I have been doing some random listening on Spotify this evening.  Sometimes, when the list of new additions is published I have a look down it and choose some tracks based on the criteria that I have never heard of the artists and they have an interesting name. Tonight it was Xyra, Jazz Sabbath, Bullet […]
Entries Tagged as 'Language'
Boisterous
July 27th, 2009 · Comments Off on Boisterous · Life
There was a funfair along Worthing seafront today. When you see a sign that says “Warning – this is a very boisterous ride” it is very hard to resist…Â Â so I went on it to keep Chrystal company while Jayne minded the bags and camera. Boisterous is not a word I have heard to describe […]
Gazprom with attitude
July 2nd, 2009 · 3 Comments · Life
The catalogue of brand-naming disasters got a new entry this week, when Russia’s Gazprom entered into a joint venture with Nigeria’s state-run gas company and decided to call the new entity… Nigaz. What could possibly go wrong?
Whole pieces
May 16th, 2009 · Comments Off on Whole pieces · Life
This evening I noticed that the cat food we have proudly boasts on the packaging that it includes “whole pieces of meat”. Hmm. Seems like a very flexible and meaningless term. Take a steak and it is a whole piece. Chop it into chunks for stewing and they are all whole pieces. All it reallt […]
Tags: Language
Portmanteau cliches
May 12th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Life
One phrase keeps turning up in all the coverage of the latest tranche of expense abuses – “Tory Grandee”.  Why is it always “Tory Grandee”, “Union Baron” and “Oil Magnate”?
Tags: Language·Newspapers
The name of the game
May 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Life
What is it with Tories and middle names? Why do so many of them have middle names that are so obscure you suspect many are not even real names? For example, Michael Dibdin Heseltine, Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn, Norman Beresford Tebbit.Â
Posponed?
January 11th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Life
Looking at the Premier League fixtures for the next few weeks, I noticed that the game between Newcastle and Sunderland that was due to be played on Monday Feb 2nd has been postponed. It will now be played on Sunday 1st Feb and I am confused. Surely ‘postponed’ means to be put back until a […]
Burning Down The House
October 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Life
A small follow-up to what I wrote about that fire at the other end of Tollgate Hill the other day. The presence of dogs in the building got picked up by the papers before their print editions came out today and became the focus of the story, but that is not what is interesting me.
Tags: Language·Local Papers
Sad But True
October 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Life
There is something a little bit strange about deciding to read a dictionary from start to finish, and when the dictionary in question is the Oxford English Dictionary it is also an epic undertaking. The OED is not the 1300-page Concise Oxford Dictionary that is in many homes, nor even the two-volume Shorter Oxford English […]
A Different Point Of View
October 6th, 2008 · Comments Off on A Different Point Of View · Music
The other day, as I watched the end of David Gilmour’s concert in Gdansk, I was ridiculously amused by Gilmour’s comments to the crowd at the end.
Tags: Language·Pink Floyd
