elisi's humble abode

The HELL 2016? I didn't even know he was ill...

The Sunday Times: AA Gill, giant of journalism, dies aged 62

BBC: AA Gill: Final article describes cancer fight

Please please please read The Sunday Times today.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 11, 2016

In case you didn't know, AA Gill and Jeremy Clarkson were BFFs. I adored their articles. I adored AA Gill full stop. He was basically the reason we bought The Sunday Times for YEARS. (We stopped about a year ago because £2.50 is bloody expensive, and its been drifting to the right.) I still remember the very first article of his I read. It was a food critic piece, and he'd taken some friends to an Egyptian restaurant. It was situated under a hospital. The food was indescribable (as in, odd and mostly unpleasant) but his ability to describe the indescribable made such an impression on me (heck, I still remember it twenty years later!!) that I made a point om checking out what else he wrote...

Dammit. This is NOT OK.

And everyone - go buy The Sunday Times Today. (Or you can read it online - you get two free stories if you register online.) Article in question is here:

AA Gill: “More life with your kids, more life with your friends, more life spent on earth — but only if you pay”
AA Gill used to think that being an NHS patient was like travelling second class on a train, grittier than first class, but in the end everyone ended up at the same destination. But in his farewell piece he tells of his discovery of a drug not available on the NHS ...

I know I'm spamming. But house work is so boring! /o\

Remarks by Aaron Sorkin '83 at Syracuse University's 158th Commencement and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's 115th Commencement.

Quote:

And make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You're a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people. I was there. We all were there. You're barely functional. There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups, but the screw-ups, they're a-coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

My London, and Welcome to It by A.A. Gill.

Quote:

London is a city of ghosts; you feel them here. Not just of people, but eras. The ghost of empire, or the blitz, the plague, the smoky ghost of the Great Fire that gave us Christopher Wren’s churches and ushered in the Georgian city. London can see the dead, and hugs them close. If New York is a wise guy, Paris a coquette, Rome a gigolo and Berlin a wicked uncle, then London is an old lady who mutters and has the second sight. She is slightly deaf, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

ETA: A third one - I know there are a lot of Community fans on my flist. Here's the latest post from its creator:

HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING?

Quote:

A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because they once created a show and cast my good friend Jeff Davis on it, so how bad can they be.

Why’d Sony want me gone? I can’t answer that because I’ve been in as much contact with them as you have. They literally haven’t called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business. Community is their property, I only own ten percent of it, and I kind of don’t want to hear what their complaints are because I’m sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I’d be listening for free.

I do want to correct a couple points of spin, now that I’m free to do so.

Oh, and just to pour salt in the wound, there's this. *is very sad*

It occurs to me that many might not be familiar with the fact that cross-dressing is a time honoured British tradition, so I'll link you to this excellent article by AA Gill:

Invite your suburban neighbours to something as quaintly old-fashioned as a tarts-and-vicars party and, sure as rain on a bank holiday, the women will all come as Patrick Troughton from The Omen and the men will all totter along, bow-legged and cackling, as lamé-mini-skirted hookers, with a collection of balloons, pillows, fruit and balls shoved down the front of their borrowed Wonderbra.

Oh, and here's David Tennant upholding that tradition! :D


Doctor Who Spoof (David Tennant in Drag) - Click here for this week’s top video clips