This week the powers that be decided to stick with Ofsted’s 4-point scale of assessing schools - outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate
It’s still two points less than the food inspectors use to assess the hygiene of our local pub
Both are important, but you’d think schools need a bit more granularity than how the cleanliness of the pint glasses
I’ve been to the theatre a few times since COVID, but I’ve not really managed to get involved in the same way I used to, apart from pantomime, obviously, and one musical I saw
I think it’s partly that our local theatre has gone very ‘safe’, possibly for understandable commercial reason, and maybe partly because I started watching more telly during the pandemic
it’s a bit of a shame
I was standing just now next to someone who stank of cigarette smoke
I’ve never been a smoker, and I used to hate the smell, but for me it’s now like the smell of madelaines(?) was to Proust
There are days when the notion that exercise is good for you is totally counter-intuitive. This is one of them. ⚽
“Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from other drummers”
#TodayILearned how much of a drummer Karen Carpenter was
Word In Your Ear Is Karen Carpenter pop music’s saddest story?
I listened to this yesterday. It’s fascinating, ridiculous and disturbing, often at the same time 🎙️
The Rise Of QAnon - Fresh Air
📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - dreamy
This is from November 2022. It was a sound and light show in Salisbury Cathedral.
It felt a bit like being trapped inside a kaleidoscope - I don’t know if that’s a good dream or a bad dream
In honour of it being Saint George’s Day, this is Ralph Mctell, the ‘Streets of London’s bloke, singing what should be our national anthem 🎵🇬🇧🐲
England - Ralph Mctell
📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - blue
I couldn’t not pick something Chelsea-related for ‘blue’. ⚽
If you were to zoom in on this photo, you’d see the banner for Ennis Blues…Ennis being the city from where much of Salisbury’s Irish population immigrated
Always stressful watching Child 2 play 🏀
I enjoyed The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore 📚, although I maybe don’t have a full appreciation of the place of Wonder Woman in American culture.
The inventor of Wonder Woman also invented lie detectors, he was a feminist, after a fashion, and he kept his home life shrouded in secrecy
#TodayILearned the phrase ‘gish gallop’. It’s means to create a deluge of rubbish in argument, to overwhelm your opponent
Mehdi Hasan | Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking
📸 #MbApr Winter Solstice 2010, in the dawn’s early light, when all was ice and snow
#TodayILearned that Richard Whittington really was apprenticed to someone called Sir Ivo FitzWaryn and married his daughter Alice
(For the benefit of people who aren’t the UK and/or aren’t pantomime nerds, Dick Whittington is one of the three or four main pantomime stories. It’s based on a 14th Century Mayor of London…but I didn’t realize the FitzWarrens also really existed)
#TodayILearned that the TV audience that is most disproportionately Labour voting is Taskmaster, followed by Rupaul’s Drag Race, and Big Brother
Somewhat frustratingly, Mr Osman doesn’t exactly tell us which shows are the most disproportionately Conservative, Liberal, Green or SNP……but the show which is directly in proportion to national voting intention is Question Time
When I’m the first in a one-to-one Teams meeting, and the other person is late, so there’s nothing to do but stare into space….it’s one of the times when I’m at my most relaxed
There’s a photo of a Salisbury road sign in the Guardian today
I’m thinking about resurrecting my website on the meanings of Salisbury’s road names….but tbh I’ve been thinking about it for about 10 years
Lost orchards and blossom flourish in placenames across England and Wales
#OnThisDay in 1930, which was Good Friday, the BBC News Announcer announced, in the evening bulletin, that ‘There is no news’ and then played some music instead
I enjoyed this combination of headline and photo - Harry Kane reacts to knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League
Arsenal’s season seems to be turning a bit Spurs-y (or maybe it’s time to replace the word Spurs-y with North London-y?)
This is lovely
Frank Cottrell-Boyce talking about how the Queen jumped out of a helicopter for the 2012 Opening Ceremony 🎙️
When the Queen ‘jumped out of a helicopter - Witness History