Words, writers and writing
SAD times for the pedants among us. To start with, the man who waged a lifelong war against misuse of the apostrophe has met his own full stop. Then, as if to add insult to injury, that weird Californian couple who once were royal have continued their verbose mangling of the English language. The first of these events occurred on 30 March 2021 with the death at the age of 97 of John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. The society, a wonderful example of British eccentricity, was launched by Richards in 2001 to preserve the correct use of…
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SOMETHING’S not right. I already had my suspicions but chose to ignore them. Now I fear that is no longer possible; recent events have convinced me so. Time to face the fact: incidents of going into another room and not remembering why you did so are commonplace in one’s more…
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NAH, it can’t be that good. Surely not. Must be because its cover has a celebrity’s name taking top billing as the author. Another example of vanity publishing, selling by popularity rather than content. Probably ghost written too. Isn’t that how it goes; win the public’s heart through the telly…
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AS a person of interest, Meaghan Markle usually rates way down the list of those spotlighted celebrities who engage my attention. Almost off the scale; at the lowest end. As I feel she is considered by most people apart from those sad sacks to whom all gossip is more precious…
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Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #8
Feb 2021: THE Pisa-like bedside tower of books looked like toppling before I got around to recording some of its content. It was only thanks to some extended sessions of lockdown reading that it has been whittled down…
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PERHAPS this blog post should come with an advisory caution; like those that precede some of the raunchier dramas screened on post-watershed TV. A warning about bad language or offensive dialogue. Displaying an awareness of some readers’ fragile sensibilities. Guarding against young minds being led down sinful paths; the elderly shocked into losing a grip on their walking frames. That said, we will plough bravely on; aware of the pitfalls ahead. Fearful of a slap over the wrist at the very least but a strong possibility of wrath and banishment at the hands of the great god Facebook . Censorship…
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