You are probably familiar with the idea of the “The Full English”, or “The Full Irish”, a breakfast consisting of various fried items. Bacon, sausages and eggs always feature, and then some combination of tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, black pudding, white pudding and a fried slice (of bread). You might have strong opinions about what… Continue reading The fry, sandwiches, and another family catchphrase
It’s a while since I mentioned anywhere on this Blog that I have never smoked: not a single puff, drag or draw. That’s the main reason that I have never taken any proscribed drugs. I have never snorted or injected anything, legal or otherwise. I have been drunk plenty of times, and there many pieces… Continue reading The smell of weed is everywhere
Unlike other figures of speech that I learnt about at school, malapropism is one that stuck first time. I had to look up words like zeugma and synecdoche many times, but not malapropism. From the age of 12 onwards I knew that it takes its name from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Sheridan’s play “The… Continue reading Word of the week: malapropism
Back in July, on the day that the FIFA World Cup and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships ended, I speculated that the summer of sport had pretty much come to an end. I was wrong. There have been weekends since then when we have watched more sport on more screens than ever before. It kicked off… Continue reading The summer of sport really does come to an end
“Tenable”, the ITV quiz show that I first mentioned nearly a year ago in this piece, is back with a new series on weekday afternoons. It’s also back on “series record” on our multi-channel box. It is the most linear of quiz shows. Every episode has exactly the same number of correct answers: 10 answers… Continue reading “Tenable” questions, week ending 7-Sep-2018
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
