Vraiment?…… Why do we have Easter Eggs? Because of a plot for world domination involving John Cadbury, Joseph Rowntree and Milton S Hershey. What makes a Hot Cross Bun? Five minutes in the oven at Gas Mark 4. Why do we have a bunny at Easter? As a tasty alternative to the more traditional roast…
From 2014, on the two-edged sword that is school Speech Day….. Alma Mater “You’ve been asked to speak at your high school alma mater – about the path of life. Draft the speech.” Firstly, let me say that I am greatly honoured to have been invited to talk to you all on my old school’s…
“Everything all the time” I mean, it’s good to have something a bit on the highbrow side as an inspiration for Song Lyric Sunday every so often, but I hadn’t reckoned on an excursion into Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories as a theme for this week. More specifically, Jim is seeking a song about ‘exhibiting instinctual…
From as recently as 2017, my take on ‘social media’… T(w)itter ye not ‘Social Media’. Harrumph. Why am I even talking about this? Because WordPress ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts wants to know, that’s why: “The social network. Do you feel like you ‘get’ social media, or do you just use it because that’s where…
It’s all about the drugs this week for Song Lyric Sunday. This could include alcohol and tobacco and even other legal substances, but as this was the first song that came to mind when I saw the prompt, I’m going with it. This was originally released on ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’ in 1967, the…
Bottom of the pops….. ‘I want to know what love is’ Millwall FC supporters club ‘Money, money, money’ The Old Ladies of Threadneedle Street ‘Tea for two’ Half of Led Zeppelin ‘There’s a kind of hush’ Dewey Decimal & The Stacks ‘Take the money and run’ Ronnie Biggs & The Robbers ‘Time after time’ Stephen…
From 2013, why I am not a pet person… The Cat That Came And Went ‘Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.’ –Winston Churchill There are several large domestic cats that roam freely around here. There’s a tabby, a Persian and a ginger that share two common – and no doubt related…
This week’s subject for Song Lyric Sunday is the broad one of weather. There’s plenty to choose from out there, but this was the first that popped into my head and now it just won’t go away. One comment on the video describes it as ‘campy post-disco at its very finest’. Difficult to argue with…
Say what now? What is a canopy? A device for gaining access to tinned goods. What is a cookie? Fattening. What is a pup cup? A small brassiere. What is a typhoon? A hurricane with fried rice. Why are nails sharp at one end? Be glad it’s only one end: if it was both, your…
One of those musings about how others see us…(and, by sheer coincidence, eerily similar to Fandango’s own flashback for this week). Straight to DVD “Ghostwriter: if you could have any author – living or dead – write your biography, who would you choose?” That’s a good question, and while there could only ever really be…
This week for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim is looking for a song with a great intro. Well, I can think of lots of those – which of course is the whole point. However, I’ve already posted many of them in response to other SLS challenges: to name a few, there’s ‘ Dazed and Confused’, ‘Pretty…
No, but seriously… What is a cannery? A can-do attitude to life. What is a rookery? An establishment that manufactures chess sets. What is hooky? Like nooky, but nowhere near as much fun. What is pinochle? A South American military dictator who can’t even spell his own name. What is a ricochet? An Irish radio…
From 2015, a time when I was writing (allegedly) humorous posts purporting to be journalism. This one illustrates how two nations can be divided by a single postcode. Meet The Neighbours Today, we feature the latest product of the joint venture with the online edition of our local newspaper, Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87). Our regular…
I like this idea of featuring, for the first Song Lyric Sunday of each month, an artiste or songwriter who was born in that month. However, as usual, I needed to resort to the web to check out a list of March birthdays. But I didn’t need to trawl very far down the list to…
As the saying goes… Mad as a……Reform voter. It’ll all come out in……a rash. Two’s company, three’s…..just greedy. Hi ho……Hu Every cloud has……about a thousand tons of water to rain on you. Sticks and stones……hurt. In for a penny……when going to a football match cost less than a week’s wages. Don’t count your……sheep. Not when…
the only deadhead in the hameau 