For many years I have described myself as “plant-blind”. Apart from a few very obvious exceptions, like daffodils and monkey-puzzle trees, I do not recognize the majority of plant species. If a tree has actual fruit on it (like plums, apples or pears) I can identify it, but when the fruit has all gone it’s… Continue reading Cherry blossom and wisteria
This monthly round-up of trivia seems to have displaced monthly round-ups with different themes that occupied my mind last year. In 2016 there were light-hearted “Coincidence Corner” pieces for a few months, and regular pieces about Earworms. These days my brain seems to be filled with trivia and quiz questions. As I noted last month… Continue reading A trivia round-up for April 2017
April 2017 has been a terrible month for the teams and people that I favour in four different sports. The form of Leeds United, a team that I have followed for well over forty years, has been the biggest disappointment. The team has slipped from a play-off place in the top six of the Championship,… Continue reading A terrible month for sport
Last month, in this piece about “Stig of the Dump” and typefaces, I mentioned how, many years ago, I used to deliver training courses on desktop publishing applications. I enjoyed teaching people the differences between typefaces, “beyond the basics of why body text is usually set in a serif, rather than sans serif, font”. [If… Continue reading More about typefaces, serifs and readability
My wife and our 10-year-old daughter enjoy eating sushi. There’s a locally-run place nearby, not part of a chain, where they go at least once a month. For various reasons Thursday has become a regular sushi evening for them. I have never joined them, partly because I do not believe that sushi constitutes a proper… Continue reading “It’s not a meal, it’s a snack”
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”
