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Sense and Census Abilities

are you fully kidding me

Rick Morton

Rick Morton

01 Sep 2024 — 11 min read

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Plumb and Plumber

Plumb and Plumber

On a recent Wednesday, the kitchen sink in my Paris apartment became totally clogged and I was deserted by the civilising infrastructure of modern life. Thus begins my nightmare. The building pipes in the French capital – and probably the rest of the country, too – are notoriously old and narrow. As

By Rick Morton 03 Feb 2026
The Great Silencing

The Great Silencing

Last week it snowed heavily twice in Paris, turning the city into a frigid, monochrome fantasy land over three days, and at the weekend I popped into the Musée Marmottan Monet for a spot of impressionism and an exhibition called the Empire of Sleep. In what seems to me a

By Rick Morton 15 Jan 2026
Surprise So Nice We Did It Twice

Surprise So Nice We Did It Twice

The Morton family has never really been good at surprises. To be surprised meant being the recipient of unscheduled bad news. To wit: a part on the car that none of us previously knew existed is broken by decree of the cosmos, like the long-lost cousin that appears on soap

By Rick Morton 05 Jan 2026
In Which I Am Very Silly

In Which I Am Very Silly

I deliberately booked the MRI for my knee in the late afternoon on the other side of Paris because I thought it would be fun to turn it into a walking tour and take some photos with my new camera. There is a logic to this, if you squint. I

By Rick Morton 11 Dec 2025
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Nervous Laughter

Life, writing and other tragedies