English
I could(n't) care less about this variation
I’m someone who could quite reasonably be described as a language Nazi, but in spite of my pedantry I’m also someone who sees language as alive and evolving. Or at least, I believe there are times to be a pedant and times to be open-minded. So I was interested to stumble on a debate about the Americanism “I could care …
Read more
Educational experiment
With a heavy sigh of relief, I’m pleased to declare that my experiment paid off. I spent every Wednesday of the last academic year attending a fast track English A level course. Why? Well… to see what later-life learning is like, spy on the state of 6th form colleges in 2008, expand my mind… and — I confess — to …
Read more
The original good time
Innocent usually set the bar pretty high when it comes to copywriting — particularly laudable given that they don’t hire some marketing svengali to come in and write the ‘zany’ comments on the cartons. That’s right — Richard, Adam and Jon who co-founded it are responsible for all the silliness on the bottom, sides, top (“shake before serving – it …
Read more
Reunion
DAY FOUR Toby and Alicia live in a palace! Their vast house with large garden and swimming pool is in the exclusive Mosman Park district, minutes from Perth via the Fremantle train line. It’s baking hot (32 degrees and rising) but not uncomfortable. Dry heat — that’s new. Having not seen Toby since the wedding two and a bit years …
Read more
Back to school
I’m about to return to school. Or that is to say, I’ve just enrolled on an evening class studying for an A level in English Literature — first class tonight! It’s a one-year course with only 3 hours of teaching a week. If it was 4.5 hours, it would still be approximately half the teaching hours of a full time …
Read more
