We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all have a strength for starting projects, or for finishing them, or for the bit in between (maintaining or managing projects). Similarly we all have a weakness in one of these three areas. You might be one of those very rare people who is equally good at all… Continue reading Starting and finishing, and the bit in between
Earlier this month I wrote about Micromorts and Microlives, referencing a New Scientist cover feature from May 2015. Since then I have read the book mentioned in those pieces, “The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger” by David Spiegelhalter and Michael Blastland). It’s an entertaining and detailed look at risk and the different ways… Continue reading More about Micromorts and Microlives
How do you know what to read next, or which radio programmes to listen to, or what to watch on TV? Whose recommendations do you follow, if any? How much randomness or serendipity is there in your choices? TV and radio were very straightforward when I was growing up. We had three TV channels, no… Continue reading Recent Recommendations
I indulged myself earlier this week and watched the 1973 British horror movie “Theatre of Blood” again. It’s the first time I’ve seen it since the 1980s, and therefore the first time since watching and reading every Shakespeare play. As the movie’s IMDB page puts it succinctly, “a Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the… Continue reading “Theatre of Blood”
I stand corrected. The Oxford Dictionaries website now defines decimate as a verb meaning to “kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of”, as in “the inhabitants of the country had been decimated”, and also defines it as “drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something)”, for example “public transport has been decimated”. The way… Continue reading Word of the week: decimate
Another Friday night, another friend’s band, another pub in Camden Town. The pub serves Guinness, lager, pale ale and no bitter. This seems to be the way now. Many pubs here in London serve a variety of pale ales and IPA (India Pale Ale) and few if any brands of bitter. In the half-light of… Continue reading “And I’ve been on the pale ale”
I was sad to read of the death of Sally Brampton earlier this week. A few years ago I bought “Shoot the Damn Dog”, her Memoir of Depression, on a friend’s recommendation. It’s the kind of book that I have started, and then dipped into, rather than read cover to cover. It’s excellent, but heavy-going… Continue reading Not everything is copy
On Friday 13th it feels appropriate to write about funerals and obituaries. The first funeral I went to was over 35 years ago, for the father of a family we knew from primary school. He had died at the age of 41, less than 18 months after a massive heart attack. (Around that time we… Continue reading The funeral code
Earlier this week, on the BBC1 Quiz Show “Pointless”, Richard Osman compared UK pop band the Sugababes to Trigger’s Broom, because all of the original members were replaced but the band name remained the same. He didn’t go into detail about the derivation of the phrase Trigger’s Broom. Does it mean anything to you? The… Continue reading Trigger’s Broom
“When I woke up the next day I was a different guy”. For me that is the most memorable sentence from Keith Richards’s “Life”. It describes the effect on him of hearing Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on Radio Luxembourg one night. As it says on page 58 of my hardback edition: “That was the stunner.… Continue reading “When I woke up the next day I was a different guy”
The Compartments 