Latest news with #ErnestHemingway
Spectator
7 days ago
- Business
- Spectator
Is your private school dumbing down?
Bankruptcy, as Ernest Hemingway famously said, comes 'gradually, then suddenly'. For Britain's private schools floundering in the wake of the VAT rise on fees imposed in January this year, the gradual decline is well underway. Not only have an estimated 11,000 pupils left private schools so far in an unprecedented – and poorly forecast by Labour – mid-academic year exodus and smaller private schools have closed, but now Chinese whispers have begun about the lowering of academic standards. Pleading anonymity, several mothers muttered that pupils that would 'never normally be through the door' were found in their children's classes According to unnamed sources in the Telegraph, headteachers are quoted as saying that they have no choice but to 'widen the net', adding that 'schools where it's usually very challenging to secure a place' are now less scrupulous about their standards; 'you can see how nervous the sector is'. Put simply, if you can cough up, you're in. Just don't mention CAT scores or the ISEB. It's not about that anymore. Instead it's about 'pastoral care', 'sporting excellence' and all sorts of other platitudes, rather than your child's accelerated reader performance. This was always going to happen. No sooner did Labour remove the charitable status of private schools than their demeanour started to change. They are now operating far more like normal industry players than the Byzantine Enid Blyton-esque institutions of yore. Private schools, like all revenue-driven businesses, need to make money and money comes through a blunt headcount, not necessarily the brilliance of the heads in question. No longer charitable institutions that once had to demonstrate significant public benefit through bursaries and other outreach schemes, private schools can't raise capital in ways that other businesses could. Yes, there were private schools that operated as corporate structures in the prelapsarian days before the VAT rise (Prince Williams's prep school Wetherby's for example), but these were in the minority at 30 per cent of the total number of independent schools. Not anymore. Naturally this comes as a shock to its core middle to upper-middle class customer, unaccustomed to the nuts and bolts of rude capitalism on display. Once upon a time, you admired the grounds on match day and stood in the pavilion chatting to your fellow mummies about uniform and holiday plans. Now, not a day goes by when parents do not receive some letter or other from the bursar detailing snazzy changes to the school designed to guarantee our loyalty, not just to the institution but to the brand. For it is the revenue-driving potential of the brand that school marketeers salivate over when they create Instagram reels and glossy brochures that will outdo the competition. In my corner of Oxfordshire – a veritable theme-park of private schools – the competition is stiff. A quick WhatsApp straw poll of ambitious mothers reveals some of the ways in which private schools are commercialising themselves: Stowe (alma mater of Richard Branson) is now lowering the price of day places to prep-school rates; Cothill (famously the feeder school to Eton) will go co-educational from September 2025 joining Winchester and other schools that can no longer afford to be single-sex; my own daughter's prep school will open a senior school from 2026 with discounted fees up to GCSE level. But as schools are finding out, intensive and commercial net-widening inevitably comes at the attrition of standards and the ire of parents. Pleading anonymity, several mothers muttered that pupils that would 'never normally be through the door' were found in their children's classes, a trend that will likely continue as the new academic year approaches in September 2025 and private schools find themselves at the sharp end of the margin. A margin that, as one bursar told me, 'comes down to the bloody wire… it's often just a question of a family or a single pupil that tips the balance'. Certainly, the big-name private schools – Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster – will always have their pick of the best pupils and may continue to be over-subscribed, but it is beyond doubt that the pool of parents is smaller and more demanding. Smaller, more modest institutions such as Park Hill in Surrey (recently closed) have already lost out. In a time of unprecedented sector transition from charitable to commercial endeavour, it seems that disruption comes equally from within as without. My daughter, upon hearing that she may be able to stay at her prep school until she is 16, jumps for joy. I don't have the heart to tell her that either the school or her parents may be bankrupt before then. But not to worry, it will all be very sudden. Just ask Hemingway.
Bloomberg
25-06-2025
- Bloomberg
Five Top Tables: The Best Restaurants to Try in Paris Right Now
Welcome to Five Top Tables, a new column from Bloomberg Pursuits to guide your dining decisions in London, Paris and other finance capitals around the world. A critical question for any traveler to Paris, and even some locals: What are the best places to eat? It's been a century since the events of Ernest Hemingway's memoir A Moveable Feast. 'You got very hungry when you did not eat enough in Paris,' he wrote, noting the lure of people who 'ate outside at tables on the sidewalk so that you saw and smelled the food.' That sentiment still rings true, and is especially satisfying, if you know where to go. That's where we come in—to help you find the tables worth your time (and euros) in one of the most visited cities on the planet. No reservations? No problem. On a budget? We've got you.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Over a barrel: lack of sugar throws Cuba's rum industry into crisis
It's a crisis that would have sent a shiver down Ernest Hemingway's drinking arm. Cuba's communist government is struggling to process enough sugar to make the rum for his beloved mojitos and daiquiris. As summer rains bring the Caribbean island's 2025 harvest to an end, a recent analysis by Reuters suggests that Cuba's state-run monopoly, Azcuba, is likely to produce just 165,000 metric tonnes of sugar this year. That compares with harvests of 8m in the late 1980s. Michael Bustamante, chair of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, described the situation as 'dismal'. 'You have to go back to the 19th century to find numbers this low,' he said. Cuba is in the grip of an all-encompassing economic crisis, and for the past few years has been importing sugar to feed its people, but rum producers do not have the luxury of importing. 'The regulations provide that all the liquids have to come from within the country,' an industry executive said, speaking anonymously. It is particularly worrying because the island's rum industry has been a rare bright spot in its economy. Big international luxury brands are involved, competing in world markets with distinctive Cuban spirits. Diageo, LVMH and Pernod Ricard all have ventures with the government in Havana, often involving tortuous legal structures to placate OFAC, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, which polices Washington's six-decade-plus trade embargo against the island. These companies – and a small British/Norwegian upstart called the Island Rum Company – have invested heavily in their respective brands: Ron Santiago, Eminente, Havana Club and Black Tears. Now there are concerns about their prospects. 'It is threatened,' said the executive. Rum as we know it was invented in Cuba in 1862 when a shopkeeper in the coastal city of Santiago thought he could do better than the rot gut then produced in pot stills on the country's plantations worked by enslaved people. His name was Facundo Bacardí. He began using column stills to distill molasses, a byproduct of sugar refining, selecting the aguardiente liquor on the edge of the pure alcohol, before ageing it in oak. His family, and the rum they produced, became the most famous in Cuba, until they were forced out in the Castro brothers' 1959 revolution. The Castros wanted Cuba to be financially independent of other countries, a never-ending issue for the island, and sugar was at the heart of their plans. In 1970, they mobilised 500,000 volunteers to create a 10m-tonne harvest. The effort fell short, but at least until the late 1980s Cuba produced around 8m tonnes a year. There was always a lack of investment in the machinery, though, which the government blames on the US embargo. Now the 133 mills at the time of the revolution have been reduced to 14, and only six reportedly still operate. 'The sugar production numbers have been steadily decreasing for the better part of 20 years, but particularly over the last five,' said Bustamante. 'I think it's just as clear a signal as you can get over the dire straits of the economy overall.' The Enrique Varona sugar mill is in the settlement of Falla, around halfway along the island's length. On a recent visit, the workers looked exhausted as they lathed a heavy bit of metal in the hope of keeping the great mill running. In contrast, Pernod Ricard's distillery south of Havana is modern and slick. The French drinks company was the first of the big foreign operations to arrive, doing a deal with Corporación Cuba Ron, the state producer, in 1993. In return for an agreement not to allow other competitors in for 20 years, it took over the Havana Club brand, building sales from 300,000 cases to more than 4m. 'They made a huge investment in a moment in which no one had the guts to invest in Cuba,' said Luca Cesarano, who until recently ran the rival brand of Ron Santiago. With the end of that agreement in 2013, others such as Diageo arrived. Unlike Pernod Ricard, they were not distilling themselves, but employing rum makers – known as maestros – to make specific spirits in Cuba's state distilleries. They were also using historical collections of rum that the maestros had for years been storing in oak barrels across the country, even as the roofs of their bodegas grew full of holes. These high-end products have fed an international resurgence in rum. LVMH, the luxury powerhouse, arrived to make Eminente, creating the Hotel Eminente in Paris to promote it. The Island Rum Company has found a strong following in Cuba and abroad by associating itself with young Cuban musicians (its Black Tears brand takes its name from a Cuban song, Lagrimas Negras). But with the supply of molasses drying up, all this work is threatened. 'I think the fourth quarter will be particularly tough,' said the executive. 'There won't be any alcohol.'
Sunday World
04-06-2025
- General
- Sunday World
Irish man seriously injured after being gored in chest during Spanish bull run
The Irishman was rushed by ambulance to Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, where he underwent emergency surgery for four hours An Irishman who was injured during a bull run in Spain on Saturday remains in hospital in a 'serious but stable condition'. The 43-year-old victim underwent four hours of surgery after he was gored in the chest by the bull during the San Fernando de Henares patron saint festivities near Madrid. According to local media, the running of the bulls took place at 11am on the Paseo de los Pinos. 'During the run, one of the bulls gored the young man in the chest that was described as 'strong and spectacular' by some witnesses, MiraCorredor reports. After he was treated at the scene, the Irishman was rushed by ambulance to Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, where he underwent emergency surgery for four hours. News in 90 Seconds - 3rd June 2025 By late afternoon, he was in the emergency room and was "stable and out of danger' while awaiting transfer to the ward, according to sources quoted by local media. The victim, described as a 'young man of Irish origin who has lived in Spain for several years' has reportedly suffered head trauma and 'possible retinal detachment' when he was thrown into the aur. A fan of bull runs, he regularly participates as a runner in these types of bullfights held throughout the country. Local media reports that San Fernando de Henares City Council has not provided any official information about what happened. The San Fernando de Henares bull runs are part of a broader celebration of the town's patron saint, San Fernando, and are consider an important part of the local cultural tradition. In Pamplona, which hosts the famous Running of the Bulls festival in Spain, one man was gored and another five rushed to hospital with trauma injuries last summer. A 37-year-old man from Beriáin near Pamplona, where the annual festival takes place every July, is believed to have suffered a gore injury to his palate. The other five casualties included a 54-year-old man from New York. All six runners who needed hospital treatment were men. since records began in 1910, some 16 people have been killed at the annual festival, which was made famous by 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises. The most recent death was in 2009 when 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno, from Madrid, was gored in the neck by a bull called Capuchino. Between 200 and 300 are usually injured each year at the festival during the bull runs.
Forbes
03-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Qwerkywriter Celebrates 10 Years Of Retro Charm With A New Old-Fashioned Keyboard
Ernest Hemingway had his favorite typewriter but if the classic American novelist was writing today, ... More he would probably use a Qwerkywriter. Qwerkytoys, Inc., the company behind the charming retro Qwerkywriter keyboard is celebrating its 10th anniversary. What started as a passion project to bring back the tactile joy of old-school typing has now grown into a popular brand with a dedicated fanbase of writers, creatives and tech enthusiasts who love the old-school feel of a vintage typewriter with all the convenience of a computer keyboard. Founded in 2014 by Brian Min, Qwerkytoys had a mission to combine the timeless aesthetics of a manual typewriter with the cutting-edge functionality of a modern wireless keyboard. The result was the Qwerkywriter, a keyboard that helped spark the renaissance of retro desktop accessories. For the past decade, Qwerkytoys has been tweaking and evolving the design of the Qwerkywriter by integrating new features through a program of in-house assembly and rigorous quality control and testing. The 10th Anniversary Qwerkywriter uses hot-swappable Cherry MX2A Speed Silver switches. 'When we launched Qwerkywriter on Kickstarter, we had no idea how far it would go,' says Brian Min, founder of Qwerkytoys, Inc. 'Ten years later, we're so privileged to have built a brand that celebrates craftsmanship, nostalgia and creative expression.' To mark a decade of business, Qwerkytoys is releasing a limited-edition 10th Anniversary Edition of its Qwerkywriter keyboard. The new version now has hot-swappable Cherry Speed Silver MX2A linear switches topped off with PCB keycaps and a limited-edition dark chrome stealth finish. The keyboard's layout has a full row of function keys which also double as multimedia shortcuts. 'Qwerkywriter was a far-fetched idea that I made up while tinkering in my garage over a decade ago,' says Brian Min. 'Kickstarter helped us make it happen so I am once again grateful to be able to launch our 10th Anniversary Edition Qwerkywriter on Kickstarter. Everything we've learned from the past decade, we have poured into this Anniversary Edition and we guarantee you are going to love it.' The new Qwerkywriter Anniversary model has a macro-programmable return bar and dual-function scroll ... More knobs for page scrolling and volume control. A couple of years ago, I came across the Qwerkywriter and thought it had all the charm of an old-school typewriter like an Underwood, but it also had the latest wireless technology. Now this 10th Anniversary Qwerkywriter is being launched and the new version has some significant improvements and features. To begin with, the Qwerkywriter now runs on Bluetooth 5.0 and it can be switched between three paired devices. The new version also offers wired connectivity but with an upgrade from Micro USB connector to the more modern and robust USB Type-C connector. To hold a smartphone or tablet, the new version includes an integrated tablet stand that can take iPads and Android tablets measuring up to 13 inches. The battery that powers the device has been massively boosted from a 1,000mAh to a 3,500mAh capacity, which needs less-frequent recharging. There is a space on the new Qwerkywriter for placing a tablet on so it looks like a piece of paper ... More on an old-school typewriter. Another major change is the decision to use Cherry's next-generation MX2A Speed Silver mechanical switches. As well as being positive to type on, the switches can be hot-swapped with other MX-type switches. The two-piece typewriter keycaps now have a lower profile which gives the Qwerkywriter a sleek and businesslike look. Like the previous version of this classic-looking keyboard, the new Anniversary Qwerkywrirter includes a macro-programmable return bar and a few more enhancements such as dual function scroll knobs for browser scrolling and a volume control. The keyboard is finished with high gloss electroplating with a dark chrome finish. To round things off, this new version of the Qwerkywriter has stabilized and padded rubber feet and a two-piece spacebar. The new Qwerkywriter 10th Anniversary Edition keyboard is available exclusively via Kickstarter from June 3, 2025, with prices starting at $199.
