My subject is memory. Occasionally names or concepts fail to come to mind when I want them to. Sometimes I have struggled to remember the names of actresses, like the one who played Bubble in “Absolutely Fabulous” and the woman who played Cassie in the original UK series of “House of Cards”. Similarly, about five… Continue reading Word of the week: Spiegelhalter
Last Wednesday, 31 December 2025, the solution to the daily Wordle puzzle was SIREN. I attempted the puzzle for the 900th day in a row and got it in one. Siren has been my starting word for most of those 900 games. My first three attempts are usually Siren, then About, then Lymph. That gives… Continue reading Word of the week: Siren
Just over a year ago I wrote this piece, “33 months of 5-a-side”, reporting that I had continued to play football at least once a month for nearly three years. For a while, in the spring of 2022, I was playing twice a week. By last summer I was only playing once a month. As… Continue reading Word of the week: Symbolic
Every now and then I read about a number that seems significant and think that I should write about it, a “Number of the week” piece to sit alongside the 200+ “Word of the week” posts that you can find elsewhere on this Blog. I see that I have never done so. This is my… Continue reading Number of the week: 15.5
I first went to Spain in 1981. I have visited the country dozens of times. I have eaten unknown kilos of paella and other rice dishes. Even so, I had never heard of “soccarat” until this year. Not for the first time with new words and concepts, it came up in a quiz. Here is… Continue reading Word of the week: socarrat
Last month, for the first time ever, I visited a hospice. I have visited people in hospital hundreds of times, but had never even seen the outside of a hospice. One of my favourite cousins on my mother’s side had taken ill. She told us many years ago that she had cancer that was “incurable… Continue reading Word of the week: Hospice
A few people I know are regular users of Duolingo, an App designed to help you to learn new languages. It is described on the Duolingo website as “The world’s best way to learn a language”. The App keeps a record of users’ “streaks”, how many consecutive days they complete at least one lesson. I… Continue reading Word of the week: Streak
Pierre is the State Capital of South Dakota. Here in the UK that cannot be considered Universal Knowledge. It’s something I learnt over 25 years ago, when I memorized all 50 States and their Capitals. Apart from dedicated quizzers, how many people would be able to name all 100 places? Very few, I suspect. Back… Continue reading Word of the week: Pierre
If you follow tennis at all you will know that Carlos Alcaraz is a 21-year-old professional tennis player from Spain. You might have seen him win the French Open yesterday, beating Alexander Zverev over five sets to become the first player to win his first three Grand Slam tournaments on different surfaces. The French Open… Continue reading Word of the week: Alcaraz
Next Sunday, 26 May 2024, Leeds United will play at Wembley for the first time in 16 years, in the play-off final for the EFL Championship. The opponents will be Southampton. Whoever wins will be promoted to the Premier League, the top tier of English football, as you probably know. As I have mentioned over… Continue reading Word of the week: Wembley
The Compartments 