I have speculated more than once in these posts about people’s ability to remember the words to songs. There’s a memory from my 20s here, speculation about whether there’s a link between people’s ability to remember jokes and lyrics here and this more recent piece looks at songs that I have heard thousands of times… Continue reading Lyrics that stick and lyrics that don’t
Geography doesn’t stand still. When I was a boy the Soviet Union (or USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) counted as one country with one capital city (Moscow). After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it split into many more countries. How many, exactly? I didn’t know until very recently so looked it up.… Continue reading A mnemonic for the former Soviet Union
Breakonium is, according to Nicholas Lezard in this recent piece in the New Statesman, “the most fragile substance on Earth”. I read the piece and laughed aloud, not for the first time when reading one of his Down and Out in London columns, and have been using the word breakonium ever since. It’s not an… Continue reading Word of the week: breakonium
Maybe I’m getting old. I have taken to repeating some of the phrases that old people have traditionally used about young people, and about how the world has changed, and my use of these phrases is not always for comic effect. “That’s not music, that’s just noise” is probably the closest to home. I first… Continue reading “That’s not music, that’s just noise” (and similar phrases)
Last year I wrote a few “Coincidence Corner” pieces, light-hearted reviews of the themes, stories or references that recur if you keep your eyes and ears open, no matter what you read, watch or listen to. If you’re not finding “coincidences” it might be a sign that you’re not reading, watching or listening to much… Continue reading A few little coincidences for January
A handful of albums have been regular companions through the last 30 years and more. A year might go by without playing one or two of them but never longer than that. Two of these albums have been on my mind, and on my car stereo, and on various other media, in recent weeks: David… Continue reading Cigar-chewing Charlies and Femme Fatales
Yesterday I noted how a replacement vehicle that was supplied by our garage earlier this month came with barely enough fuel for our needs. It got me thinking about the other two occasions when I have nearly run out of petrol. The last time was when we bought our current car, in 2008. It has… Continue reading More about running out of petrol
Have you ever run out of petrol? (Or, as our American friends would put it, have you ever run out of gas?) I haven’t, and have only come close to it three times, including once earlier this month, when we had a replacement car for a few days. Our car was having some work done… Continue reading Running out of petrol
[There are over 1600 words in this article.] In many small ways I am all about efficiency and productivity. On journeys that I make regularly on the London Underground I always know the best place to stand (or sit, if it’s not rush-hour) to ensure that you are ideally positioned for the exit or any… Continue reading Small gains for many or big gains for a few
Yesterday, at around 5pm, I had a pint of beer in the only pub in my part of London that I had never drunk in before. In my piece about our Boxing Day Pub Crawl I mentioned that there are only two pubs in my postcode that I had never been to. As of yesterday… Continue reading Every pub in my postcode
The Compartments 