John Doe, caucasian, approximately 45 years old, evidence of blunt-force trauma to the base of the skull…
Pretty familiar if you’ve been exposed to the barest minimum of American crime fiction: “John” and “Jane Doe” used to refer to an unidentified victim or suspect in a criminal case. But why these names in particular? Continue reading
It’s hard to avoid Brexit at the moment. I don’t intend to add to the commentary that’s already out there. Suffice it to say it’s a colossal mistake.
Anyway, I was listening to the news on the radio this morning, and the expression no-deal Brexit was mentioned (probably already for the fifth time today). As any innocuous word or phrase tends to do, this got me thinking. Continue reading
If you’re reading this shortly after publication, then I don’t need to tell you about the horrific tragedy of the fires deliberately set in the Amazon Rainforest.
Focusing just on the name Amazon, I’ve often briefly wondered why the name was shared by the South American river and rainforest, as well the Ancient Greek all-female warrior tribe. Continue reading
Today, Donald Trump called actress Meghan Markle nasty (for justifiably calling him misogynistic), just days before he’s due to meet her husband and in-laws. Which is why I found it strange when I came across a tweet from “Official Trump War Room” (which has a blue tick) denying that he called her nasty.
Even stranger was that they used a recording of him calling her nasty to prove that he didn’t. Continue reading
-Going anywhere nice this year? Going abroad?
I haven’t had a haircut in a while, so I haven’t had the pleasure of such charming conversation recently. But I recently thought about the word abroad while reading. You see, it was being in the more old-fashioned way, as in: Continue reading
I live near an area in Dublin called Ringsend. A slightly unusual name obviously, but for someone reason I only thought today about how the name doesn’t really make any sense whatsoever.
How can a ring have an end? The whole point of rings is that they don’t have an end. So where does Ringsend come from then? Continue reading
I’m often curious about the word lady. Especially the fact that sometimes it’s Lady. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 