Browsing my news sources this morning, I happened to spot this little item on the Sky News website, under the headline “Prince ‘Fighting Flu After Emergency Landing’”: Now, I have nothing whatsoever against Prince, who is an accomplished and very interesting musician (57 though: who knew?) and I wish him a speedy recovery. However, this…
Some of you may be wondering whatever happened to the public service joint venture – announced with so much fanfare at the beginning of last year – between this blog and the local newspaper, ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87)’. Late last year Le Quotidien, like so many other print journals faced with rising print costs…
My broad aversion to travel has been well documented in these pages. To be clear, though, while A (home) is always to be preferred, I’ve no objections whatsoever to B, C or – venturing further afield – even D. Being somewhere else is fine, it’s the getting there that I don’t care for. That’s because…
From 2016, thinking about nuances of meaning… Yes and no Many French expressions have found their way into everyday usage in the Anglophone world. Think of fait accompli, for example, or le mot juste. Even that (allegedly) archetypal British character trait, sang-froid. I could throw in déjà vu as well, but you’ve probably already seen it. There’s…
Never look a gift horse in the mouth, it’s said. Especially when it offers you an opportunity for a little tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation, as in this recent Daily Prompt from WordPress: ‘Quirk of habit: Which quirky habit annoys you the most, and what quirky habit do you love — in yourself, or others” As a general…
If they can update the seven wonders of the world to modern times, perhaps it’s worth thinking about a new list of modern sins. A recent WordPress Daily Prompt – they seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment – had the great idea of asking what your eighth deadly sin would…
Nowadays, with all-pervasive social media and the universal availability of the tools to produce it, seeing and hearing yourself is a commonplace, However, it was not always thus. The first time I saw myself on ‘video’ – although back in 1964 it was called film – I was standing around aimlessly playing in a school cricket…
My own culinary skills, such as they may be, are very limited tightly focused. I know this and can live with it. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge nobody has ever died after eating something I’ve cooked (a prolonged streak of luck that Madame sometimes finds quite baffling), so that’s a result in itself.…
When I finally managed to shift myself and publish a new post recently I think I was fair enough to apportion blame. Which is to say that I claimed it wasn’t all my fault. In particular, I railed against the absence of sufficiently inspiring daily prompts from WordPress – and it was while doing so that…
‘Where have you been?’ you’re almost certainly not wondering. Look, I know it’s been over a month since my last post, but it’s not for the want of trying. Let me assure you, I haven’t been idle. Although not for the want of trying. So here are ten perfectly good reasons – not excuses, oh dear…
the only deadhead in the hameau 