I'd been wondering if I knew the new parents Aileen was referring to here, and then found this account of Sarah Carey's recent experiences. Aha, I thought, it all makes sense now; Aileen's friend Tom is obviously Sarah's unnamed husband.

Except he can't be, because Aileen's blog entry was written on 23 January, the day before Sarah's last pre-birth entry. Is there an epidemic of husbands delivering their wives' babies without medical assistance in Dublin?

I, Cthulhu. Owes more to Robert Graves than Isaac Asimov. But doesn't owe much to either. ( Intriguing postscript )

He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead. He fought for survival with the passion of a beast in a trap. He was delirious and rotting, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.

From the Alfred Bester/A.A. Milne collaboration, Tigger! Tigger! (US edition titled The Stairs My Destination) as reported ten years ago by Dave Langford.

In many languages from the BBC:

( font porn )

Not surprisingly the BBC is not carrying this in most of the African languages, or indeed in many of the Asian languages.

Russia calls on OSCE to send mission to Northern Ireland. Of course the OSCE has already had missions in Northern Ireland, notably for election monitoring, so not such a stupid idea. If Western countries can demonstrate to Russia that they are prepared to accept OSCE monitoring as well, I think it strengthens the organisation and increases the likelihood that it may achieve some good in the post-Soviet space.

I sound cryptic.