This week, Jim is asking us to feature a song with an arresting opening line: one so familiar that you can ‘name that tune’ immediately. Perhaps it’s just my age, but most of the possibilities that sprang most immediately to mind were rock and roll classics. I see that Jim himself has chosen ‘Tutti-frutti’, but…
Say what now? What is an ingot? Bed, board and stabling for up to ten horses. What is a pekinese? A quadripedal spoilt brat. Probably. What is gumbo? Hmmmm. Afraid I’m stuck on this one. What is crème fraiche? Sounds like some of that foreign muck. What is a patisserie? An Irish daytime TV soap…
From August 2014, on the art of masterly inactivity. I can’t help it, I’m an analyst “Procrastination. What have you been putting off doing? Why?” We’ve talked about this before on this blog, albeit from a different perspective. So you could consider this as an update. A belated one, obviously. If – no, let’s be fair, when – I’m…
After last week’s challenge of choosing the closing track of an album it is of course entirely logical that this time Jim is looking for an opening track. Not too long ago, I featured Roxy Music’s ‘Remake/Remodel’, the opening track of their debut album. However,this was by no means Bob Dylan’s first LP (as we…
From this day in 2014, a meditation on boredom… Shoot Me Now This one’s just too good to miss…(cracks knuckles; hunches over keyboard; ticks tags for ‘rants’ and ‘grumpy old man’). “(YAWN): What bores you?” Firstly, let’s be clear about what we actually mean by ‘boredom’. My first stab at finding a dictionary definition came…
General knowledge ignorance….. Which monarch famously said: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king” Queen Anne – the one who had to be buried in a square coffin. What is the rarest blood type in humans? Vampire – because there’s…
When I saw that Jim’s prompt for Song Lyric Sunday this week was the closing track of an album, as if by magic four possibilities just jumped into my head. But hang on: haven’t I already used these? ‘Brain Damage/Eclipse’ from ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ – check; ‘See Me Feel Me’ from ‘Tommy’ –…
Words of…..er, wisdom? “I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right” Keir Starmer “My bed is a magical place where I suddenly remember everything I forgot to do” Hugh Hefner “My diet plan: make all of my friends cupcakes, the fatter they get, the thinner I look” Meghan Markle “My wallet is like an…
This post was originally published on 2 August 2014, about two years into what I euphemistically call my blogging career (and definitely not ‘journey’). Here I muse on how things are/were going blogwise. Simon Schama’s Swampy Suck Oh, hi there. I thought that might get your attention… Today’s instalment of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’…
This week, Jim is looking for the the title track of an album. My very first thought was Neil Young’s ‘After The Goldrush’, but checking back, it seemed I’d already used it in an earlier post. A shame, but no problem – I went for the gentle, lilting ‘Harvest’ instead. Both those albums were on…
the only deadhead in the hameau 