My father’s approach to education can be summed up in two ways. The first relates to how he would respond to gaps in our childhood knowledge. Typically he would say, “How come you didn’t know that? Jesus Christ, I knew that when I was your age.” The second was his response if I shared a… Continue reading My father’s approach to education
When my brother got married, in Spain in the 1980s, there were still substantial savings to be made at duty free stores when flying to Europe. A few of us travelled from Gatwick to Alicante and bought two bottles of duty-free Veuve Cliquot champagne in a rather attractive (and heavily discounted) gift set. It was,… Continue reading “When my brother was at Cambridge he drank this [Veuve Cliquot] every day”
Bob Dylan is the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Good. I’m happy about that. As I wrote in a piece last year I have friends who have told me how much they hate Bob Dylan. I am still friends with these people but we are never going to agree on this one.… Continue reading Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate
Today is the Feast of St Edward the Confessor. He was the last king of England who was also a saint. His death in 1066 led to rival claims for the English throne, the Battle of Hastings and, on Christmas Day that year, the coronation of William the Conqueror as king. You might have known… Continue reading Edward the Confessor
In this earlier piece I asked the following question, regarding the names of stations on the London Underground: What is the smallest number of stations that you would need to make sure that all 26 letters of the alphabet are included at least once? The question arose from the answer to my favourite trivia question:… Continue reading Tube Station Pangrams (a Solution)
What is the only station on the London Underground that contains the letter Z? That is my favourite trivia question, and I won’t tell you the answer just yet. (It’s much further down in this piece.) It’s also (here in London at least) the best question I know for assessing someone else’s approach to quizzing,… Continue reading Tube Station Pangrams (a challenge)
I have no intention of using fingerprint recognition to access any of my devices. The time may come when none of us has a choice about this but for now I will stick with increasingly complex passwords and 2-step authentication. An enthusiastic Windows Blog from late last month announces the following: We’re excited to announce… Continue reading “3 times faster!”
What is an acceptable answer to the question, “How are you?” When I was young the usual response was “Fine”. One of my late uncles used to be annoyed by this. “Fine?” he would say. “Don’t say you’re fine, say ‘I’m well’.” These days “How are you?” is usually met with a different answer: “Good”,… Continue reading Word of the week: fine
Now that my son has started senior school (or high school) he has a rucksack full of books and equipment. He carries the exercise books for each of his subjects to and from school every day, whether or not he has homework in those subjects. He never leaves any of them in his locker at… Continue reading Never travelling light
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
The Compartments 