PicoBlog

Just before the arrival of houseguests a year or so ago, my water stopped running. It was a Friday and we live in a busy tourist town with a lot of construction and its hard to get people to show up in these moments. I couldn’t reach our regular plumber and I was panicking. As I do in such moments, I wondered if there was anyone on the other side who might help.

Welcome to Born Free Press, a fortnightly newsletter delivering a free-range collection of interesting stories for interested people. Currently focusing on quirks and curiosities from the UK’s history. For anyone who’s lived in London for a while, the sight of men and women dressed in black outfits heavily adorned in buttons is not uncommon – although certainly impressive. As spelled out on their backs, they are the Pearly Kings and Queens of London.

It’s always sad to lose a beloved music venue, even though another one usually takes its scorched place to reset the ecosystem. But has there been as good a place for a concert since the Austin Opera House closed in the early ‘90s? Maybe the Backyard, also run by Tim O’Connor, but the drive through Westlake and the rugged parking and the heat were negative factors that the 1,700-capacity room off South Congress didn’t have.

It's not really the action that grates. It's how tawdry it is. How cheap. How low-grade, piss-poor, fucking pitiful it is.  The gambling scandal looks set to run and run. It began when it emerged that Rishi Sunak's parliamentary private secretary (PPS), Craig Williams, placed a bet on the election date before the announcement confirming when it would take place. On Monday, one of Sunak's police bodyguards was arrested. Now Laura Saunders, Tory candidate for Bristol North West, is being looked into by the Gambling Commission.

If you’re new to this Substack, one of the things I’m offering subscribers in 2023 is A Year with Jane. We’re reading through Austen’s six novels this year and ending the year with a bang: Persuasion is our read for November/December. This is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If you’re looking for a level-headed take on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, you’ve come to the wrong place.

ALTHOUGH IT IS ONE of the most intrepid animals on Earth, a Monarch really has no business at sea. The sea is for gulls and gannets, whales and sharks, and by no means a butterfly weighing no more than a few drops of saltwater. In the event of a water landing, well, actually there is no water landing for a butterfly — only death. Which is why it was odd and yet wonderful to encounter 200 Monarchs in a meadow of purple asters and yellow goldenrods on an island, called Monhegan, 11 miles at sea in the Gulf of Maine here in North America.

Pete Carr, who became a renowned studio guitarist and solo artist in his own right, stood alongside Duane Allman the night he was inspired to learn slide guitar. At the time, Pete was bassist in the Hour Glass, Duane and Gregg Allman’s final lineup before the Allman Brothers Band, and he and Duane were sharing an apartment in Los Angeles. One evening they chanced to see Taj Mahal perform at a local club.

Layoffs are an almost-inevitable part of working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry over the last two decades. While you’ll still see some old hands who have worked their whole career in one spot, it’s a lot more common these days for folks to cycle through several jobs over their careers. Sometimes willingly, sometimes less so. Personal note from KH: I’ve been in the pharma & biotech industry for almost 22 years and am now on my fourth job.

Arthur Tress has arrived in Los Angeles. I marked on my calendar this year to post about this photographer’s work on Halloween, and I wish I’d gotten around to writing it last week as I intended, because I’d have known I could have met him last night in Los Angeles. The good news is — he’s going to be here a bunch, including at a book signing event at the Getty Center in Los Angeles tomorrow.