Back in September I wrote about the quiz show “Tenable” and set a challenge, to name the 10 items contained in various lists. For example: “Name the 10 elements in the Periodic Table that have fewer than 6 letters in their name.” The original piece containing those challenges is here, and the answers are here.… Continue reading “Tenable”, and people who could have made money using this Blog
Yesterday morning, in the few minutes between waking and getting up, Buckfast was on my mind: the word, the abbey, the tonic wine. The tonic wine was mentioned on BBC1’s “Question Time” last week, which is probably what started all this. (More about that later on.) Yesterday afternoon, on his “Sounds of the 70s” radio… Continue reading Word of the week: Buckfast
Many months ago, writing on my Lyrics Menu, I wrote: “I think about them all the time, have done for decades. Even so, over the years, when discussing lyrics, and when asked to name a great lyric I have often paused, unable to pick out anything specific from the tens of thousands of lines that… Continue reading “When there’s no future how can there be sin?”
At some point in the last 40 years the Casualty departments in UK hospitals were renamed as Accident and Emergency (or A&E). In the US A&E is known as ER (the Emergency Room). “Casualty” is a BBC1 series set in a hospital, broadcast on Saturday nights after “Strictly Come Dancing”. I have never seen a… Continue reading Urgent Care
Are you familiar with the song “Patches” by Clarence Carter? If not there’s a link later in this paragraph for you to follow, but before you do let me issue a “Mascara Warning”, even if you don’t wear mascara. “Patches” is right up there with “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro as a song that is likely… Continue reading “Patches”
Last month, writing about Led Zeppelin, I mentioned my radio highlight of recent months, Robert Plant talking about Elvis Presley on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. The show was available on the iPlayer until 11 November and I wrote, “If I’m organized enough I’ll transcribe the audio so that you can… Continue reading Robert Plant, transcribed
As predicted yesterday, in this piece (“Typing one-handed”), I am experimenting with dictation and am currently speaking these words to my laptop. It is surprisingly easy, although I still have to go back and amend the punctuation, one-handed. Over the years, on numerous projects related to software upgrades, I have tested various versions of Dragon… Continue reading Voice Recognition
I have injured my left hand. Nothing serious, no broken bones, just some “soft tissue trauma”, in medical parlance. It means that I am resting it as much as possible, wearing a splint for the first time, and typing these words one-handed. Usually I touch-type, both hands resting on the home keys, and don’t even… Continue reading Typing one-handed
Last night, courtesy of my son’s godmother Angela, I had a most enjoyable evening watching the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Coriolanus” at the Barbican. This means that I have now seen at least two different stage productions of every Shakespeare play. I make no apologies for making lists and crossing things off them, on… Continue reading “Coriolanus” and completing the set, twice
Last week (“Things we might never do again”) I mentioned a Quiz Night at my daughter’s primary school. It took place in October and was the last such event that I am likely to attend. She is due to move to secondary school (senior school or High School if you prefer) next September, so our… Continue reading Played 3, Won 3
The Compartments 