What I’m reading, final edition for 2011

Christopher Hitchens is everywhere now that he’s dead. Quite rightly there have been many tributes but the best brief one I have seen – pleasingly in the Daily Telegraph – is by his friend Francis Wheen, deputy editor of Private Eye. Money quote:

Who else could claim to have enjoyed (or, more accurately, endured) the hospitality of both Agatha Christie and Abu Nidal, or been a friend of both Gore Vidal and Paul Wolfowitz, or read poetry to Jorge Luis Borges and sheltered Salman Rushdie from the ayatollah’s assassins?

An obituary for the great philosopher Michael Dummett. The Brits do these things so well.

A year in mobile-phone photos from Christchurch journalist Philip Matthews.

Why vegeterians have more blood on their hands than meat-eaters do.

MacDoctor has a go at the anti-obesity campaigners and the proposed tax on sugar. He is a doctor and a diabetic, so knows quite a bit about this.

If you have ever wondered what two mimic octopuses shagging would look like, wonder no longer. The species was discovered in 1998 and this loved-up couple were filmed in Indonesia in November 2011. Can you tell who is on top?:

And now for something really disgusting: deep-fried butter. Money quote:

Described as a “heart attack on a plate”, the chefs at The Fiddler's Elbow in Edinburgh serve the sticky treat with Irn Bru ice cream and coulis.

Never mind the misrelated participle: if you have ever had Scotland’s other national drink you will be gagging at the idea of Irn Bru ice cream.