Another proposed entry for the next edition of The Meaning of Liff, this one for people of a certain age
Lydiard Tregoze: the amount of time it takes to realise that you’ve got the wring flipping glasses on
Proposed entry for a future edition of The Meaning of Liff
Lockeridge: the time spent staring into space, wondering what that password that you use every day might possibly be.
#TodayILearned that tomatos were thought very poisonous in North America until a chap called Colonel Johnson publicly ate one in 1820
You are there - Colonel Johnson eats a love apple youtu.be/n7_rdLNB6…
This has been one of my favourite reggae songs over the last couple of years
#TodayILearned, via Record Collector magazine, that ‘Niney’ was given that name as a nickname because he lost his thumb in an an accident
Blood and Fire by Niney The Observer songwhip.com/nineytheo…
I’d give this article a solid 4.5 :)
‘Entire evenings of my life have been shaped by the internet’s review culture’: why we’re obsessed with rating systems Joel Golby
Recommended TV: Avoidance
The blurb says: “Newly separated Jonathan has no home, no friends and no ambition. Can a slightly useless single dad find some much-needed backbone? Warm-hearted comedy with Romesh Ranganathan”
I say: Very funny. I cringed so hard I could have slipped a disc or something.
Bette Davis on Jackie DeShannon’s song, Bette Davis Eyes
Bette Davis was also a fan. “She said the song made her cool to her grandchildren,” DeShannon says with a laugh.
From this month’s Record Collector magazine
I may be wrong, but I think that if we’d had more working-class people in the House of Commons, and fewer professionals, then we’d have more Bank Holidays
There hasn’t been a new annual holiday since the 1970s
Harold Wilson, Leonid Brezhnev, and 'all the football'
This is fun, although the first bit is a tad unfair on Rishi, who does seem to be a proper football fan ⚽
This is on Harold Wilson and Leonid Brezhnev
“So there was no posturing towards the common man in his carrying around a postcard of the 1924 team, but it was a bit weird how often he got it out of his wallet to show it to people.
Anyway, he did that to Brezhnev, and Brezhnev thought he wanted an autograph, and signed it for him. So after that, he was carrying his beloved team, signed by the general secretary of the Communist party. This is really Brezhnev’s gaffe.”
I’ve been wondering whether I could come up with 47 reasons why the election’s on the 4/7…..I reckon I could do 20, but not 47
Music news.
I much prefer Shakira’s latest LP to Beyonce’s latest LP
I hope Beyonce won’t be too upset.
Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong when we win the Premiership at a canter next season……but letting Pochettino go seems like a daft decision ⚽
It’s been a while since I posted a picture of HobNob. Here he is with the Giant, as depicted in the mural by my footballing friend Fred Fieber
I think it’s important, on a Monday morning, to set one’s goals for the working week.
My goal for this week: stop spelling ‘Terraform’ as ‘Terrafrom’
There was a Crass poster stuck up at Salisbury station yesterday - not seen that in a while
I don’t know what ‘My Catholic Enemy’ is about
Listening to Rob Delaney on Sean Keaveny and Iszi Lawrence’s Your Place or Mine
Delaney is clearly a comedy genius, but his sensibly or sense of humour or something is such that I swear he’s an English guy putting on an American accent
He’s maybe even Sean Keaveny putting on an American accent
Rob Delaney: Eastern Massachusetts, USA Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/pl…
The Most Grim-Faced of Churls - #AnyoneButArsenal
“Only the most grim-faced of churls would refuse to recognise the progress Mikel Arteta’s outstanding Arsenal side have made this season.”
Thinking of changing my bio to “the most grim-faced of churls”
#AnyoneButArsenal ⚽
Premier League: 10 things to look out for on the final day of the season
Last night I was reminded that:
-
jogging in the countryside, and
-
being a man of a certain age who needs to pee fairly frequently, and
-
it being the height of stinging nettle season
…is a bad combination
🏃
Recommended podcast: Origin Story
I’ve only discovered this podcast recently, but it seems very good
The blurb says
“[Lynsky and Dunt] “focus their attention on exploring a single over-used (and over-abused) word or phrase. Through a combination of historical, etymological and contextual analysis, they unmask the true meaning of our most popular misinterpreted expressions—giving listeners keen insight into the murky nature of political and societal communication.”
…but it’s an awful lot more entertaining, and usually less heavy than that
Origin Story - www.podmasters.co.uk/origin-st…
Origin Story - open.spotify.com/show/5Aog…
There was a recent story in the UK about a local council dropping apostrophes from road signs because
“All punctuation will be considered but avoided where possible because street names and addresses, when stored in databases, must meet the standards set out in BS7666”
Coincidentally, this pic popped up today, on my photos app ‘remember this’ thing
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/a…
Possibly the most British thing ever…Midge Ure doesn’t have his OBE to hand, but he does have a framed copy of a mickey-taking Viz page, entitled ‘Arise, Sir Midge’
Also, he has a (possibly fake) golden disc of Joe Dolce’s Shaddup Your Face - the song that kept Vienna off of number one
Word in Your Attic - Midge Ure youtu.be/ps5ktKeA1…
This is well worth a listen if you’re at all interested in football
The main things I got were:
-
refereeing is more art than science, often more subjective than objective
-
they need the VAR referees to be VAR specialists
-
the system by which they score referees is ‘interesting’
-
I still don’t really know why they do it
The Audio Long Read: The impossible job – inside the world of Premier League referees