“Coincidence Corner” is my light-hearted description for what has become a monthly look at the themes, stories or references that recur if you keep your eyes and ears open, no matter what you read, watch or listen to. They’re not really coincidences, though some people might see them that way, and they’re based on what… Continue reading May’s “Coincidence Corner”
“Blended” has been used for many years to describe an approach to learning that incorporates instructor-led teaching and instruction through other media (online or, historically, other digital resources like DVDs and CD-ROMs). The instructor-led part of the process works best for me: I prefer to be taught things by people rather than through some digital… Continue reading Word of the week: blended
Another Bank Holiday weekend, another trip to visit friends outside London. We rarely make trips outside the M25 area and when we do we have a good time. For various reasons our seating arrangements on long car journeys, for at least part of the trip, are as follows: my wife drives, our 11 year old… Continue reading Travel sickness
Like many people of my generation I followed the charts (“the pop charts”, as we didn’t call them) as a child, as a teenager, and into my 20s. We listened to the Top 20 rundown on a Sunday evening, we watched “Top of the Pops” every Thursday, and over the years, whenever they changed the… Continue reading The Best Top 3 Ever
We have a new PC, for general home use. It has Windows 10 and Office 2016 and works fine. I also have a Windows 10 phone and am happy enough with it, though (as I wrote last month, in my Farewell to WhatsApp) it feels like I am currently supporting the underdog. As I wrote… Continue reading Windows 10 and Never 10
In every previous month so far this year there have been songs stuck in my head, Earworms, as noted in articles in January, February, March and April. There have been no involuntary snatches of tunes coming to mind with great force this month. The closest has been, of all things, “Super Trouper” by Abba. I… Continue reading No Earworms in May
Earlier this month I wrote about apostrophes and noted that you can summarize all the rules about them on a single sheet of A4 (or Letter sized paper if you’re in the US). You can read whole books about grammar and spelling but everything you need to know about apostrophes can be summarized on one… Continue reading Everything you need on one sheet of A4
A few years ago someone told me that all mammals, including humans, have a lifespan of a billion heartbeats. I believed him, didn’t question the number, assumed that he knew what he was talking about. Some time later I decided to check the numbers, to work out how many heartbeats there might be in a… Continue reading How many heartbeats?
Sponge-worthy is the second example of a hyphenated “Word of the Week” (after Eye-watering from last December). The word will resonate with fans of the US sitcom “Seinfeld”. I have written elsewhere (in my 9,000 words about watching every Shakespeare play in 2003/4) that the UK is probably the only English-speaking territory where the show… Continue reading Word of the week: sponge-worthy
Here in West London there is a pleasant walk you can take along the river, mostly avoiding road traffic. It includes Hammersmith Bridge, the towpath on the south side of the river, Barnes High Street, Barnes railway bridge, Dukes Meadows on the north side, Chiswick Mall, The Mall Hammersmith and the traffic-free route through Furnival… Continue reading A walk along the river
The Compartments 