What are your strengths? What are you good at? What do your friends, family, and others around you, regard as your strengths? In my case, friends and family have often made reference to my memory. I’m not sure that they all regard it as a strength, but it’s certainly something that gets mentioned. On numerous… Continue reading No good at medical chat
Last week, after the final show in the current season of “Upstart Crow”, my wife and I were having a conversation which led me to reflect on how good Jonathan Ross’s old radio programme was. For a few years, until around 2009, it occupied the Saturday late-morning slot (10am till 1pm) on BBC Radio 2,… Continue reading “Strictly 70s Crumpet”
Does anyone remember a 1987 film called “Black Widow”? It starred Debra Winger and Theresa Russell and was directed by Bob Rafelson, as you can see here on this IMDB page. There’s certainly one person who saw it back then and has no memory of it: my brother. We were discussing it earlier this month… Continue reading “I can’t believe you’re buying this”
My cousin Eamonn is a great joke-teller. He also knows the words to hundreds of songs. My brother shares these traits. As I have noted more than once, starting with this piece, there seems to be a link between people’s ability to tell jokes and their ability to remember the lyrics to songs. Many years… Continue reading A numerical joke, and its relevance here
This piece, from exactly a year ago, describes how I learnt about two of the architects from the Gilbert Scott family, or maybe that should say “the Gilbert Scott dynasty”. This obituary for Richard Gilbert Scott, who died last month aged 93, says that he “represented the fourth generation of England’s greatest architectural dynasty”. A… Continue reading Chatsworth and Devonshire
Have you heard that thing about Salvador Dali and the spoon? I have come across this story in so many places that I can’t remember where I heard it first. It’s used to illustrate the benefit of taking short naps, especially to aid creativity, and offers a way to do it. The story goes that… Continue reading Salvador Dali’s Spoon
We had the most enjoyable Saturday. An old friend from university, after a few significant changes in his life, now lives fairly near to us here in West London. Previously he was a two-hour drive away. We hadn’t spoken for over ten years, hadn’t met up for nearly 20 years (my birthday party, in 1996).… Continue reading Snapshots
There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I alluded to it back in December, in this piece, and have been planning to come back to it. Does this happen to you much, with conversations? Do you start tell a story and then digress, and not get back to what you were talking about? Or… Continue reading That Tim Moore Quote
I haven’t written about Conversation Recall yet this month. Some people are not so good at it. They misremember conversations, or just make things up. Some years ago I was having a conversation over dinner with some friends. We were discussing books. A member of my family was in the room, not really taking part… Continue reading Conversation Recall: Martin Rees, or Martin Amis?
Have you read “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” by Mark Haddon? There’s a strong chance that you have. It’s one of those books that you are likely to have read even if you only read occasionally. If you’re over 40 it’ll be up there with “Fever Pitch” (if you’re a… Continue reading “The Curious Incident”: the joke and the favourite book
The Compartments 