The Trivia Menu (here) gives an introduction to how I have acquired certain bits of information over the years and lists some favourite quiz questions. This piece gives my mnemonics for remembering all 50 US States and the State Capitals. Over the years other people have asked me for it, right up to last week… Continue reading Trivia Mnemonics (US States and Capitals)
Do you have “version control issues”? Do you have multiple copies of the same documents (digital or printed copies) and end up with confusion about which copies are most up-to-date? I remember this being a problem 10-15 years ago but it feels like we are over the worst of it now. It’s a problem that… Continue reading Version Control
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
Earlier today Zac Goldsmith was in the news for not knowing much about the London Underground or where the Museum of London is. This might not matter for most people, but he is the standing for election as the Mayor of London. The Museum of London is near the Barbican, in the City of London.… Continue reading Where to get off
Iamb: it’s a “metrical foot”. This is nothing to do with imperial measurements involving distance, it’s about meter in poems, or how syllables are used in a line of poetry. An iamb is a 2-syllable “metrical foot”, a short or unstressed syllable followed by a long or stressed syllable: da-DUM. Examples include the words “remark”… Continue reading Word of the week: iamb
The other day (“Big Birthdays”) I wrote about having a superstitious reluctance to think too hard about the future, or indeed write about it. I plan ahead to a certain extent, though not as much as many other people. We had a party yesterday for my wife’s Big Birthday and there was some uncertainty about… Continue reading “What would you have done if it had rained?”
I like fried eggs. I eat them often, at least twice a week. In the summer of 1998 I heated a frying pan, put a little bit of butter in it to heat up, and when it was hot enough cracked an egg into the pan. The egg was rotten inside. It made on odd… Continue reading Eggs and “just in case” behaviour
My wife has a significant birthday today, one that ends in a zero. I won’t tell you how old she is, but if I did you could repeat the words she has been hearing in the last few days, leading up to the big day: “Really? You don’t look it. How do you do it?”… Continue reading Big Birthdays
“Buffalo Soldier”: the song came to mind while reading Marlon James’s “A Brief History of Seven Killings” this month. As I progressed through the book, every time I put it down (or switched off my Kindle, or exited the Kindle App on a computer) it was “Buffalo Soldier” that went through my mind. I was… Continue reading March’s Earworm: “Buffalo Soldier”
Plane time works only one way. It works in favour of the plane. If the plane is on time you have to rush, check in on time, allow 20 minutes to go through security, maybe allow 15 minutes to walk to the Departure Gate. The Gate Number might only be revealed to you 30 minutes… Continue reading Plane Time
The Compartments 