Back in 2017 I posted this piece about Dead Pubs of West London. It was based on a round of questions that I had set five years earlier for a Quiz Night at the primary school that my children attended. It featured photographs of buildings in this part of town. Most of them had either… Continue reading Dead Pubs update (June 2020)
You remember telegrams, right? Or maybe not; maybe you’re too young. Recently I was explaining to my children, who are both teenagers, how telegrams used to work. They were the quickest way of sending a message composed of text to anyone in the world. They were also expensive, so people restricted the number of words… Continue reading Word of the week: telegram
If you were around in the 1970s, as I was, you might have heard the following piece of information: “You can fit everyone on earth, standing shoulder to shoulder, in a space no bigger than the Isle of Wight”. I heard this from my older brother, and, as with most information that came from authoritative… Continue reading Everyone on earth standing on the Isle of Wight
10 years ago, in the late spring and early summer of 2010, London’s public spaces were home to hundreds of colourfully painted statues of baby elephants. The Elephant Parade, as it was called, featured over 250 of them in streets, parks, squares and a few indoor locations such as Westfield Shepherds Bush and the Museum… Continue reading The Elephant Parade, 10 years on
ITV continue to broadcast repeats from the first series of their quiz show “Tenable”, first shown in the last two months of 2016. Episodes 11-15 are being repeated this week, starting on Monday 1 June 2020. Here are the questions and answers in the same format as in other pieces on this Blog, such as… Continue reading “Tenable” repeats 1 June 2020 onwards (Series 1 Episodes 11-15)
Since last August I have been posting at least one item per month showing Leeds United at the top of the Championship, the second tier of English football. Every post contains a screenshot taken from the BBC website. Here is this month’s example, making it 10 months in a row that I have been able… Continue reading What might have been
Last year I had a realization regarding conversational recall, and wrote about it in this piece (June 2019): I am no good at medical chat. Or, more accurately, I do not retain information about other people’s ailments, diagnoses and medications. This would be a problem if I were in the medical business, but I am… Continue reading Word of the week: BRAN
Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK, and this week ITV are showing repeats of their quiz show “Tenable” that were first broadcast late in 2016, Series 1 Episodes 6-10. Here are the questions and answers in the same format as in other pieces on this Blog, such as this one from March 2019: a… Continue reading “Tenable” repeats 25 May 2020 onwards (Series 1 Episodes 6-10)
Last month, over the Easter weekend, I finished re-reading “Ulysses”, James Joyce’s “illiterate, underbred book” in the words of Virginia Woolf. Or, if you prefer, “the most important expression which the present age has found … a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape” according to TS… Continue reading On re-reading “Ulysses”
How is your visual acuity? See if you can spot the differences between the two bottles of Guinness Export pictured below. I have mentioned Guinness Export on this Blog more than once in recent weeks. It has again become a drink of choice, after a gap of some years. The name on the label is,… Continue reading Spot the difference: Guinness Export
The Compartments 