Best of Prospect

For those who don't run to a subscription, here are some (other) highlights from Prospect's July print edition:

• "Douglas Adams was once locked in a hotel room for a couple of weeks by and with his editor and commanded to write. Adams, when asked how it had worked out said only, 'I sat at the desk and typed and he sat in the armchair and glowered.'" - Monica Ali
• "bed-blockers" - After a month or so of wondering what this means, I've looked it up. In layman's terms it means an MP whom a party (the MP's own party, that is) would like out of the way, but can't get rid of. It comes, grimly, from NHS jargon, referring to patients who don't look like getting better but seem intent on hanging around and occupying beds (which could more usefully be filled by those likely to get better fast and improve the hospital's stats).
• The Estonian Baltic Business News recently asked, "Is Borat smarter than Latvians?" It was something to do with Latvia having the shittest economy in the EU - almost as bad as Kazakhstan's (yes, thank you, the Amnesiacs are aware that Kazakhstan is not, itself, in the EU). The Latvians, needless to say, were none too impressed by the analogy.
• "nonage" - Means "period of immaturity". Under 21, to be precise. Literally, not of age. Though not, in any way, the opposite of "dotage", curiously enough.
• "Out of 850 Oxford students, 41 per cent of homosexuals achieved a First in exams, compared to a third of heterosexuals." Clever buggers.
• "The English Collective of Prostitutes"... is a real organisation. And, according to Elizabeth Pisani, hookers get to share "a receptionist and a maid with other prostitutes." Your present correspondent is wondering where he went wrong.
• Comedy and brain damage have a lot in common, according to Tom Stafford. Which tells you everything you need to know about Saturday night prime-time.
• Sarajevo-born Aleksandar Hemon became a permanent American resident and successful novelist "after being stranded during a visit that coincided with a particularly violent episode in the recent Balkan wars" [Kamran Nazeer]. When the outbreak of Balkan hostilies scuppered the travel plans of my Australian cousin, he came to Kent and worked in a salad factory.