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e4e2a16
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At the bottom of the box I found part of a map that had been ripped down its centrefold - a 1:40,000 scale depiction of a place called Ootacamund, which turned out on later research to be a British Hill Station in Tamil Nadu. A Hill Station being a place where colonial administrators and the like could use altitude to avoid the oppressive Indian summer heat, since the sensible solution, i.e. abandoning colonialism and moving back to Surrey,..
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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c1777bd
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It started at one thirty on a cold Tuesday morning in January when Martin Turner, Street performer and, in his own words, apprentice gigolo, tripped over a body in front of the West Portico of St. Paul's at Covent Garden. Martin, who was none too sober himself, at first thought the body was that of one of the many celebrants who had chosen the Piazza as a convenient outdoor toilet and dormitory. Being a seasoned Londoner, Martin gave the bo..
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humor
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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3212530
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As Martin noted, to the detectives conducting his interview, it was a good thing he'd been inebriated, because otherwise he would have wasted time screaming and running about - especially once he realized he was standing in a pool of blood. Instead, with the slow methodical patience of the drunk and terrified, Martin Turner dialed 999 and asked for the police.
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humor
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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bfa5148
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Will you be all right driving in this snow?" She found that hilarious. "This is not snow," she said. "Where I'm from, you know, you have snow when you can't find your car the next morning."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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6b93f78
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Most people react this way when I tell them about the Nazis. Would it be more or less comforting if we could attribute that particular part of our history to the supernatural?
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5183d1e
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Surely we need to at least identify who they are?" I'd asked the Director the same thing once. "To what end?" she'd asked me, and now I asked Vanessa the same. "In case they're a problem," she said, which was pretty much what I'd said. The Director had slammed her fist on her desk hard enough to break her coffee cup. "And then what?" she'd asked. "We keep files on them? Or why not make it simple and require them to carry papers or perhaps s..
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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d537753
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Because were were both probationary constables, an experienced PC had been left to supervise us - a responsibility he diligently pursued from an all-night cafe on St. Martin's Close.
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sarcasm
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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3aab8fe
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She was staring at us over the top of a pair of completely pointless sunglasses and her phone was playing what I now recognised as The Day the World Turned Day-Glo by X-Ray Specs.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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686feda
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never run a game of Hide the Lady if you can't remember where you've put the queen, because some people embrace forensic accounting as a blood sport.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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7e30898
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It's not like me and Lesley are inconspicuous,' I'd said. Nightingale had winced, as he always does, at my incorrect use of the accusative pronoun but I think I'm beginning to wear him down.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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122349b
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I'd been warned in advance, so I'd given it some thought. When it was my turn and I stood up and called for life, liberty and peace and managed to sit down before I added a hard-boiled egg to the list.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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9c38bb9
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He was sure that police box hadn't been there before.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4c208d8
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Das Leben ist zu kurz, um schlechten Wein zu trinken. - Quoted from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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inspirational
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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d7311b8
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CO19, the Met's firearms unit, whose unofficial motto is, "Guns don't kill people, we kill people with guns."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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325cf65
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Gaston was a short, bulky man in his late fifties who favoured tight jeans, studded belts and sleeveless T-shirts, the better to show off the tattoos on his own arms. Only the absence of a mullet or a purple Mohican saved him from a breach of the EU directive against egregious cliche embodiment.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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509d7b6
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Oxley had something called a Brewdog Vagabond Pale Ale, which came in a bottle and which he claimed never to have tasted before. 'I'm trying new things,' he said. Including a new suit in khaki chambray that had either been tailored deliberately baggy or had once belonged to someone else. Isis was similarly smartly turned out in a burgundy floor-length dress and matching jacket with cream buttons. I did mention that the opera had got a lot m..
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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a94bd5b
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says: it only becomes a social problem when the working man joins in.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5cbaac9
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We did a joint evaluation of video evidence encompassing all possible access points in conjunction with BTP and CLP, and despite widening the parameters of our assessment to include registered and nonregistered cameras in the high probability zones, we have as yet to achieve a positive identification of James Gallagher prior to his appearance at Baker Street" becomes: "We've checked every CCTV camera in the system and it's as if the fucker ..
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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ece5d3b
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I was just looking to ascertain the whereabouts of the proprietor when I stumbled across the Class A controlled substances that were in plain sight in the bottom drawer of a locked desk in an upstairs office, m'lord." Leave the police alone in a room for five minutes and we start looking in drawers, locked or otherwise. It's a terrible habit."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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6d01773
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Speak, friend, and enter,
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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b1fdf96
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from the individual infantryman's point of view there really is no such thing as too much personal firepower.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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740bc42
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Absence of evidence, as any good archeologist will tell you, is not the same as evidence of absence
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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586df58
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Questions would be asked. Answers would be ignored.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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88f1dc9
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Sometimes when someone tells you not to go somewhere, it's better not to go there.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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1d3cbc9
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Nobody likes a riot except looters and journalists.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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d0ec941
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Given that he was writing in the late eighteenth century, I like to cut him slack.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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24b2e24
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When you're a musician free is a magic number.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4c7fbf2
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Ghosts, I was thinking, memories--I wasn't sure there was a difference.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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07e8165
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The difference between stripping and burlesque, as far as I could tell, was class.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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827287e
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I'm an old-fashioned copper-I don't believe in breaking the laws of thermodynamics.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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96f7c7d
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First law of gossip--there's no point knowing something if somebody else doesn't know you know it.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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7724263
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Anything that can go wrong with armed men in the light can go twice as wrong in the dark.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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20db868
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Have you noticed that about journalists--all they really want to talk about is themselves.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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d6ee3b0
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It's no fun looking down on people if you can't let them know you're above them.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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76e13f7
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It's always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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fe42d1b
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The scope of your ignorance, Peter," said Seawoll, "is truly frightening."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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4cd6b83
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He did some drugs at university," I said. "Isn't that what it's for?"
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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db6c8f2
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Low sample size--one of the reasons why magic and science are hard to reconcile.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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b4244c1
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You don't actually know enough about me to insult me properly.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5c6e6d7
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Fortunately," said Nightingale, "seeing isn't always believing."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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5e217ba
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As Conan the Barbarian famously said, "That which does not kill us does not kill us."
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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0a99240
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We did not tell him we were witch hunting, as that sort of thing tends to cause alarm.
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Ben Aaronovitch |
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1fde593
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I called Nightingale and I could tell he'd been worried by the tone of his voice.
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Ben Aaronovitch |