Earlier this month I wrote about apostrophes and noted that you can summarize all the rules about them on a single sheet of A4 (or Letter sized paper if you’re in the US). You can read whole books about grammar and spelling but everything you need to know about apostrophes can be summarized on one… Continue reading Everything you need on one sheet of A4
A few years ago someone told me that all mammals, including humans, have a lifespan of a billion heartbeats. I believed him, didn’t question the number, assumed that he knew what he was talking about. Some time later I decided to check the numbers, to work out how many heartbeats there might be in a… Continue reading How many heartbeats?
Sponge-worthy is the second example of a hyphenated “Word of the Week” (after Eye-watering from last December). The word will resonate with fans of the US sitcom “Seinfeld”. I have written elsewhere (in my 9,000 words about watching every Shakespeare play in 2003/4) that the UK is probably the only English-speaking territory where the show… Continue reading Word of the week: sponge-worthy
Here in West London there is a pleasant walk you can take along the river, mostly avoiding road traffic. It includes Hammersmith Bridge, the towpath on the south side of the river, Barnes High Street, Barnes railway bridge, Dukes Meadows on the north side, Chiswick Mall, The Mall Hammersmith and the traffic-free route through Furnival… Continue reading A walk along the river
Here’s one for sports fans, on FA Cup Final Day here in London. If you could change the result of one sporting fixture in history, which would it be? If you’re a Crystal Palace fan it’s probably a straightforward choice between today’s defeat against Manchester United or the 1990 defeat to the same team. For… Continue reading If you could change one result …
We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all have a strength for starting projects, or for finishing them, or for the bit in between (maintaining or managing projects). Similarly we all have a weakness in one of these three areas. You might be one of those very rare people who is equally good at all… Continue reading Starting and finishing, and the bit in between
Earlier this month I wrote about Micromorts and Microlives, referencing a New Scientist cover feature from May 2015. Since then I have read the book mentioned in those pieces, “The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger” by David Spiegelhalter and Michael Blastland). It’s an entertaining and detailed look at risk and the different ways… Continue reading More about Micromorts and Microlives
How do you know what to read next, or which radio programmes to listen to, or what to watch on TV? Whose recommendations do you follow, if any? How much randomness or serendipity is there in your choices? TV and radio were very straightforward when I was growing up. We had three TV channels, no… Continue reading Recent Recommendations
I indulged myself earlier this week and watched the 1973 British horror movie “Theatre of Blood” again. It’s the first time I’ve seen it since the 1980s, and therefore the first time since watching and reading every Shakespeare play. As the movie’s IMDB page puts it succinctly, “a Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the… Continue reading “Theatre of Blood”
I stand corrected. The Oxford Dictionaries website now defines decimate as a verb meaning to “kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of”, as in “the inhabitants of the country had been decimated”, and also defines it as “drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something)”, for example “public transport has been decimated”. The way… Continue reading Word of the week: decimate
The Compartments 