I’ve been trying to help a friend find the name for using a placeholder subject in a sentence. “It’s three o clock”, “There’s food on the table” etc. OED not an astonishing amount of use, but does classify th[…]

Minor food experiment. One of my favourite risottos is mainly flavoured by lemon. Lemon, watercress and the usual handfuls of onion, garlic and parmesan. Also about a month ago I had a really nice black pudding with an orange sauce (it might have bee[…]

It does not matter how large I write
THE PLOT MAKES NO SENSE
, it will not make it any more true. Unfortunately the fact that Red-Eye three months ago had a stab at a similar plot and succeeded with more aplomb and without resorting to a plot that be[…]

It was in the appropriately theatrical Harlequin the other night that our attention was drawn to the marvellously luvvie valedictory address given by Joseph Grimaldi the clown on the occasion of his retirement.
Here it is (copied from A History of P[…]

p13, casino royale (1953)
“… Bond undressed and took a cold shower. Then he lit his 70th cigarette of the day… ”

IF died in 1965 — guess what of :( :([…]

A dinner-free trip to the pub, last week, inevitably led to a trip to the nearest tasty poultry shop. Feeling boozy and ravenous, Marianna and I ordered the value meal of chixor, spicy wings, chips and drink. While fryers fried and boxes were stacked[…]