The Monday night quiz marathon is back. As reported here in March, BBC2 has modified its schedule over the last year and now broadcasts 90 minutes of serious quizzing from 7.30pm on a Monday. This comprises three shows that are due to build up to Grand Finals next spring. “University Challenge”, which now has a… Continue reading Word of the week: Angstrom
Have you noticed how frequently characters in films and on TV open and close their laptops? Often, if someone is working away and is interrupted by another character, however briefly, they simply close up their computer. They don’t save their work, they don’t have to deal with any prompts onscreen, they simply flip the screen… Continue reading Flipping laptops
Sonofabitch (alternatively sunuvabitch, son-of-a-bitch or even “son of a bitch”) is an old-fashioned exclamation or term of abuse that I have been hearing a lot over the last month while I work my way, very happily, through all 11 series of the sitcom “Modern Family”. (I wrote about the show in this earlier post.) I… Continue reading Word of the week: sonofabitch
Back in 2018, in this piece, I posed the following question: What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? It’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. The answer was revealed in that earlier piece,… Continue reading “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” revisited
Diligent readers of this Blog will know that yesterday, 21 September, was my birthday. In this piece from 2017 I listed a dozen or more people who were also born on that date. You can add Joe “PE with Joe” Wicks to the list. He was born in 1986. In terms of star sign and… Continue reading “It never rains on my birthday”
As noted from time to time on this Blog, our TV viewing as a family consists mainly of sport, quiz shows and comedy series. Last week, although it was the week the children went back to school, at least two of us watched every minute of the latest series of “Who wants to be a… Continue reading “Modern Family”, and reflections on sitcoms
Last month, in this piece, I wrote about MiniDisc technology. In recent weeks I have been playing back some of my old MiniDisc recordings, stretching back over more than two decades. They’re similar to the kind of things we recorded back in the 1980s: mix-tapes and radio shows. There are chart run-downs, American-themed shows presented… Continue reading Word of the week: mint
In September 2019, in this piece about readers in distant places, I noted that this Blog has attracted at least one visitor from 38 of the 40 most populous nations on earth. The exceptions were Iran and Sudan (18th and 34th respectively in the list of countries by population). I wrote, “If either country does… Continue reading An update about readers in faraway places (Angola, Cuba, Sudan …)
Nineteen years ago today my wife and I were on honeymoon, taking it easy by the swimming pool in a converted farmhouse in Tuscany. The previous evening we had dinner in Florence, about an hour’s drive away, one of the most enjoyable meals we have ever shared. It was at an unpretentious family-run restaurant. When… Continue reading “No decaf. No cappuccino. No cream. Only raspberries!”
On this date in 1972 US athlete Dave Wottle won the 800m final at the Munich Olympics. I remember it well. It was the first Olympic year when I knew what was happening. I had been looking forward to the athletics events all summer but we missed some of them. We were on holiday in… Continue reading Olympic memories: Munich 1972, Wottle with the throttle
The Compartments 