In the late 1990s I caught up with an old friend from university days. We hadn’t met for something like seven years. She had briefly worked in London in the 1980s but had then moved around, usually about an hour’s drive away (in places like Brighton and Oxford), and also spent some time working in… Continue reading The Tariff Bore: mobile phones
Even before we had children I would often think about things that we learnt at school and try and recall the relevant topics or mnemonics. As I noted in this piece about “Gut” by Giulia Enders, “The digestive system, the journey that food makes right through the digestive tract, has been a source of fascination… Continue reading Mrs Nerg or Mrs Gren
CamelCase involves capitalizing one of the letters in a word to make it look like two words. The following words all use CamelCase: PowerPoint, WordPerfect, YouTube, McDonald’s. I had never heard the word before until there was a question about it on “Only Connect”, a second round question where the contestants have to say what… Continue reading Word of the week: CamelCase
Back in the spring the rest of the family watched the latest series of “Masterchef” together, often while it was being broadcast live. My son would often go back and watch some of the scenes again, like he does with his favourite dance routines from “Strictly Come Dancing”. Our multi-channel box now has dozens of… Continue reading The Summer of Sorbet
Here are the answers to yesterday’s piece challenging you to name UK #1 hit singles containing boys’ names. In year order: Name Artist Song Year Joe Frankie Laine Hey Joe 1953 Hernando Johnston Brothers Hernando’s Hideaway 1955 Mack Bobby Darin Mack The Knife 1959 Johnny John Leyton Johnny Remember Me 1961 Michael Highwaymen Michael 1961… Continue reading UK #1 hit singles containing boys’ names (the answers)
As a follow-up to last month’s piece, asking you to name as many UK #1s as possible that contain a girl’s name, how many boys’ names can you find in UK #1 hits? There are fewer of them, and when I have challenged people to come up with them I haven’t had to say “It… Continue reading UK #1 hit singles containing boys’ names
It’s a while since I wrote about any of our favourite catchphrases. I recorded many of them in the first few months of this Blog, and created this Category to find them easily. A phrase that my wife and I have used throughout our married life relates to the best hundred pounds (or fifty pounds,… Continue reading “The best hundred pounds I ever spent”
Farewell to the Pipeline, which was, all too briefly, the centre of rock ’n roll London. In the early years of this decade my nights out frequently incorporated three rock venues: The Pipeline, The Intrepid Fox and the 12 Bar Club. All three have now closed. A typical night out would involve beer and pinball… Continue reading Farewell to the Pipeline
Earlier this year I wrote this piece about how much I dislike Questionnaires. Since then I have been meaning to tell the following story. Back in the 1990s I was a frequent visitor to software companies and software trade fairs. The big three companies for the work that I did back then were Lotus, WordPerfect… Continue reading More on Questionnaires
Just a quick Word of the Week, or six, all based on the same four letters. Can you think of a group of four letters that can create more anagrams than “opst”? I’m using the Scrabble convention of arranging them in alphabetical order. “Opst” is not a word but opts, post, pots, spot, stop and… Continue reading Word of the week: opts (post, pots, spot, stop, tops)
The Compartments 