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Anyone else fancy a blog swap?
Would any other bloggers be interested in a mutual exchange - ‘guest blogs’ on each others' sites? I tend to blog either about words and communication in the broadest sense, or humorous observations on topical issues and everyday life. If you’d like to try out this...
I stalk the prime minister and realise I’d be a crap paparazzo
While driving through a village in Cornwall at the weekend, I saw the prime minister walking along the road. As you do. Kim, who was driving, was excited beyond belief; she was already on Cameron alert because she’d read in the papers that he was planning to visit...
Grumpy journalist seeks interesting assignments. I’m free next week! Don’t let my cats starve!
Today I completed a feature about a British exporter for an international trade magazine and tomorrow I’m writing some copy for a website designer who’s doing a groovy new site for a property company. Next week I’ll be meeting a local small businessman who likes the...
While ads make parents obsess about hygiene, kids learn to hate their own bodies
I got really cross after reading a batch of press releases out this week. One, issued by a manufacturer of office cleaning products, listed a variety of dirty habits that are “annoying the UK’s mums”. These include not washing hands after going to the toilet, leaving...
Polite greeting overcomes my cynicism about offensive signage
Conversation in the steam room tonight threatened for a while to be almost intelligent, with an interesting discussion about website development, but it descended into its usual levels of inanity when I mentioned I’d been to Climping at the weekend and someone asked...
In which I am too easily flattered by spammers
The spammers have been out in force since last I wrote on the subject of ludicrously irrelevant and badly spelled blog comments. Is there a convention on, or something? Anyway, checked my site tonight to see 73 new pending posts, most of them spam. It was a close-run...
Mangling Keats through online translation to get a cheap laugh
Had a lot of fun today putting the first verse of Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” through an online translation facility. Translating into Swahili and back wasn’t amusing enough for me, so I then ran subsequent English versions through Icelandic, Filipino, Welsh,...
Jailed for swearing: what next in our authoritarian police state?
Tweets are coming in from Manchester police listing the sentences given to those who took part in the riots. People are being jailed for swearing at police. Yes, prison. For swearing. Not assault, not criminal damage, not theft. Swearing. For fuck’s sake. This is...
Spammers delight me with gloriously incomprehensible English
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...
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