Here we are, a week and a day before Christmas. You have probably heard many seasonal songs already, among them “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl. It was Stuck at 2 here in the UK in 1987, kept off the top spot at Christmas by the Pet Shop Boys version of… Continue reading “The Rare Old Mountain Dew”
Just over four years ago, in December 2015, I took my first tentative steps in the world of Blogging with this piece about my local bookshop. The piece is short, a mere 162 words, and it notes that a section of the shop was called “Smart Thinking”. This appeared to be a fairly new category,… Continue reading No more “Self Help” at the bookshop
Every now and then on this Blog I reflect on subscriptions, most recently in this piece about Netflix (June 2019). As predicted, at the end of our free trial month we continued to subscribe to the service, and still do. Unlike some of the services that I have subscribed to, for month after month without… Continue reading Word of the week: Prime
Last week there was a seasonal news story about hangover cures. I caught it on Breakfast TV rather than in print, and offer this link, from the “Birmingham Live” website, with the details. Titled “Ultimate hangover cure discovered by boffins in time for Christmas party season” it suggests these ingredients: 65% pear juice, 25% lime… Continue reading The perfect hangover recipe
Here, for the fifth successive month on this Blog, is a screenshot from the BBC website showing Leeds United at the top of the Championship, the second tier of English football. As mentioned in many earlier pieces, like this one from November, I have followed Leeds since childhood, and I have timed these regular posts… Continue reading This month’s screenshot showing Leeds United top of the Championship
We are a few weeks away from the end of the current decade, the least successful of my lifetime for three different teams, playing three different sports, in three different countries. From at least the 1940s onwards, Cork (hurling, Ireland), the New York Yankees (baseball, USA) and Tottenham Hotspur (football, England) had won at least… Continue reading Unsuccessful sporting decades (Cork hurling, Yankees baseball, Spurs football)
Prince Andrew has been in the news here in the UK. The Duke of York, to use one of his titles, was, until 1982, second in line to the throne. He has now slipped to eighth in line, so unless there’s some 21st century plot to move him up the list, along the lines of… Continue reading Word of the week: car-crash
Here are the questions and answers for the current series of ITV quiz show “Tenable”, episodes broadcast between Monday 18 and Friday 22 November 2019, Series 4 Episodes 26-30 (S4Ep26, S4Ep27 and so on). The format here is the same as in earlier pieces such as this one from last weekthis one from last week:… Continue reading “Tenable” questions, week ending 22 November 2019 (Series 4, Episodes 26-30)
Earlier this month I wrote about Saul Bellow’s 1976 memoir “To Jerusalem and Back”, noting that I would “mention it again soon on these pages”. The phrase that prompted me to write that earlier piece, and which can be found on page 108 of my “Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics” edition, was “Now that the reading… Continue reading Word of the week: marginalia
Here are the questions and answers for the current series of ITV quiz show “Tenable”, episodes broadcast between Monday 11 and Friday 15 November 2019, Series 4 Episodes 21-25 (S4Ep21, S4Ep22 and so on). The format here is the same as in earlier pieces such as this one from last week: a list of the… Continue reading “Tenable” questions, week ending 15 November 2019 (Series 4, Episodes 21-25)
The Compartments 