During the Christmas holidays, at a play-date with one of her friends, my 12-year-old daughter was introduced to the Catherine Tate character Lauren Cooper. They watched clips from YouTube on a tablet. Lauren, as you may remember, is the 15-year-old schoolgirl whose catchphrase is based on not being bothered, or “bovvered” about whatever is going… Continue reading Word of the week: bovvered
Calabobos: it’s a Spanish word for a specific type of rain, rain that seems light, like drizzle, but will soak you. My brother told me the word over 20 years ago and I have never been able to remember it. He said that it equates with the phrase “fool soaker”. If you’re foolish enough to… Continue reading Word of the week: calabobos
Sometimes you hear two or three songs in succession that include the same word, not an obvious one like “love” or “baby”, but something unexpected. The first four songs in an episode of “Top of the Pops” shown on BBC4 last weekend all featured the word “fight”. The episode first aired on 6 November 1986,… Continue reading Word of the week: fight
“The jungle programme”, as we call it, is back. “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”, to give it its proper name, is into the final week of its current series on ITV. As a family we have been paying more attention to it than in recent years, partly because many of this year’s… Continue reading Word of the week: dunny
What does a plangonologist collect? The question appeared in Thomas Eaton’s Weekend Quiz in the Guardian a couple of days ago, phrased as follows: “A plangonologist collects what?” You can read the rest of the quiz, and the answers, here. The answer to the question also appears at the end of the next paragraph. I… Continue reading Word of the week: plangonologist
For young athletes it’s the cross-country season. Our daughter started competing at athletics meetings late last year, so we are approaching the first anniversary of her first race. That was on a cold, wet Saturday last December and in a couple of weeks’ time, all being well, she will compete in that same event for… Continue reading Word of the week: spikes
In many words beginning with “un” the first two letters mean “not”, as in the words unhappy, unwell and unambitious. The “un” part rhymes with “fun”. In other cases, the first two letters are part of the longer prefix “uni”, meaning “one”, as in universe, uniform and unicycle. The “un” part rhymes with “June”. You… Continue reading Word of the week: unanimous
At the end of last month punk-poet John Cooper Clarke gave this interview to Tim Adams of the Observer, and answered questions from “readers and famous fans”, as the article says. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time. My own experiences following Dr Clarke for over 40 years can be found in this… Continue reading Word of the week: jodhpurs
Last Friday’s edition of BBC2 quiz show “Mastermind” included the following question: “The name of what form of aerial transport comes from the Greek for spiral and wing?” It was during the final general knowledge round, which you can see at 24:44 on this BBC iPlayer link for the next 26 days. The answer is… Continue reading Word of the week: helicopter
Last weekend my daughter (who celebrated her 12th birthday earlier this month) asked me what a philanthropist was. Before answering the question I asked her where she’d come across the word. It was on a web page about Katie Piper who, sadly, was voted off “Strictly Come Dancing” that evening. We were rooting for her… Continue reading Word of the week: philanthropist
The Compartments 