quirky

Perhaps here’s an important selling word; “the”. I now know this because I heard a Sussex Uni linguist on the radio discussing the 2016 US presidential election [http://qz.com/806174/second-presidential-debate-linguistics-explains-why-donald-trump-sounds-racist-when-he-says-the-african-americans/] . She described Othering. Her definition has sinister overtones of victimisation; “treating people from another group as less

Listening intently to the US election vote-count coverage, one thing was abundantly clear. Metropolitan liberal elites were having kittens. The shock displayed by the parade of indignant Establishment politicians, analysts and commentators felt as misguided as it was imbalanced. And that’s from someone who didn’t have a dog

The first ever mealtime photo – The Set Table by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in France 1827 – using an enhanced copy, colourised by Algorithmia online then brightened by Apple’s ios photo editor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It appears restaurateurs the world over are creating deliberately social media savvy meals. Every menu set to have

Here’s the text of an email I was shown the other day. It was sent by an estate agent, trying to sell a commercial plot. > I am happy to meet you on site at a time that suits and will bring along a copy of the floor plans

Confessions of a prime ministerial advisor emerged in London this week. The person in charge of “event planning” during last year’s UK general election revealed a mistake. It seems the Campaign Schedule has a name; The Grid. It has the ring of an oppressive sci-fi dystopian masterplan which can

Fascinating social media news emerged through a British insurer this week. They had a product banned by Facebook. In part you suspect, because Facebook didn’t think of the idea themselves. In widely reported events, Admiral Insurance developed a quote process for drivers wanting car insurance for the first ever

Channel 4 News [http://www.channel4.com/news/] sent sleeves-up terrier Michael Crick to investigate US Presidential election “ground game”. He mined intel from the Democrat side. Jim Messina managed Obama’s data teams. From 2008 to re-election in 2012 it’s crew grew from 12 to 165.  At which

I recently saw again [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/23/slang-changing-face-of-cool-vulgar-tongues-max-decharne] this pic that sped around the web three years ago when a London school created “formal language areas” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This final offence of YEAH in particular reminds me of something I read over twenty years ago. Tom

In the UK there was plenty of coverage about the recent passing of a Grimsby fish filleter. Including, we learnt, that he hated that particular tabloid label. Keyboardist Rod Temperton went straight from writing mid-70s britfunk to crafting Michael Jackson’s most loved work. Producer Quincy Jones recalls first deciding

Silent film pianist and visiting professor at the Royal College of MusicNeil Brand [http://www.neilbrand.com/]plays intriguing sales chords. After tinkling a semi-stock phrase proving his mettle on-the-spot to evoke the iconic scene ‘the realisation that the person in front of you is the person with whom you’