On a melancholy note, Carl Reiner created the show drawing on his own experiences as a TV writer for an egotistic comic, who went home every night to a normal suburban life. Dick van Dyke’s family in the show were […]

I think the idea is that if you pour boiling water into an unheated tea pot, some of the heat goes into warming the pot, so the water drops in temperature. If the pot is already heated, the water remains nearer to […]

Zack Polanski is 43, so although he may be a new face to a lot of people, he’s not that young. He has been in politics since 2015, as a Liberal and then Green, and has been a member of the London Assembly since 2 […]

As far as the letter post goes, isn’t this an example of Woolworths Syndrome, where everybody bemoaned their closure while admitting they never went in there. The only time I use the letter post is to send b […]

I think I can say Alistair Green has summarised my reaction;

They do sound too contrived, but fact as ever outdoes fiction. This an advert for a cafe which I often pass advertising an evening of “vulva casting and kombucha”. It sounds like something they thought up as a sid […]

Someone at work who is responsible for data protection used the phrase “right to be forgotten.” It’s a legal term meaning that an organisation can’t keep your personal data longer than necessary. I think i […]

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, here is a link to a Substack post by Alex Massie which points out that there has been a lot of criticism of the BBC’s editorial approach to news on a number of issues, […]

I liked the first two episodes of Pluribus, but then I read that there will be a second season, after the first one of nine episodes, and I felt slightly disappointed . I never really got into those long […]

My brother in law still works at 75. He is an electrician for a University Hospital. I’ll generalise, but I think people who work with their hands and can see the results of their work are often happier in their j […]

I think the Trump video is only one part of the criticism of the BBC. Leaving aside what Michael Prescott might say, it seems from social media (Twitter anyway) and some of the press that there is a lot of […]

Yes, this seems to be only one of the criticisms that was made in the report on the BBC’s editorial standards by Michael Prescott, which was leaked to the Telegraph. The others were about alleged bias in the BBC’s […]

Twelve CDs? So they’ve managed to edit it down to the highlights then.

I’m not sure where I heard it, perhaps on Leo Sidran’s podcast, but Donald Fagen said that after Walter Becker’s death, he thought of dropping the Steely Dan name and touring as himself. But he was told that even […]

Sax break on Baker Street?

It’s not really my taste changing, but I think my mother was typical of quite a few people in changing her opinion of Harry Hill and Bob Mortimer. She thought the original Harry Hill shows, with Al Murray and B […]

Haikus aren’t what they used to be.

A quick check shows that it’s nine years since he posted. 2016 – the year of the EU referendum, David Cameron handing over to Theresa May, and David Bowie’s death. Say what you like about FauxGeordie, but he […]

Deana Carter – Did I shave my legs for this?

In general, I find titles of all kinds an odd thing, and most people find them awkward to use. I worked for a time in a public sector organisation, where the chairman was knighted and then given a peerage. He […]