Other Men's Flowers

Eether/eyether, neether/nyether and tomahto/tomayto are fine, but the song gets silly because nobody ever says potahto . Someone will probab...

This phrase was first used by the novelist C P Snow fifty years ago. After it had been taken as the title of an article about his work by th...

This is how they sometimes refer to Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the picture shows the first one). This year it was last Thursday ...

...and don't stop in the summer. From one of our bedroom windows we can just see a little white three-bladed thing on the roof of a hous...

Americans have added many useful words to our (and their) language, but they have also lost a few. They use inquiry for all purposes and fo...

When you are in a really black mood there is no point in trying to cheer yourself up by listening to some jolly music: it will make you feel...

This year’s Mastermind competition has just been won by Geoff Thomas, a retired lecturer. We do not know his age for certain, but I would g...

A friend, knowing of my interest in things American, asked me today why Other Men's Flowers has had nothing to say about last week’s ele...

I like self-referential jokes like that one, and the sign that reads: It is forbidden to throw stones at this sign . Here is another one I s...

“The paper is a joint study from three mathematics professors at New York University, Montclair State University, and the University of Graz...

Skip this one, unless maudlin reminiscence turns you on. Fifty-five years ago, I was languishing ( exactly the right word in this context) ...

...but CNN.com had an even more arresting headline yesterday: Silent plane would cut airport noise and Grumio offered me another "Wel...

Although the Blue Man Group originated in New York in the 1980s and now has many shows running in the States and elsewhere, it would be pl...

Ask Google about nits and they give you 3,710,000 pages to consult. If I were not so pressed for time I would check to see how many are ref...

Substitute Executive Hello, Would you like to make at least 1.5K to 3.5K daily just for returning calls? If you have a phone and can return ...

I unaccountably missed the European Beard and Moustache Championships which took place last month in Germany, hosted by Der Ostbayerische B...

It must be a hundred years since anyone cared greatly about the distinction between shall and will . It doesn’t matter much in speech or in...

If you put “Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky” into Google, you get around three hundred references; at the very top of the list is a link ...

It was pleasant to read last week that the classiest of the 1950s Italian beauties (until she was supplanted by Sophia Loren) is now to mar...

The chef of River Cottage recently said that he still hasn't decided what the best word for gravy is: “…I can't stand jus ." J...