My brother died rather more than two years ago at the age of 51 after suffering from a schizophrenic-type illness since his early 20s. He died very suddenly, of natural causes. I was plagued by "if onlys" for a long time afterwards. If only I had gone to see him every weekend, if only I had phoned him every day, if only we hadn't sometimes rubbed each other up the wrong way, and so on and on. At the same time I was plunged into a severe grief that still assaults me from time to time. I don't normally go in for self-help books, but in my desperate combing of the internet for any source of relief in the immediate aftermath of his death I came across, and sent away for, the book 'Surviving the Death of a Sibling: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies', by T J Wray. In the foreword, Prof J Earl Thompson describes sibling loss as a "disenfranchised loss" and points out that after almost 50 years of reflection on the psychology of bereavement there has been almost no attention to sibling loss. I found the book quite a comfort, with its sharing of the experiences of many others who have lived through sibling loss. Maybe it would help also in this case.

Mittens is quite right about "English muffins" not really being known as such in England. With the dissemination of Starbucks culture like a virulent spore to every high street and small town in Britain, "muffin" has entered the consciousness as a calorie-laden sweet blueberry or chocolate chip cakey item in a paper case, like an over-blown fairy cake.

I prefer crumpets -- toasted over an open fire preferably, stacked in a pile with butter dripping through.

Toast "soldiers" for dipping into a soft-boiled egg are even better if the butter is topped with Marmite (US equivalent? On the lines of Ozzy Vegemite?- though that doesn't quite hit the Marmite button).

The right dough-related vehicle for a runny fried egg is surely a nice slab of unhealthy fried white bread; put the egg on and jab.

This thread is positively Proustian (anyone for a madeleine?)

To judge by this interview, Khalidi's book is far from being an effort to blame others for all the failures of the Palestinians. On the contrary, it sounds as if it is a frank and even painful assessment of the past and present situation of the Palestinians, and one that is scathing of the past and present Palestinian leadership.

It is important and instructive to look, as Khalidi does, at the situation in its historical context and to examine for example the role the British played in for example installing a religious leadership in Palestine and to draw parallels with British involvement in Iraq. Khalidi points out that the Palestinians were during the early period of the British Mandate, and for several decades afterwards, rather secular.

Surely at this time of almost unprecedented danger in the Middle East such serious and detailed studies and analyses are needed, rather than the dangerous simplistic slogans behind which "both sides" retreat.

The title "The Iron Cage" presumably alludes to Jabotinsky's 1923 book "The Iron Wall: (We and the Arabs"). The title "The Iron Wall" was taken up by the Oxford-based Israeli historian Professor Avi Shlaim (dubbed by some 'revisionist') in his book of that name which looks at Israel's policies towards the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours and what he considers its lost opportunities for peace.

I must add that I'm disappointed at the unpleasant and insulting letters that have been posted about this interview. Why is it that the Palestinian-Israeli issue leads people to adopt such an inflammatory tone and throw all courtesy out of the window, rather than truly trying to evaluate the subject at hand? A complete contrast to the usual tone of Salon discourse. But then perhaps we should remember that Professor Khalidi has been a particular target of the pro-Israeli organisation Campus Watch.

Well at least Jane Juska got a book (A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late Life Adventures in Sex and Romance) out of her famous NYRB ad: "Before I turn 67 — next March — I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me." And her ad worked for her, even if it does read more like an LRB ad than a typical self-glorifying NYRB one.

When I heard news that 32 students had been massacred, for a few seconds I assumed I was listening to a news item about Iraq. Nowadays the mass killings that happen virtually every day in that country, eg of students or police recruits, are barely shocking and are even considered "normal" and to be expected. Could it be that the constant news of mass slaughter of innocents in Iraq and other gruesome killings around the world, and their immediate screening or transmission on the net, is steadily lowering the threshold for violence more generally? In Britain there is some smugness and shaking of heads over the lax gun control in the USA, and the power of the gun lobby, but given the increasing availability of guns here and the recent upsurge in shootings and stabblings as a way of settling minor scores among teenagers it wouldn't be surprising if we see shootings in schools or colleges.