This post is about smoking. For the benefit of those who are fiercely anti-tobacco, reformed smokers, or under the legal age to smoke, I should be patently clear: I am not advocating the smoking of cigarettes. I shall not discuss the health issues. I will get other comments out of the way quickly. It is... Continue Reading →
Rehash for the press
In my previous post, I did something I never thought I would do: I reblogged. I will justify it by saying that I found something that really appealed to me: a nifty newspaper clipping generator! It creates a facsimile of a newspaper article using your very own story. This is a great fresh idea for language... Continue Reading →
Yale Literature Lecture in technicolour
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood | Yale Literature Lecture. I have chosen this as the subject of today's blog because of my ignorance. My ignorance is two-fold. Not only had I not heard the name Flannery O'Connor until a couple of days ago, I was also ignorant of the fact that for no financial outlay whatsoever,... Continue Reading →
Fresh-cut flowers
Here is what I know about flowers: To dry a bunch of flowers, you must tie them and hang them upside down in a dry draughty place for quite a long time. In the fresh-cut flower industry there are two positions in which flowers are handled; lying flat and upright. In the field they grow... Continue Reading →
Things to be thankful for
This post deals with my response to: Letters of Note: Things to worry about. I have pressed this letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his eleven-year-old daughter, because it struck me as so odd, so very different from my experience. I am sure that if I had received such an intense letter from anybody when I... Continue Reading →
You look familiar
I am sure most people have been told that they look familiar at least once in their lives upon meeting a stranger. The trouble is that this used to happen to me a lot in my early twenties. This used to upset me because my childhood indoctrination, religious and otherwise, had taught me that I... Continue Reading →
Honey, much sweeter than wine
I really ought to thank my mother in front of the whole world for never once missing the opportunity to take my sister and I for our six-monthly dental check-up for near on two decades. I have a healthy mouth full of silver of which I can be proud. I say this with a toothache... Continue Reading →
Green things
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest web page is one I would really like to explore in depth. This type of writing is an art form in itself, albeit not one which conjures up an image of tucking one's knees under the rug on a sofa, hot cup of tea in hand, and settling down to a cosy... Continue Reading →
A blank wall
Ten days ago I did some painting. I am sorry to disappoint you. It was far removed from fine art, although I looked like a real masterpiece when the work was done. The medium: white interior/exterior PVA on one bedroom wall which has suffered the ravages of winter damp over the last three years, and... Continue Reading →
Now or never: translation of a poem and other things I don´t know
I have chosen now. Well, that is rather misleading. Let me rephrase that: I have finally chosen now to be the time. This is the time to translate that poem. I shall need a preamble for this. For fellow translators in a hurry: the poem in the original Portuguese together with the English translation are... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 