I think if one is offering classes in English then it helps not to mis-spell the word curriculum.

I was wondering about how Homer would describe the Soup Dragon had he lived into the era of The Clangers. I thought κυκεωνοδότειρα δράκαινα might do nicely. It can run from the masculine third foot caesura to the end of the line. I don’t think it violates any prosodic rules.

The poor lamb. Not.

Where I was. What I thunk.

I think I will give both the dentist and the cinema a miss, thanks.

IDK who needs to hear this. But (1) the thing you sit on when on a train or bus is a seat, not a chair; (2) only buildings have floors so that someone lying prone on the cold earth is on the ground, not the floor. 😖

They’re having a flowerpot festival in Settle.

They have stones with words on so that one can do a bit of composition of one’s own. I thought this impromptu effort of mine savoured more than a little of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. That said, I probably ought to enter it for a prize in avant garde modern verse.

Who knew that the famed Italian car manufacturer had branched out into coffee?

Why do I cringe when what I used to think of as a rather august institution refers to its exhibitions as ‘shows’? I’m sure they had lots of pre-meeting meetings and briefings on the way to confirming the necessity, nay excellence, of this usage. But it grates on my senses.

When I were a lad, The Salvation Army was affectionately nicknamed ‘The Sally Ann’. Or ‘The Hallelujah Girls’. Or The Sow (rhymes with how) Gosh. I think the first two are well known. Does anyone else recall ‘Sow Gosh’? I’m beginning to think it a coinage of my long-deceased Yorkshire grandfather.

This nails the ghastly lack of transcendence in modern churches. Advanced minds will throw up their hands in exasperation at my mental limitations and the temerity of my expression. They will put me in the “monstrous carbuncle” reactionary box. Where I’m happy to be. With Chartres and Notre Dame.

One assumes the flat-earth people in Brazil and elsewhere will not be rushing out to buy eclipse glasses. The darkening of the sun must be down to some naughty political plot. Or the wrath of Huitzilopochtli vel sim.

Partly such errors are just annoying. But there’s also the mischief that those who know no better might see this and think it correct. Yes, I know. Don’t tell me. Spelling is a distraction and doesn’t matter. Moreover, it’s all a dastardly plot to cement the power of elites.

I saw this on a bus. I thought of PIE *sneigwh- which gives Gk. νίφα, Lat. nix, Russ. Снег, Eng. snow. Is there perhaps a language where “snog” means snow? So your frozen yoghurt is snow. I could look this up online but would be far more tickled if someone just knows.

In English, what do we call this thing with the ketchup and vinegar and what not inside? I really don’t know.

My Facebook algorithm wants me to buy what it calls Christian Prayer Mats. These, I confess, are new to me. But then it takes me all my effort to get onto my knees and off again with the assistance of a strategically-placed kneeler. I wouldn’t pin my hopes on shagpile.

I just agreed to review a book proposal for a large scholarly press. The instructions say that it is “forbidden” to use LLMs to assist one to reach one’s conclusions. Thing is, it never crossed my mind to do so. I started reading and formed conclusions using, er … my brain.

RIP Sir Anthony Kenny

To someone like me, whose first language is English, the resonances of this word are unfortunate.

Seen today in London. Is there some functional difference between a tap and a faucet?

From an auction catalogue. The mythical Roman empress Diana. So mythical, I’ve never heard of her. It doesn’t immediately look like the goddess Diana. But I’m not aware of any imperial consort of that name in West or East from the beginning to the fall of Constantinople.

TFW your tea comes in pot with a cup and you don’t have to have a stand off with someone who wants to give you a mug with a teabag floating in it and probably also a spoon to put your eye out. I shouldn’t call this a teacup but it’s still on the right side of the line.

It’s very fitting that this Barchesteresque scene should be sitting atop a pillar box given that Anthony Trollope was instrumental in the introduction of the pillar box in these parts.

Well, The Odyssey was very good. Almost as good as the version we saw many festivals ago, done by a French puppetry company with kitchen utensils

The second paragraph describes my own upbringing and that of others I knew as a child. Familiarity was baked in by dint of repetition. Markedly less so now. Even in the 90s, I had students who would shrug at biblical references, “We’re not religious.” Congratulations. But …

If your shoes are not FUBAR You can take them to the shoe bar.

“Cursive Arabic script never worked happily as movable type and typeset Arabic was long viewed in its homeland rather as tinned spaghetti is in Italy.” Tim Mackintosh-Smith