If there is an award for best press conference of the year, I think Joe Kinnear must be a shoe-in. For the real laughs you have to read through to the end where the Newcastle press officer steps in and tells teh everyone to forget the unequivocal slagging off that has gone on and it […]
Entries Tagged as 'Language'
Movin’ On Up
September 23rd, 2008 · Comments Off on Movin’ On Up · Work
One of the reasons I am not in Manchester enjoying Gordon Brown’s speech with all the other PPCs is a small matter of an office move. The construction of the new buildings has taken several years now: three? four? I’m not sure, but it is a long time. The actual moves of laboratories, workshops, test […]
Tags: Language
I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass
September 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass · Life
My favourite quote for today comes from comedian Jim Jeffries, talking about performers who lose their temper with an audience. He says: Sometimes people throw things at the stage, even at good gigs. That’s why all comedy clubs have plastic glasses. The British aren’t really responsible enough to drink out of glasses; we’re the only […]
Keep On Running
September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Keep On Running · Technology
One of the things that have always made laptops an unattractive proposition for me is the battery life. Every leap forward in battery technology has been matched by ever more power-hungry components so that the average laptop now packs up even quicker than the first ones did. They were supposed to offer freedom to move […]
Lost in the Supermarket
September 2nd, 2008 · Comments Off on Lost in the Supermarket · Life
It appears that Tesco have come up with an ingenious solution to the old conundrum of labelling the ‘express’ tills. “10 items or less” is just wrong, but “10 items or fewer” sounds clumsy to many people so they have avoided the issue by saying “up to 10 items”.
Working Man
August 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Life
Why is it that anybody whose work involves computers in any way whatsoever is always described in the media as a “computer expert”?
New Gold Dream
August 16th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Life
I am starting to wish I had started my holidays a week later. I am enjoying watching the Olympics, but now I have to return to work on Monday. Today was good though: not just for the gold medals in swimming and rowing, and the many medals in cycling but also for the commentary. Towards […]
Jargon
July 8th, 2008 · Comments Off on Jargon · Life, Work
How on Earth did the BBC manage to come up with the 50 best (i.e. worst) examples of office-speak or buzzwords without even ‘ping’, ‘helicopter view’ or ‘delta’?  Delta always gets me: I haven’t found a single instance when using the word ‘difference’ wouldn’t do – unless one is actually taking about when a river […]
Tags: Language
Rediscovered words
June 4th, 2008 · Comments Off on Rediscovered words · Life
Yesterday’s Guardian carried a small story about the Tate gallery having an exhibition of paintings by Western artists that have an Eastern subject. The headline was “Gateway to the East: Tate shows rediscovered works” but it the story itself contains something of a rediscovered word… look in the antepenultimate paragraph and there is the quote: […]
Soteriology
May 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Life
I like learning new words. Today I learned about a word called ‘soteriology’ which is, apparently, a branch of theology that deals with salvation. Its going to be tough trying to shoehorn that one into casual conversation or a blog post!
