‘Middle of the Road’ is an expression of mediocrity, a metaphor. It was also a really crappy band in the 70s who had a song called ‘chripy chirpy cheep-cheep’ which wasn’t, musically, so much ‘middle of the road’ as ‘right in the fucking gutter’. But now ‘middle of the road’ is where everyone seems to – Read More-
Stephen Jay Gould was a wonderful ‘populariser of science’, who unashamedly never ‘dumbed down’ his writing for the non-academic masses. And as he tended to write in paragraphs a yard long comprising maximum of 2 sentences in each, the reading was sometimes rather difficult. Speaking as an unacademic mass. But it was always worthwhile. Because – Read More-
You kind’a expect a ‘legacy’ to be a good thing. A nice thing. A thing with value, either financially beneficial or emotionally rewarding. Auntie Rita dies and leaves you £362 and 47 lottery tickets (all old, used and worthless). Ahhhhh. Uncle Jack dies and leaves you his war medals. Ahhhhh. So why does a ‘legacy’ – Read More-
So Steve & Joey were called back east. After an intense and grueling 4/5 months of working 1 or 2 evenings a month and hanging round the pool the rest of the time, New York was a’calling. And they promised to reveal the secrets of ‘the locked room’. And with it, hopefully, kind’a explain what – Read More-
There’s sayin’ things and there’s sayin’ things. There’s gilding lilies and there’s calling spades spades and there’s evading issues and there’s cutting to the chase. And then there’s Margaret Hodge. Dame Margaret Hodge. Bless her saintly Baronetcy. Because ever since Jeremy Corbyn emerged from his cocoon (not a racist term) and thrust himself into the – Read More-
I kind of ‘grew up’ with Cliff Richard. He was there when I first started appreciating music beyond ‘the wheels on the bus’ but before ‘careful with that axe, Eugene’. I really liked The Shadows, his backing band who were always much better in his absence. He was hailed as ‘the English Elvis!’ but he – Read More-
So after a year in Los Angeles, it just seemed to be coming to an end. Not that I wasn’t loving it there but it just seemed to be ‘a sign’ as our merry band of players started to dissipate. Then I heard on the radio (we listened to that in 1982) an advert for – Read More-
another Monday another Trump meeting with a disgrace figure world leader. We’ve done Kim, yesterday it was Poot’n. Next week maybe Assad? Erdogan? Maybe Macron. But ‘its good to talk’. So we’re told. Though it depends indeed what is said. Trump’s one-on-one with Poot’n went, according to Donald, ‘very well. Very well indeed’. Because? We – Read More-
So what am I supposed to do now? There’s no more tennis, the World Cup is over (in case you missed that) and the new football season doesn’t start for almost 4 weeks!! The European Championships are 2 years away and the next World Cup not for 4… and a half, because they have to – Read More-
I’m opposed to movie sequels. Politically. Ok, there are exceptions, otherwise life would be dull and I thrive on hypocrisy. The ONLY acceptable sequels are Kill Bill 2, because it really wasn’t a sequel, Godfather 2, because it was such a magnificent movie and in a way all 4 parts were just a serialised version – Read More-