Author Archives: Paul Crabtree

Everyday speech is full of poetry – There’s no-one here to take your call right now; please leave a message when you hear the tone. Few people would recognize this as perfect Iambic Pentameter (di-DUM five times over) that would … Continue reading →

If members of the general public applaud the antics of an animal being paraded on its hind legs, any indulgence on their part is an acknowledgment of effort rather than quality, and is also tinged with sympathy for the poor … Continue reading →

Sometimes it is a simple case of cash that lies at the heart of an ownership contest. A recent row between the town of Florence and the Tuscan State, in which both the city and the state each contends that … Continue reading →

Driving home a nail into the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg in 1517 on which to hang a list of 95 clerical abuses was Martin Luther’s act of whistle-blowing, unequivocally calling the Catholic Church to account for its intermingling … Continue reading →

When the cabin crew of British Airways announced a twelve-day strike to impact its customers flying around the world in late December 2009, thousands of vacations were disrupted, weddings were ruined, and the currency of the airline plummeted from the … Continue reading →

“My heart is inditing of a good matter; I speak of the things which I have made unto the King. Kings’ daughters were among the honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in vesture of gold, and … Continue reading →

Reports are coming in that the Metropolitan Opera’s new tech-heavy production of The Ring has ambitions beyond its ability to deliver; the rainbow bridge that should afford the gods entry victoriously but callously to their new castle across the river … Continue reading →

Galilea Are there too many stars, you angry sky, that you should grant me stewardship? Suppose I do not care to interrupt our world, give birth with Mary to a larger life that, cuckoo-like, will hurl me from the nest. … Continue reading →

You have to hand it to Placido Domingo, the General Director of the Los Angeles Opera. In June 2010 he loses $6 MILLION on an ill-conceived and ill-executed production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and yet in September 2010 he is … Continue reading →