as the new Israeli prime minister at the head of an unwieldy coalition of right, centre, left and Arab-Israeli replacing Benjamin Netanyahu. This is just a memorandum for the future with more details in the previous post of June 3 2021. He was sworn in probably … Read more
Sarah Palin – a faded star
Sarah Palin has popped her head above the parapet to announce she may run against Lisa Murkowksi, the Republican senator for Alaska since 2002, a Trump critic who voted for his impeachment. Others have said they’ll throw their hats into the ring as well. Palin has faded from view after a flurry of several … Read more
Bezos brothers – rich boys adventure
Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and an online auction winner are aiming to go into space for 11 minutes on July 20th on the first crewed flight of New Shepard, a spacecraft system designed to take ticket holders on brief joy rides to space. The fully autonomous suborbital rocket is unlike Moon craft since it … Read more
Edward de Bono – dazzling or deluded?
Edward de Bono, a self-styled genius who invented the term lateral thinking, has died. His 60 plus books and relentless stream of out-of-the-box ideas brought riches and withering criticism. One reviewer said he had “the great salesman’s gift of being fluent in the international language of gibberish. If his life and career teach us anything, … Read more
Lindsey Buckingham – a fireball Libra
Lindsey Buckingham, best known as lead guitarist and singer with Fleetwood Mac through its glory days, has announced a new solo album along with the news that he is divorcing his wife of 21 years Kristin Messner. Amidst tales of rolling melodrama and conflict he and Stevie Nicks, his romantic and musical partner of the … Read more
Man Ray, Picasso, Dali & Hodel – an unholy collection
Lee Miller’s damaging childhood propelled her into adult life with an inclination towards risky, unstable though talented men. Man Ray, the photographer, 27 August 1890, who taught her and tried to control her, had a hair-raisingly difficult chart with Neptune Pluto in Gemini opposition Mars square Sun Saturn in Virgo – hard, angry, ruthless, unbalanced. … Read more
Lee Miller – trauma and creativity ++ Penrose
Lee Miller’s genius as a fashion and war photographer was destined to stay a footnote in art-historical journals until her son found a vast archive of her work, more than 80,000 negatives in an attic, after her death in 1977. Since then a foundation has been set up, various exhibitions held and a documentary about … Read more
Naomi Wolf & Melanie Phillips – the furies shriek
Naomi Wolf is in a full-on anti-vaxxer rant round the US at the moment. Although she garnered a respectable reputation initially as leader of the third wave of feminism, her scaremongering in recent years about government-led plots to establish a dictatorship and other conspiracy theories, has been described as “unhinged, damaging, and dangerous.” Born … Read more