F Words by Sue Fenton

After nominating 12 other bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Awards yesterday, I ran out of steam and had to go and make my dinner, so I deferred the remaining three of the 15 I was supposed to nominate. Here they are now. http://kitchenslattern.com Kitchen Slattern writes about cookery and domesticity, and believes that doing the housework … Continue reading »

Crikey, I’ve been nominated for a Versatile Blogger Award. I can’t remember the last time I was nominated for anything, other than to go to the bar ‘cause it was my round. The awards seem to be fairly informal – it’s not like the Oscars or the X Factor or anything. There is no official … Continue reading »

I shouldn’t be so astonished that a pub full of people can write and perform 10 songs in under two hours – because I know, having been part of the process before, that it can be done. But even so, I was impressed by the speed with which a creative product can be assembled, given … Continue reading »

I’ve been in some kind of journalism ever since I sat at a manual typewriter in a college classroom in Cardiff reading about libel law, learning shorthand and writing news stories about made-up events in a made-up place called Newtown that suffered from far more of its fair share of fires, murders and motorway pile-ups. … Continue reading »

For some reason, I really enjoy writing about spam (perhaps because it is so entertaining I don’t need to think of anything funny to write myself), so I am pleased to bring readers the latest batch of illiterate rubbish that fills my inbox in response to various blog posts. Let’s start with a compliment. “Rodney” … Continue reading »

I was reading the local free ad newspaper on the train to London the other day and was intrigued by the Pets section. I’d never realised the extent to which dog owners are now interbreeding their pets to create monstrous new varieties. I’d heard of the Jug (cross between a Jack Russell and a Pug) … Continue reading »

With work being on the slow side, my endeavours lately have been focused almost entirely around creative pursuits, namely music. Having been songwriting for about a year now, alone and with no real idea what I’m doing or whether I’m doing it right, I decided it was time to get some knowledgeable input so I … Continue reading »

I learned three new words or phrases this week, simply from lurking about in a discussion on LinkedIn. One member (British) laughingly suggested that an Americanism employed by another member (American) was peculiar to the “13 Colonies”. The American took exception to this, saying the phrase was “fracked”; and the Brit responded he hadn’t meant … Continue reading »

Felt initial delight on checking site stats, at seeing a relatively enormous number of comments had been posted. Most turned out to be spam, which was mildly disappointing, though funnily enough I actually rather enjoyed reading them. Is it compulsory, I wondered, for spam to be written so badly? Why would someone who is trying … Continue reading »

There are gangs of self-appointed spelling police who lurk about on Facebook looking for errors. Their aim, according to the link below, is to “publicly challenge and humiliate sloppy wordsmiths”. The Best Obnoxious Responses To Misspellings On Facebook | Happy Place. Happyplace.com collated loads of examples of Sloppy Spellers meeting Spelling Pedants online, and some are … Continue reading »