Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Not to be confused with...


Some eighteen months or so ago it was pointed out to the Clever Boy, by no less a person than the Archbishop of Birmingham himself, that the Clever Boy bears a striking resemblance to Cardinal Walter Kasper. The Clever Boy felt vaguely intrigued, but no more.

Now however he sees from photographs in the press that he also bears a strong resemblance to Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat Life Peer who is alleged to be a sex-pest. The Clever Boy has no wish to be confused with an alleged sex-pest. Neither has the Clever Boy any wish to be confused with a Liberal Democrat, nor does he wish to be confused with a Life Peer. The Clever Boy is also wondering which of these three things he would find to be the most distressing were he to be so confused... 


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2 comments:

lapsang souchong said...

Are we quite certain that "Liberal Democrat" and "sex-pest" are actually distinct categories?

28 February 2013 at 18:00
J S Webb said...

I would very much like to be mistaken for a life peer - preferably in the House of Lords Bar, where I assume they let you run up a tab subsidised by the taxpayer.

28 February 2013 at 20:30

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