Here’s the first part of my favourite joke from recent years: “Why did the vegan cross the road?” I was asked this by a very polite, well-brought up woman in her 30s, who I have known since she was 3. Immediately after asking me the question she looked worried and said, “Oh, you’re not a vegan are you?”, as… Continue reading Vegans and Oxbridge Graduates
These “Word of the week” pieces have become rather less frequent in recent months, for no particular reason. I have drafted several posts without finalizing them, but there are still over 170 finished pieces (and over 100,000 words of text) dotted throughout this site about words that have been in the news or come to… Continue reading Word of the week: crucify
Here’s a catchphrase I first heard in the 1990s and use from time to time: “You want to take more water with it”. You might need to change the pronoun and verb forms as appropriate. I can pinpoint the date and place where I first heard it: St Patrick’s Day 1993, near our local church.… Continue reading “You want to take more water with it”
Uno, as you probably know, represents the number one in at least two languages (Spanish and Italian are the ones that I am familiar with). It is used specifically for nouns that take the masculine form, though this is not always straightforward. The word for a car is masculine in Spanish (“coche”) but feminine in… Continue reading Word of the week: Uno
Until this week I had had the same dentist for 25 years. He is now cutting back his hours, moving towards retirement and taking on only private work. If I wanted to continue with him as my dentist, I would have to go private, not on the NHS. 25 years is, by a long way,… Continue reading A New Dentist
Last Friday, Channel 4 devoted the hours after 9pm to the sitcom “Friday Night Dinner”, to mark the show’s 10th anniversary. We have been big fans of the show for the last couple of years and were looking forward to it. There was a documentary featuring interviews with the cast, crew members (including the writer, Robert Popper) and celebrity fans. One of the show’s stars,… Continue reading Word of the week: mischievous
The English football season is almost over. There are play-off finals in the coming week to determine the final promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the professional game. In the top division, the Premier League, last Sunday’s final round of fixtures settled the few remaining issues, mainly related to European qualification. The relegation places had been confirmed with three matches to spare, and Manchester City were crowned… Continue reading All the things that didn’t matter, last season
Reflections and facts about winners of the Academy Award for Best Director. [1100 words here, followed by a table containing 26 rows of data.] The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony took place last month. As in the majority of previous ceremonies the same film won for Best Picture and Best Director. For only the second time, the Best Director award went to a woman, Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland”. The… Continue reading Oscars Trivia: films that won Best Picture but not Best Director
Breakfast TV here in the UK currently offers us three main options: “BBC Breakfast” on BBC1, “Good Morning Britain” on ITV and comedy shows on Channel 4. “Milkshake” on Channel 5 is aimed at young children, and 10 years ago, when our children were 4 and 6, we often tuned in for episodes of “Peppa… Continue reading Word of the week: “Cheers”
A new series of ITV quiz show “Tenable” began on Monday 15 February. Here are the questions and answers for Thursday 13 May, Series 5 Episode 49 (S5Ep49). Sally Lindsay continues to stand in for the show’s usual presenter Warwick Davis. [Repeated on Monday 6 September 2021 and Thursday 11 May 2023.] For previous series… Continue reading “Tenable” questions, 13 May 2021 [Series 5 Episode 49]
The Compartments 