Other Men's Flowers

This is a word which has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary in its June quarterly update. The OED says of it: One surprise of this ...

It was not until I acquired this the other day (an accident: no other parties were involved) that I realised just how much amusement the sig...

No 30 in an occasional series of extracts from The Postcard Century August 1920 Annie sends this luxury tinted card with embossed borders fr...

We lay our railway lines on sleepers ; over there they lay their railroad tracks on ties , while our ties are neckties to them. But all ...

It has always been widely believed that monks and nuns do not lead lives of consistent virtue, and thus their transgressions have frequently...

Why is Google spying on me? Well, of course, Google spies on everybody in the known universe, and many outside it. But few people have a wat...

More recycled posts from 2005: hats God bless her, and all who sail in her words Carelessness in the OED personal A happy parting i...

Anyone who visits the internet knows that a large proportion of what you find there is garbage, and sometimes dangerous: get involved in it ...

One of the nastiest columns in the increasingly rabid Sunday Times is written by one Rod Liddle and consists mainly of cheap sneers targete...

It is difficult to see why the faithful are so unhappy about Dr Craig Venter's attempt to play at God by creating life. I mean, anyone w...

This is how Horace Rumpole referred to his wife (she called him 'Rumpole'); John Mortimer took the title from H. Rider Haggard's...

Towards the end of last year there was a letter published in Private Eye with the writer's name adding a final note. This has evoked a ...

I sleep very well, on the whole. When anxious, or dreading the next day, I can usually do as Winston Churchill recommended: "Turn out t...

...and into uncharted waters, I shouldn't wonder. Anyway, it might be worth watching tomorrow. Usually we get bored with election night ...

Here is an update to two earlier posts: Sugar Pills and Magic Water on the NHS , in which I described the Early Day Motion proposed by the M...

More re-cycled posts from 2005: religion Every picture tells a story; this one’s a lulu personal The most honorific of all my titles people ...

A nice change from the Three Caballeros doing their respective unfunny stand-up routines was provided this week by the leaking of a Foreign ...

It seems very likely that on the morning of 7th May almost no-one will be happy with the results of the election. This does not often happen...

No 29 in an occasional series of extracts from The Postcard Century January 1911 The caption reads 'THE BATTLE OF STEPNEY: Mr Winston Ch...

Rejoice, rejoice! The long decline of the British Empire has been halted; we are no longer a laughing stock among the nations, sunk in nosta...