Other Men's Flowers

Some quite literate people often get this wrong: Loathe, v.t . detest, regard with disgust [OE lathian] Example: I really loathe him and ...

I never had any desire to read The Da Vinci Code but I did think I might go and see the film when it came out. Now that it has, I am not su...

Casual acquaintances of mine may be surprised to hear that I have been glancing at episodes of the current series of Big Brother . For those...

It seems that Euan Blair's internship in Washington didn't work out too well. I read that “he decided to leave the office of his se...

What do the following have in common? A revolutionary design for affordable houses, a cerise-coloured back-pack, the music of Chopin, a dual...

I was lucky enough to inherit a sound constitution (and complete immunity to baldness, boast boast) so I have never had to bother doctors m...

As a typically naïve and ignorant consumer, I had always vaguely thought that the chilled prepared dishes colourfully packaged and tempting...

The Observer publishes a weekly colour supplement consisting mostly of childish rubbish which makes a nice contrast to the content of the p...

From the Oxford English Dictionary: McJob , n., colloq. and depreciative (orig. U.S.). An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, es...

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: A Derbyshire Village. L.S.Lowry, 1943 In a post about warm beer a couple of years ago I commented on some of George ...

A woman I know attempted to comfort a bereaved friend by saying that at last the late lamented had been re-united with the much-loved spanie...

Animals cannot speak and have developed non-verbal ways of expressing themselves. Some of these signals we can use ourselves: we cannot wag ...

Pointing out people’s physical defects is generally considered offensive. Commenting on big ears, knock knees, bent noses, sagging bottoms a...

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is rapidly losing the confidence of the people of this country by his continued refusal to come clean about hi...

Not all the readers of Other Men's Flowers are living in Spain under an assumed name or are wanted for questioning in connection with s...

I wished him a Happy 96th Birthday in 2004 but for some reason I failed to mark his 97th last year; he died yesterday. So farewell then, Jo...

I ordered a Gift Certificate from a well-known internet retailer of books etc. and got an email acknowledgement. Then: • After four days I c...

I wrote a post a year ago which began with a mention of rat’s testicles and a whale’s pizzle and went on to laud the virtues of The Oxfor...

… you’ve got it made (referring to sincerity; variously attributed to Groucho Marx, George Burns et al.). Or: He looked me straight in the ...

Pick pocketing, 15th January, 1680 . Elizabeth Spark and William Abbot were indicted the former being a notorious pickpocket, was as she pre...