Derek's ALIA Blog

There is a natural tendency to think of compulsory voting as a straightforward contradiction of one of the  fundamental principles of democr...

The current coronavirus is, to look on the cheerful side, a paradise for neologisms, just as staying at home is a paradise for the introvert...

Well, decision day approaches. On Sunday March 15 the people of Paris will vote in the first round of an election for Mayor of Paris - alo...

The Year of the Rat, in the Chinese Zodiac, began on 25/26 January 2020, and runs to 11/12 February 2021.  In Chinese it is  鼠年 and i...

The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library , now almost ten years old, moved into new premises in Indianapolis (Vonnegut's birthplace) this No...

Ron Goulart's novel, When the waker sleeps (1975) , starts with a quote from Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947, no relation, as far as ...

"The elephant in the room" is a wonderful English expression, partly because it relies for its usefulness not only on the visible ...