For over 50 months, until two days ago, I was in a very small minority of mobile phone users: people with Windows phones rather than iPhones (Apple) or Android devices (Google). As I noted in this piece in 2016, just after my last upgrade, it felt like I was supporting the underdog, “the little guy”,… Continue reading Farewell to Windows phones, and reflections on address books
One of last month’s “Word of the Week” pieces, Cadillac, was prompted by a question on a Channel 4 quiz show that has been revived after an absence of many years. Originally broadcast in primetime as “The Million Pound Drop”, it now has a 4pm slot and is called “The 100k Drop”. Contestants play the… Continue reading Word of the week: quotidian
Just over a year ago I posted this piece, about Dead Pubs of West London. It’s an updated version of something I created for a Quiz Night at my children’s primary school back in 2012. There are pictures of buildings where pubs used to be, and of old buildings that became bars at some point… Continue reading Dead Pubs update (June 2018)
As I noted in this piece on the Projects Menu (“A UK #1 for every year”) I can sing and play at least one UK chart-topping song from every year between 1954 and 2013. This repertoire developed from over 20 years’ worth of learning the odd song here and there and finding that many of… Continue reading More than Once at One (39 songs)
At the end of April, as the English football season was coming to an end, I wrote this piece (“Blue is the colour, five years in a row”) about trophy-winning teams and the colours that they wear. At the time we already knew that Manchester City were Premier League Champions. They had also won the… Continue reading More about teams in blue and teams in red
If you have been watching “A Very British Scandal”, the BBC drama which concluded yesterday evening, you will know that Rinka is the name of a dog, a Great Dane shot dead in October 1975. According to the drama, and the John Preston book on which it is based, the gun was fired by Andrew… Continue reading Word of the week: Rinka
Last week, just before the half-term holidays began, my 11-year-old daughter passed her Cycling Proficiency Test. She has proved that she is capable of riding a bicycle on the streets of West London. It’s a test that I never took in my childhood. I switched schools just before my 9th birthday and my new school… Continue reading Cycling Proficiency
Earlier this year, London’s free evening newspaper The Standard revamped its Puzzles and Games section. It now takes up two pages rather than one and has new challenges. There is a Battleships puzzle every day. (I haven’t got to grips with that one yet.) The Mini Codeword has returned after an absence of a year… Continue reading Planning journeys, and attention to detail on the London Underground
Early in 2016 I wrote my first listicle, a rather long one containing 57 songs that rhyme “heart” with “part” or “apart”. It’s here, on the Lyrics Menu. As it says, “There’s nothing wrong with rhyming the word “heart” with either “part” or “apart”. Shakespeare did it, Hal David did it, Bob Dylan has done… Continue reading 100 songs that rhyme “heart” with “part” or “apart”
Earlier this month the Guardian website featured the following headline: “Almost 100 police have received psychological help after Salisbury attack”. The “Salisbury attack” in question involved a former spy and his daughter being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent. You can read my own take on it here, in this piece about the word “Spy”.… Continue reading Coroners and Crooners, Framers and Farmers
The Compartments 