I haven’t read any Robert Harris before, but this (Christmas present) was a very good read.

The ‘ghost’ is a ghostwriter with no political interest who finds himself with a huge contract to write the autobiography of the former British prime minister, Adam Lang, a lightly adapted version of Tony Blair with a wife similar to Cherie Blair. This involves spending time in Martha’s Vineyard in winter. Lang is facing prosecution at the ICC for his part in deporting terrorists who were tortured.

It’s a page-turner, it carries its research into ghosting and the American setting lightly, and above all it’s rather sparely written – a pleasure to read every sentence. Out in German too, and the English version is a paperback now (I got the hardback).

amazon.de
English paperback: Ghost
German hardback (translated by Wolfgang Müller): Ghost

Further election posters (for earlier SPD example, see here).

This is mystifying:

I haven’t noticed any increase of learning in the immediate vicinity, but I believe scientists have been imported to the former Grundig territory.

Meanwhile, in Erlangen, the Green Party can’t swim, so they present themselves on bikes:

In this way they merely blend into the rest of the population of Erlangen. Here is a bicycle park at the station:

Certain Ideas of Europe, the Economist blog, under the heading Speaking French: a British terror, has links to clips of Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II speaking French, and Nicolas Sarkozy speaking English.

Your reporter once had a boss in Brussels, many years ago, who came from a generation of Englishmen who learned technically perfect French but believed that it was somehow actorish and unmanly to speak it with anything except a full-strength British accent.

My mother did French at school and at university, in the early 1920s, and she used to say, ‘We didn’t do the accent in those days’.

It is widely reported today (and yesterday) that British police have been importing German shepherd dogs and are confronted with the need to say Sitz instead of sit or retrain the dogs to understand English commands.

The stories are all apparently based on one Press Association report and most contain the examples:

sitz: sit
platz: down
aus: let go
holen: fetch
bissen: bite

Here’s the Sun, for example (surprisingly free of anti-German sentiment). The Daily Mail goes into more detail:

Another police dog-handler, who has worked with the German-trained pooches, said: “It was quite fun learning a new language.

“It’s amazing how quick they are to respond as soon as you utter a German command, but when you say ‘let go’ in English they just look at you like you are crazy.

“But as soon as you say ‘Aus’ they drop whatever they are holding like a shot.”

The learning is a two-way process, however, with the dogs also being taught English in the hope they will ultimately become “bilingual” and respond to both languages.

A Derbyshire police spokeswoman said: “I know we have got three and we speak German to them but they are now learning English. We are repeating the German commands in English so they are becoming bilingual.”

Here are some German dog commands (Hundekommandos). Fass, of course (sorry – not Beiß – see comment), is missing, as you’re not supposed to train your private bull terrier to do that.

Questions of the week to the Lawyer of Love in Playboy:

Neil, White Plains NY:
I am engaged to be married. All my friends keep telling me I should insist on a prenuptial agreement but I am unsure and do not want to risk losing my fiancée. What do you recommend?
The Lawyer of Love:
Test her love. Demand a prenup.

Advice to another questioner:

So what is a guy to do? Grow some balls and make sure Wifey has an education beyond the first grade and that she remains employed at full capacity no matter how many children she bears. If you are really confident, you will marry a professional woman — and no, I don’t mean a hooker.

The Lawyer of Love is Corri Fetman, who already came to attention with the ad for divorce shown at the bottom right of her law firm’s site.

(Via John Bolch)

BBC News reports (with a curious illustration of feet) a case of twins who were separated at birth and separately adopted and who only discovered their relationship after they were married. Hence annullment.

This has a touch of Siegmund and Sieglinde about it, and reminds me of the question as to whether English birth certificates have enough information on them.

This is all hearsay – told to the House of Lords by a peer who heard it from a High Court judge – so take it with a pinch of salt.

LATER NOTE: I traced the quote to Lord Alton of Liverpool on 10 December 2007 in the House of Lords Hansard, Column 101.

(Via John Bolch in Family Lore)