Nothing better than a grumpy old man rant, this one from 2014… Cargo Cult “Undo: If you could uninvent something, what would it be?” Many thanks to the latest ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ for this opportunity to have a good, old-fashioned, grumpy old man rant. What would I uninvent? Oh, so many things if…
Yet another grammar pedant rant, this one from 2015. So; annoying. You have no idea how much of a struggle it’s been not to start this post with the word ‘So’. For that is our subject today, dear reader. More particularly, the increasingly pervasive practice of beginning sentences with this poor, innocent syllable. To borrow another common…
From 2016, a diatribe about the limits of technology. I love a good rant, me… Brainless Stupidity #3: GPS (‘Brainless Stupidity’ is a – very – occasional series of diatribes against state-of-the-art manifestations of bovine idiocy masquerading as aids to modern life. Previous targets have included been the Belgian way of buying fuel and Paypal’s…
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…
This was originally posted on 27 July 2015. For the uninitiated, it is a parody (but an affectionate one) of a long-running column in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’. I haven’t looked at a copy of The Eye in years so I don’t know whether Dave Spart still features. What I will say, though,…
Bloganuary Day 19: Warning – today I am wearing my ‘grumpy old man’ head. Write about something mysterious. I’m grateful to today’s instalment of Bloganuary for providing this opportunity to have a rant, thereby further cementing my carefully cultivated image of general misanthropy. Most thing are at least something of a mystery to me, so…
Bloganuary Day 8: Finally, a chance for a rant… What do you like most about your writing? I spent most of my working life writing for a living. As an investment analyst, the constant churning out of ‘reports’ was what I was supposed, and paid, to do. I like to think that I was quite…
‘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 all your friends and family are?” Should you happen to be a WordPress…
Honestly, you wait weeks on end for a new post, and then they all come along together… It has to be said that waste management is pretty well organised here in France. As a matter of course everyone recycles their plastic, glass and paper into the relevant coloured bins at the local déchetterie – and…
(‘Brainless Stupidity’ is a – very – occasional series of diatribes against state-of-the-art manifestations of bovine idiocy masquerading as aids to moden life. Previous targets have included been the Belgian way of buying fuel and Paypal’s bizarre procedures for identity verification.) This time, though, our egregiously cretinous example is the in-car navigation system more or…
the only deadhead in the hameau 