What word or words do you use at the end of brief exchanges with people you don’t know? If you pay for something in a shop or bar, what do you say when you get your change or your receipt? If the person who has served you is male, maybe it’s “Cheers mate” or “Thanks… Continue reading Word of the week: man
This is a mostly biographical piece about fluctuations in body weight. It was prompted by something the actor-comedian Greg Davies said when he was a guest on the Chris Evans breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 one Friday last July. As I noted in this piece, those Friday morning Chris Evans shows have an entirely… Continue reading “Never heavier”; reflections on body weight
A sketch in the CBBC show “Horrible Histories” has provided us with a new catchphrase over the last 12 months. It’s a reworking of the phrase that most of us first heard in childhood, “easy peasy, lemon squeezy”. The sketch is titled “Francisco Pizarro’s Very Rough Guide 1526” and involves two Spanish Conquistadores, Pedro and… Continue reading “Easy peasy, squeeze the lemon”
Happy New Year to you. You probably spent New Year’s Day rather differently from the four of us here. For most of the day our TV was tuned in to a station called Challenge (46 on our multi-channel box) which was showing old editions of the ITV quiz show “The Chase”. The days either side… Continue reading 12 hours of “The Chase”
Last December I concluded my piece about our Boxing Day pub crawl with the words, “Mission accomplished. Same place, same time next year.” As planned, we began another pub crawl this year at the same place (George IV) and same time (2pm, 26 December). Once again the starting trio consisted of me, my brother and… Continue reading Another Boxing Day pub crawl
The shortest “Word of the Week” item so far on this Blog is this one about kakistocracy. I first heard the word on a quiz show back in March. As that earlier piece notes: “Some of these … pieces are about words that have come up in a few different contexts in the weeks beforehand… Continue reading Word of the week: taiga
This piece from the start of the year dealt with six different pubs called The Blue Posts, all within a mile of Piccadilly Circus here in London. I had just discovered that the one on Rupert Street, a regular haunt in the 1980s and 90s, had closed. A few times in the early months of… Continue reading A welcome return to the Blue Posts
Well, that didn’t last long, did it? In November I wrote this piece in anticipation of this winter’s Ashes series, planning my sleep patterns and my mornings to keep up with sporting events in Australia. Less than a week ago, as we approached the halfway point of the five Test Matches, I wrote this piece… Continue reading Final Ashes update
Earlier this year, on an episode of the ITV quiz show “The Chase”, Bradley Walsh told a brief anecdote about Winston Churchill and the orange-based liqueur Cointreau. The story, as I recall it, was that when Churchill was in his 70s his doctor told him that he wasn’t eating enough fruit and vegetables and needed… Continue reading Word of the week: Cointreau
Once again I am thinking of Trivia and quiz questions. All these years of watching quiz shows on TV, and occasionally attending quiz nights at schools and in bars, have taught me that you might as well have a guess. It’s worth having a guess as long as you’re not going to lose money or… Continue reading You might as well have a guess: 25 answers that are usually right
The Compartments 