I see that my old university has given a professorship to a fantasist and plagiarist (both 'alleged', m'lud), for reasons that are all too painfully obvious. The story is still unfolding, in jaw-dropping detail, and will surely do real harm to Cambridge's reputation.
One of Arday's outlandish Munchausenesque tales is that he once ran 600 miles in six days – and that reminded me of something I wrote about a while back: the six-day walk (and one George Hazel did indeed walk 600 miles in six days, back in 1882).
Among the many reasons to mourn the death of Rod Liddle, the nearest thing we had to a Swiftian journalist, is that we'll never read what he had to say on the Jason Arday story. It would surely have been choice.
Tuesday, 4 August 2026
Missing Liddle already
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Yiannis Kouros used to be able to that sort of thing. (If he is still running that way at 70, well, I feel even more decrepit now). Wikipedia gives his best time over 1000 km as 5 hours and 20 minutes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiannis_Kouros).
ReplyDeleteBut Yiannis Kouros became famous for this sort of thing. I heard of him in America when he was running along the Danube; a few years ago, I heard two twenty-somethings talking about him as they ran. I don't really follow distance running that much, but I suspect that I'd have heard of Arday if the distances were attested.
Yes, I fear Arday just might have been stretching the truth a tad here.
DeleteI foretell an Arday's night.
ReplyDeleteHo ho.
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