Spring in the air in West London. The trees are loaded with blossom. Cherry pink and apple blossom white. It’s a familiar sight. The local cherry trees bloom at different times. In the roads near ours there has been plenty of blossom for the last two weeks. A mile away, on the well-known road leading… Continue reading The Blossom is Buzzing
Last autumn I wrote about the Scottish musician Colin Tully, whose death was reported in the Guardian’s “Other Lives” pages. I quoted the online description of this section of the paper: “Obituaries pages traditionally describe and celebrate the lives of the great and good, the famous and infamous. There is another type of life that… Continue reading “A drugs bust ended his career as the furry Wellington” [Robin Le Mesurier RIP]
Complete this well-known sentence: “There are two kinds of people in the world … “ Your answer could reveal something significant about your personality, your preferences or your world view. One of the most memorable answers I have ever heard for this challenge is this: “There are two kinds of people in the world … … Continue reading 144 kinds of people
Most of the time this Blog does not deal with the leading stories of the day. You have many thousands of other places to read about them. For the last 19 days there has only been one significant news story in Europe: the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There, I’ve said it. If I were living… Continue reading Word of the week: Kyiv
18 years ago, in the first few months of 2004, our good friends Steve and Clare relocated to Melbourne Australia, her home town. I had worked with Steve on various projects for much of the previous decade. We had been employed at the same place since the autumn of 2001. He had recommended me for… Continue reading 18 years on a borrowed bike
Rest in peace Shane Warne, one of the great cricketers, and one of the great commentators. Along with a handful of other retired bowlers, like Richie Benaud and Michael Holding, he caused me to watch far more cricket on TV than I would have if certain former England batsmen had been commentating instead. News of… Continue reading Dead at 52, and a list
In December 2017 I wrote this piece listing 25 answers to quiz questions where it’s usually worth having a guess, offering the following advice: It’s worth having a guess as long as you’re not going to lose money or points or be eliminated from the game for being wrong. If a question begins with the… Continue reading You might as well have a guess, revisited: another 50 answers that are usually right
If you follow European football, or the Premier League here in the UK, you will regularly come across stories about fees and wages. These stories confirm that football finances are very different from the financial realities that most of us deal with. Earlier this month I read a news story about French side PSG which… Continue reading £157m for one player for one year
As I explained in this piece (“Bar snack? (9) …”), I rarely do Cryptic Crosswords these days. I do, however, attempt the Quick Crossword whenever I pick up a copy of the Guardian. As I noted here, it is my paper of choice, and you can get it for free at Waitrose if you have… Continue reading Word of the week: onager
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”
The Compartments 