Rest in peace Burt Reynolds, the Hollywood star who has just died, aged 82. I have happy memories of his films; not “Deliverance” of course, terrifying on so many levels, but most of the others, including lesser-known comedies like “Nickeledeon” and “Paternity”. The latter was a much-watched treat in the 1980s, one of the first… Continue reading Burt Reynolds, “Paternity” and something from the bread group
Last month, during the last full week of the school holidays, the children saw a double bill of Hugh Grant films, spread out over a few days. First was “Paddington 2” (2017) on Saturday night, while my wife and I were at a restaurant for our wedding anniversary (yes, two restaurant meals on the same… Continue reading Word of the week: suicide
Last weekend, on his BBC Radio 2 show “Sounds of the 70s”, Johnnie Walker played a record to commemorate the 80th birthday of Jet Black, the original drummer in punk-era band The Stranglers. For many people they would be classified as a punk band, but I appreciate that this is a matter of opinion rather… Continue reading An 80-year-old punk
Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. Over the last ten years our celebrations have often incorporated travelling into Central London with the children and having lunch at a branch of Wagamama, the rice and noodle restaurant. Ten years ago, when the children were aged 3 and 1, dining at Wagamama was… Continue reading The Wagamama List, and Parking in Central London on a Saturday
Here is the 100th “Word of the week” piece on this Blog. Looking back through the previous 99 I see that there is one for every letter of the alphabet, apart from “X”, so this one completes the set. It wasn’t planned this way, but at some point in the last 33 months, from adverb… Continue reading Word of the week: xu
This earlier piece contained 15 questions and 6 challenges related to James Bond films. The questions are duplicated here, and the answers follow immediately afterwards. 15 questions In which Bond movie does the villain’s car turn into a light aircraft? [From “The Chase”, 24-May-2018] Who recorded the theme to the 1997 movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”?… Continue reading James Bond Trivia: the answers
Last week I wrote about James Bond, a regular subject on TV quiz shows. Today’s piece gathers together a selection of questions and challenges about Bond movies and theme songs from the last couple of years’ worth of shows like “The Chase”, “Fifteen to One” and “Tenable”, and from the Pop Master quiz on Ken… Continue reading James Bond Trivia: 15 questions, 6 lists
Over the last two weekends we have watched, as a family, the most recent pair of James Bond movies, “Skyfall” (2012) and “Spectre” (2015). They were broadcast on ITV2 (lots of ad-breaks), we recorded them on our multi-channel box and watched each of them within 24 hours of recording. The children, aged 11 and 13,… Continue reading James Bond and me
“Fascinator” is an example of something that my brother calls “24 Hour Syndrome”, a word or phrase that you hear or read for the first time and then encounter again in a completely different context within the next 24 hours. Looking back over the 580 pieces that are available to you on this Blog right… Continue reading Word of the week: fascinator
Since writing about Cycling Proficiency back in June I have been meaning to return to the subject of bicycles, and to write about the first bike I ever owned. There are over 1500 words about this in the paragraphs that follow. In that earlier piece I mentioned sharing a bicycle with my brother as a… Continue reading More about bicycles
The Compartments 