“Buffalo Soldier”: the song came to mind while reading Marlon James’s “A Brief History of Seven Killings” this month. As I progressed through the book, every time I put it down (or switched off my Kindle, or exited the Kindle App on a computer) it was “Buffalo Soldier” that went through my mind. I was… Continue reading March’s Earworm: “Buffalo Soldier”
Plane time works only one way. It works in favour of the plane. If the plane is on time you have to rush, check in on time, allow 20 minutes to go through security, maybe allow 15 minutes to walk to the Departure Gate. The Gate Number might only be revealed to you 30 minutes… Continue reading Plane Time
Some years ago a favourite cousin told us a story about a man in a village in Ireland – someone who was “not quite the full shilling” – whose family had some visitors from Germany in the 1950s. Struggling for something to say to these German visitors, he asked, “So … whatever happened to that… Continue reading “Whatever happened to that nice Mr Hitler?”
Following on from previous pieces (“What a coincidence” , “Porlock” and February’s “Coincidence Corner”) I have continued to look out for the connections (or what other people might call “coincidences”) between the books that I’ve been reading and other things that I’ve read, heard or seen over the last month. I have also managed to… Continue reading March’s “Coincidence Corner”
Partner: this word has changed meaning over the last 30 years, during the time that my brother has lived in Spain. He is married (his wife is Spanish) and he has a Business Partner (an English woman). Over the years, until around 2001, he would refer to the latter as his “partner”. He wasn’t living… Continue reading Word of the week: partner
Some years ago, during a conversation with an old school-friend, the subject turned to languages. He’s been based in Christchurch New Zealand for many years and knows a lot more about Maori culture and language than I will ever know. He told me about the Maori idea of 100 songs to learn a language, and… Continue reading 100 songs to learn a language
This is a piece about making arrangements to meet people. It contains simple advice to minimize the amount of time you or your friends spend outside in the cold and rain waiting for people to turn up. Many years ago my wife was arranging to meet a friend in town a few days later. Her… Continue reading Where to meet people
In my piece about Good Friday 1972 I wrote “We went to Woolworth’s to buy Easter Eggs, like we always did.” We would also pick up hot cross buns at one of the bakers on the High Road. In the 1970s it was usually Landgrebe, and by 1980 there were new bakers, called The Baker’s… Continue reading Good Friday Memories
We got up really early in the morning. It was still dark. We were going to West Ham, almost as far as you could go on the District Line. Leeds United were playing and the game started early, 11 o’clock or something. Dad, Jim and I travelled all the way to East London and when… Continue reading Good Friday 1972
Last night, around 10.30pm, I finished reading “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, Marlon James’s 2015 Booker Prize-winning novel. This means that I have read every Booker Prize winner. As I have written elsewhere, the words “I have read” mean that my eyes were open and they passed across every word on every line on… Continue reading On reading every Booker Prize winner
The Compartments 