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
Last Saturday afternoon my 13-year-old son and I took a trip to Croydon, about an hour’s drive away. Our destination was Flip Out London, “London’s only pinball club”, home to 30 different pinball tables in a unit on an industrial estate. You can check out their website here. It’s open most weekends, and for an… Continue reading Pinball binges of the 1990s
Here’s another list-based trivia challenge. There are 20 elements in the Periodic Table whose names, in English, contain 10 or more letters. How many can you name? All 20 names appear at the end of this piece, grouped in various ways. First, as usual, a few paragraphs of text so that you don’t read them… Continue reading Another Trivia Challenge: Chemical elements with 10 or more letters
Harlesdon is a mis-spelling of Harlesden, an area of North West London a few miles from where we live. The correct spelling ends in “den”, like its neighbour Willesden. Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and Wimbledon in South West London, on the other hand, end in “don”. If you approach the junction known as Savoy Circus from… Continue reading Word of the week: Harlesdon
Last summer, in this piece, I compared “The New Trivia Season” with the start of the English football season. New series of the following three quiz shows began in July, all screened on BBC2: “University Challenge”, “Only Connect” and “Mastermind”. They all reached their series finales in March and April this year. First was “Mastermind”… Continue reading The Trivia Season comes to an end
Like last week’s word (Cadillac), this week’s has been prompted by a question on a TV quiz show: What is the largest member of the grouse family? The answer is capercaillie. It’s also known as the wood grouse or heather cock. Last week’s piece reported that a couple on “The 100k Drop” lost all of… Continue reading Word of the week: capercaillie
