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208220d
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Now, personally, I'd have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we're the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn't have one. I
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4f41325
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Oh shit, I thought, if this isn't the Low King of the Dwarves then I'm the President of the Cricklewood Branch of the Women's Institute.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5fe04d6
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But London didn't care, she never does when you leave her because she knows for every one that leaves another two arrive. Besides, she was too busy painting on her neon lipstick and dolling herself up in red and gold.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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3c41795
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Classic grooming behavior, Dr. Walid told me later, something our fellow primates indulge in to maintain troop cohesion. Dr. Walid said human beings use language for the same purpose--which is why you find yourself talking total bollocks to people you meet at a bus stop and then wonder what the fuck did I do that for? As
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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6682f6e
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Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, I thought. For they are soggy and hard to light.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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ccc1b08
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Perhaps, I thought, the dead god gets folded into the existence of the new god, the way a dormant genetic variation can exist within an organism's DNA--hanging about like an actor's understudy until the right environmental conditions give it expression and--hey presto--suddenly a bacteria is heat resistant, our Chloe gets her big break on Broadway and a sniper for hire gets an unexpected half a meter of cold steel through the chest. Perhaps
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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21890f7
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It's like hypnotism,' I told Warwick, after the two had been dispatched off to drink more coffee. But Warwick wasn't buying. 'Hypnotism doesn't work like that,' she said. 'And that's the way it's not like hypnotism,' I said.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4b6c2d2
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Street towards Covent Garden. There was
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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a0ac448
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Under the vaulted arch of its white iron-and-glass roof it was as if IKEA had been hired to refit St. Pancras station. If Thomas the Tank Engine had been Swedish, his living room would have looked just the same.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4e12b72
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Never diss somebody's mum, never play chess with the Kurdish mafia, and never lie down with a woman who's more magical than you are. I
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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45876e1
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You have to call me Master." "Master?" "That's the tradition," said Nightingale. I said the word in my head and it kept on coming out massa."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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f521a6d
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In home furnishing terms, past a certain point, more money doesn't get you anything except an increase in insurance premiums. An
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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ad884f7
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So Newton, like all good seventeenth-century intellectuals, wrote in Latin because that was the international language of science, philosophy and, I found out later, upmarket pornography.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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a03f489
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A civilizacio es burokracia egy masik kulcsfontossagu jellemzoje a tehetetlenseg.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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aa20d9a
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Or at least of fending him off for long enough that we can sweep in heroically like the Seventh Cavalry.' Burning tipis and shooting women and children, I thought. And
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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2377956
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We stopped and listened. Just on the cusp of hearing I detected a rhythmic pounding, more a vibration in the concrete than a sound. 'Drums,' I said and then because I couldn't resist it. 'Drums in the deep.' 'Drum and Bass in the deep,' said Kumar.
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music
lord-of-the-rings
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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79cd762
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Before London swallowed it whole, Camden Town was the fork in the road best known for a coaching inn called the Mother Red Cap. It served as a last-chance stop for beer, highway robbery and gonorrhoea before heading north into the wilds of Middlesex.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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f66eea1
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He's been banned,' said Lesley. 'Until he passes the advanced driver's course.' 'Is that because you crashed that ambulance into the river?' asked Abigail.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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c08ffd4
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He farted as I reached the inner door as a sign, I decided, of his respect. Alexander
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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290680d
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Welcome to the Folly," he said. "Official home of English magic since 1775." "And your patron saint is Sir Isaac Newton?" I asked. Nightingale grinned. "He was our founder and the first man to systemize the practice of magic." "I was taught that he invented modern science," I said. "He did both," said Nightingale. "That's the nature of genius." Nightingale"
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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623a1f9
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Scrumpy," said Beverley. "What's the difference?" Beverley thought about it for a moment or two. "It's not made in a factory," she said. "So, no quality control then?" "Are you going to talk about it or drink it?" I took a swig--it was tart, alcoholic and tasted of apples. About what I look for in a cider, really."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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9dc73e0
|
The bungalow was a hideous red-brick structure built, if I had to guess, in the early 1980s by some hack architect who'd been aiming at art deco and hit Tracy Emin instead.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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1058d5c
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Blackstone's Police Operational Handbook recommends the ABC of serious investigation: Assume nothing, Believe nothing and Check everything.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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269c911
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MY DAD says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you're born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube, and by the time the train's pulled into Piccadilly Circus they've become Londoners. He said there were others, some of whom were born within the sound of the Bow Bells, who spend their whole life dreaming of an escape. When they do ..
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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74fe20b
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Allison
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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c3aec74
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There's a goddess of the river," I said. "Yes--Mother Thames," he said patiently. "And there's a god of the river--Father Thames." "Are they related?" "No," he said. "And that's part of the problem." "Are they really gods?" "I never worry about the theological questions," said Nightingale. "They exist, they have power and they can breach the Queen's Peace--that makes them a police matter." A"
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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c9db87b
|
Kumar and I ended up stuffing tissue paper up our nostrils, but agreed that if we had to come down again more drastic action would be justified - like amputation.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5bcd4f3
|
Sometimes I wonder whether, if I'd been the one that went for coffee and not Lesley May, my life would have been much less interesting and certainly much less dangerous. Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I'm considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, 'Who knows why the fuck anything happens?' Covent
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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c3a584e
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She got me logged in, which was a suspicous amount of help and attention from a Detective Inspector, and explained the priority codes to me. 'Officially, low means we want it within a week,' said Stephanopoulos. 'Medium is five days and high priority is three.' 'And really?' I asked. 'Today, now and 'I want it bloody yesterday.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4c5006b
|
I don't like my bacon sandwich to be curiously snuffling at my fingers.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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e4aa7f5
|
Even in these days of eBay and superencrypted anonymous purchasing over the Internet, the safest way to buy stolen stuff is to meet a total stranger and hand over a wedge of untraceable cash. They don't know you, you don't know them - the only problem is where to meet.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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9bbc352
|
Lesley said that my exes knew that past a certain point I'd lost interest, and that's why they always packed me in first. That's not the way I remember it, but Lesley swore she could have constructed a calendar based on my love life. A cyclical one, she said, like the Maya - counting down to disaster. Lesley could be surprisingly erudite sometimes. Pg 297
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lovelife
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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746e1de
|
So magic is real,' I said. 'Which makes you a ... what?' 'A wizard.' 'Like Harry Potter?' Nightingale sighed. 'No,' he said, 'not like Harry Potter.' 'In what way?' 'I'm not a fictional character,' said Nightingale.
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humur
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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9a44d16
|
Why would a young man like you be interested in history?
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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89b9629
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There's nothing like having your girlfriend talk in geological time to make you feel insignificant.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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aaccfc1
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Are there rules?'
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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54510f5
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That's how real men settle their differences, through reasoned discussion and a dispassionate analysis. He farted as I reached the inner door, a sign, I decided, of his respect. Alexander
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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1649d16
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You do magic by learning formae which are like shapes in your mind that have an effect on the physical universe.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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eff46ca
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Taking a statement from anyone can be a long process on account of the fact that your average member of the public wouldn't know the truth if it donned a pink tutu and danced in front of them singing the Chicken Song. This
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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519d22e
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her hair was piled up under a broad-brimmed
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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226561d
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She was spontaneously created by the midichlorians,' I said. Both women gave me blank looks. 'Never mind.
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humor
star-wars-reference
peter-grant
jokes
star-wars
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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962fc81
|
Was it better to die in the illusion of sunshine and warmth or face death in a cold darkness of reality? Was it better to die in happy ignorance or terrified knowledge? The answer, if you're a Londoner, is that it's better not to die at all.
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londoner
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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24e94a7
|
The Fire Brigade recognise only two kinds of people at a fire, victims and obstacles, and if you don't want to be either it's best to stay back.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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b0b8ae5
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most people don't want to fight, especially when evenly matched. A mob will tear an individual to pieces and a man with a gun and a noble cause is happy to kill ever so many women and children, but risking a fair fight--not so easy. That's why you see those pissed young men doing the dance of "don't hold me back" while desperately hoping someone likes them enough to hold them back."
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Ben Aaronovitch |