Us British are such a reserved lot. Maybe even more so in the Chilterns. Every now and again, for a laugh, some TV program will try to give away free money in the street. Of course it doesn’t work. People are simply too suspicious. This is a considerable barrier because sometimes there really is such a thing as a free lunch; but is it free buffet or snake oil? Continue reading
Jay Rayner (restaurant critic for The Observer newspaper) recently blogged about how much he hated dishwashers (http://t.co/BQgkBFUf): “At dinner parties, guests who had offered to help clear up find themselves standing in the middle of my kitchen, paralysed with fear when they realise helping means “washing up”.” In an era where kids think that what happens in a kitchen is the cooking portrayed by the TV show “Come Dine With Me” it seems the art of washing-up-by-hand is dying.
ISBN 9780091900113. “Affluenza – How to be Successful & Stay Sane” by Oliver James was published by Random House in 2007. Previously James was known for his book “Britain on the Couch” but it is THIS Bestseller for which he is best known now. Almost everybody knows about this book, almost everybody thinks they know what this book is about, but at well over 500 pages how many have actually read it? You MIGHT think it is about how monetary wealth has an adverse effect on your well-being. Yes, it is about that.. But it is also about so, so, so much more. This ain’t no pop-psychology peddling a set of simple problems & easy answers. It isn’t so much “affluence” that’s the problem, it is “Americanisation”. Ouch…
ISBN 978-0-141-03651-9. “How Markets Fail – The Logic of Economic Calamities” by John Cassidy was published by Penguin in 2009 (although this is a review of the 2010 reprint which has an extra “Afterword” at the end covering 2009 to 2010). Cassidy is better known for his 2002 work “Dot.Con”. He is an economics journalist whose work can be found gracing the pages of the Sunday Times and the New York Post. Judging by the accolades on the cover pages this work was very well received by the establishment achieving “Book of the Year” in The Economist, The Times, The Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph. Let’s be clear: this is mainstream.