Before I forget...

Dear TASPers,

Here are just a few notes of interest/hilarity/ "eye-brow raising-ness" I must record before I forget. I hope you are all well and enjoying the last lovely moments of summer. I miss you all and desperately wish you were. Can it be more than week since TASP ended? Can it be a mere week ago that TASP ended? It seems at once so near yet so far…

Tyler: the cover story in this week’s Spectator discusses "What is a just war?" The article can be found at spectator.co.uk/ If the website asks for passwords and pass numbers and that sort of thing, I can give anyone interested in the article mine.

Whereas at TASP there was a raging~ well, simmering~ debate as to whether Manasi should be included in the "Asian" category, in Britain Manasi is the only TASPer who would be considered an "Asian." For example, in a survey of the job preferences of various ethnicities, the Daily Telegraph listed "Asian" (i.e., people of Indian and Pakistani descent) and "Chinese" separately. Race is only a social construction…

I saw Spotted Dick in the foods section of Marks and Spencer’s. It appeared to be some sort of desert that is white with black spots. (Alas, I didn’t get close enough to check the ingredients.)

In Britain, tire is spelt "tyre."

The Church of Scientology has managed to persuade the (British) Treasury that it is a charity and therefore exempt from taxes. (I am pursued by TASP-isms, even in another country.)

Oh dear, there were so many other things I was going to tell you… But before I go, I must not neglect to mention the most important piece of news of all…

Happy 118th Birthday, T. E. Lawrence!*
(Also known as John Hume Ross, T. E. Shaw, Edward Chapman, El Auruns, El Luruns, Emir Dynamite, Ned, TEL, TES, Tes, C. D., etc., etc.)
*His mother claimed he was really born on August 16th, but no one listened to her.

P. S. The library computers no longer allow me to access Gmail, so I'm afraid I will be unable to check any e-mails until further notice.