Christmas Eve at Woolworths in London, 1955. Do you remember the time when shops were crowded and noisy, and when going shopping was a serious undertaking in its own right? No snowdrift could daunt you when you knew that any minute now you and Mum would queue at the department store and buy a chocolate Father Frost in thin foil wrapping. The age of deliveries and online shopping has changed all this for ever
At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the
Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least
