Tom Roper's Weblog

Dripping

This box was in my late mother's attic. I strongly advise readers not to Google the phrase "Kylie dripping"; while Ms Minogue's rendered beef fat may have sustained the colonies in olden times, these days the phrase has a different, less wholesome resonance.

Neolithic marathon

Most of the time I keep my running safely away from this, my main blog, but I must record here that yesterday I ran the Neolithic Marathon, my sixth, in a time of 4:17:32.

Technorati Tags: avebury, stonehenge, wiltshire

2000 Guineas sans Teofilo

It's a strange race without the strongly-backed ante-post favourite.
Here's what I go for at Newmarket today; the small matter of a marathon will prevent me making any selections for the 1000 Guineas tomorrow.
245: Abisheka
325: Major Cadeau
400: Burning Insence

On the quality of indexes

I have just started reading Julie Burchill and Daniel Raven's Made in Brighton, for its topographical interest and because an excerpt so outraged Guardian readers in that town.
First impressions are not good. I have skimmed some of the text, but went first to the index, complied, it seems, after a long gin-and-cocaine session in a louche Brighton pubs. The indexer or indexers have invented someone called Peter Hamilton, referring to page 141 where Patrick Hamilton is mentioned. Raven describes himself in the blurb as a proof-reader.
Burchill, Julie and Raven, Daniel
Made in Brighton: from the Grand to the gutter: modern Britain as seen from beside the sea
London: Virgin, 2007
9781852273958

Technorati Tags: patrickhamil

The sound of desperation

I would not touch it, thinking all-weather racing to be bent and run solely for the benefit of the bookies, but my eye was caught by the desperation inherent in the full name of one of tonight's races at Wolverhampton, the Name a Race to Enhance your Brand Handicap.

Seaford school uniform: where's the evidence?

Seaford's habitual quiet has been disturbed by the great Seaford Head school uniform controversy. See here for the proposals (pdf)
Since everyone else is saying their piece, I shall say mine too: interest declared, I have two children at the school, and I responded to the consultation, arguing that uniform should be abolished.
For me, the issue is not the poor design and shoddy quality of the proposed new uniforms, nor the silence from the governors who nodded the proposals through, but will not make public the results of the consultation with parents, nor the cost of the uniforms, nor the monopolistic position allowed to one supplier. No, the thing that worries me the most are the spurious arguments advanced for uniform-wearing. Searches of British Education Index and ERIC found no studies that demonstrated the slightest correlation between the imposition of uniform and the quality of education. The head-teacher and governors have tried to convince parents with a swathe of management buzzwords. They have tried to link the uniform to the recent award of specialist status in sports and science, (in itself an alarming development for anyone who values the arts and humanities in schools). There is simply no evidence to support their position.

Technorati Tags: schooluniform, seafordheadcommunitycollege