As a family, we have started to do the daily Wordle puzzle most days. My wife and our 15-year-old daughter have been doing it for a few months. Our 17-year-old son has been doing it in form time at school from time to time. I have only started in the last fortnight, long after most people.… Continue reading Word of the week: bayou
For most of us, the start of lockdown in March 2020 began a run of 500 nights when we were unable to see live performances of any kind here in the UK. Comedy nights, gigs of all kinds, musical theatre, legit theatre, opera: all closed down. Since July 2021 most live venues have reopened. I… Continue reading “On the road again”
Here are 10 quiz questions based on the lyrics of UK #1 hits, in order of when they reached #1. If you know which afternoon was never ending in “Lady Madonna”, how old Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) was when he died, or what Craig David and his lady did on Sunday, you’ll… Continue reading 10 questions about UK #1s: the answers are in the lyrics
In this earlier piece, about the UK’s best-selling singles by year, I noted that three of the best-selling songs in the 1980s began with the word “Don’t”. We had “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (Police, 1980) “Don’t You Want Me” (Human League, 1981) and “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (Communards, 1986). Including these titles,… Continue reading UK #1s containing the word “Don’t”
I return to the subject of pronouns, something I wrote about in this post back in 2016. In case you need a reminder of what pronouns are, there are explanations in that earlier piece. You might receive emails these days from people who specify their preferred use of pronouns, typically he/him, she/her or they/their. I… Continue reading UK #1s that contain multiple pronouns in their titles
Rest in peace Don Everly, one half of musical duo The Everly Brothers. He died this weekend, seven years after his brother Phil. You will know plenty of their recordings: “All I Have To Is Dream”, “Cathy’s Clown”, “Wake Up Little Susie”. In this 2014 Guardian obituary for Phil Everly, Graham Nash (of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) is quoted about the effect of hearing… Continue reading Don Everly RIP, Guns ’n Roses and stories behind the songs
These “Word of the week” pieces have become rather less frequent in recent months, for no particular reason. I have drafted several posts without finalizing them, but there are still over 170 finished pieces (and over 100,000 words of text) dotted throughout this site about words that have been in the news or come to… Continue reading Word of the week: crucify
Sonofabitch (alternatively sunuvabitch, son-of-a-bitch or even “son of a bitch”) is an old-fashioned exclamation or term of abuse that I have been hearing a lot over the last month while I work my way, very happily, through all 11 series of the sitcom “Modern Family”. (I wrote about the show in this earlier post.) I… Continue reading Word of the week: sonofabitch
Back in 2018, in this piece, I posed the following question: What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? It’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. The answer was revealed in that earlier piece,… Continue reading “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” revisited
The current UK #1 is “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry featuring MNEK, enjoying its fourth week at the top of the charts. I hadn’t heard it until a week ago, when I used this YouTube clip to check it out. Since then I have also heard it on BBC Radio 2 and have realized… Continue reading More Pop Trivia: a few updates prompted by “Head & Heart”, the current UK #1
The Compartments 