Recently I heard the following quiz question: “Which group of orchestral instruments has a name that is an anagram of supersonic?” The answer is “percussion” (not strings, woodwind or brass). I like anagrams, and had never come across this one before. It made me think of other noteworthy collections of letters. There are surprisingly few… Continue reading A few recent anagrams
With the exception of last Monday’s Anniversary Day I kept off the beer for Lent. Over the Easter weekend, while planning which pubs to visit on Easter Sunday, I asked the following question of various friends and family members: how can you tell, at a glance, whether or not a pub is rough? I appreciate… Continue reading Pubs with pool tables
The Channel 4 show “Countdown” was, famously, the channel’s first programme when it launched in 1982. It has been broadcast almost every weekday afternoon since then, well over half of my life. There have been various times in the last 30 years when I have been able to watch it live but until recently I… Continue reading Early morning “Countdown”
Happy Easter to you. We’re all back on the chocolate. As every native English speaker knows, the word “chocolate” has two syllables. It’s chock-lit, or chock-luht, or even chahk-lert, never choc-oh-late. My brother and I were discussing this last week when he was over for the 20th Anniversary of my mother’s death. He has lived… Continue reading Word of the week: chocolate
A question in the last series of “Only Connect”, BBC2’s fiendish weekly quiz show, was right up my alley and has been on my mind ever since. It listed the four artists who have reached #1 in the UK charts and also won an acting Oscar (Best Actor or Best Actress). Can you think of… Continue reading Music and movies: three questions from “Only Connect”
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of my mother’s death. I wrote about the anniversary a year ago, in this piece. This year we followed a slightly different pattern to previous years. We prepared for the anniversary by planting some flowers the day before. It was the first time that my children have helped out with… Continue reading Another Anniversary Day
A short “Word of the Week” today: kakistocracy, which means rule by those who are worst, or least suitable. It came up last week in a question on ITV’s quiz show “The Chase”. This definition from dictionary.com tells us that it was first coined in 1829 as “government by the worst element of a society,”… Continue reading Word of the week: kakistocracy
Five years ago today I read this article (“The Insider’s Guide to Cancer Prevention) in the Guardian’s Saturday edition. I am glad to see that it’s still available online. It’s worth a few minutes of your time. Reading it prompted me to make one small daily change in my life. I am now nearly the… Continue reading Five years of aspirin
Earlier this year my daughter and I were driving past a pub called The Plough. I asked if she knew how to pronounce it, and what the word meant. She guessed, quite understandably, that it’s pronounced “pluff”, to rhyme with rough. (In fact it rhymes with “cow” or “now”, as I’m sure you know.) She… Continue reading Word of the week: plough
“Is there a point to all this?” This question has not emerged from some deep existential reflection, nor from a review of the pieces posted on this Blog so far. It’s a line from a French movie I saw in the 1980s, which comes to mind every now and then. Back then, without search engines,… Continue reading “Is there a point to all this?”
The Compartments 