As I wrote last month, (Writing, typing, “The Shining” and the Cargo Cult) I write (or type) at least a thousand words per day at least five days per week. If I carry on till the end of this month (January 2016) I will have been doing this for over ten years. Before last month… Continue reading The writer’s equivalent of stage fright
“Delilah”. You know the song, probably from Tom Jones’s version. You might recall the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s recording from 1975 as well (it was mentioned in a question on Ken Bruce’s Pop Master quiz this morning). There’s a recording on YouTube here in case you need to refresh your memory. Literal versus Inferential I… Continue reading At the end of the song “Delilah” is she alive or dead?
My wife and still have all of our vinyl albums, accumulated in our childhoods in the 1960s and 1970s, and when we were more grown up in the 1980s. There are even a few from the 1990s. Neither of us was a great vinyl collector, and there is some doubling up here and there (multiple… Continue reading “I’ve got it on vinyl”
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I love this word, it hardly needs a description: a chair serving the function of a wardrobe. I’m not sure whether I made it up, and found that other people had made it up at the same time, or read it and then forgot about it. The first time I remember reading it was in… Continue reading Word of the week: chairdrobe
A car trip in the 1980s, a university friend driving me and another friend of his to a lunch party somewhere outside London. I had met the other chap, Richard, a few times, but didn’t know him well. The car radio was on, playing golden oldies. It might well have been Alan Freeman’s “Pick of… Continue reading “Do you know the words to every pop song?”
On the “Tracks of my years” segment of Ken Bruce’s Radio 2 show this morning Noel Gallagher selected U2’s “I still haven’t what I’m looking for”. He talked about how much he loves the band and how you can’t really trust anyone who says that they hate U2. How can anyone hate every song they’ve… Continue reading “Never trust a man who …”
The older I get the more I realize that there is very little Universal Knowledge. There are so many things (cultural references, song lyrics, basic facts) that I can safely assume my immediate family and oldest friends will recognize but outside of these groups I am constantly surprised by the things that people have never… Continue reading Universal Knowledge: “Make it easy on yourself”
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Have you read “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” by Mark Haddon? There’s a strong chance that you have. It’s one of those books that you are likely to have read even if you only read occasionally. If you’re over 40 it’ll be up there with “Fever Pitch” (if you’re a… Continue reading “The Curious Incident”: the joke and the favourite book
