What’s the Difference between Envy and Jealousy?

I’m glad you asked! I was thinking about this earlier, when writing about the Seven Deadly Sins made me think of envy, which is of course one of them.

These two are quite confusing, aren’t they? For both native and non-native speakers alike. Even if you know there’s a difference, and kind of know what that difference is, it’s hard to pin it down and put it into words, isn’t it? Let’s see if we can figure it out, shall we?

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Isle of Dogs

Writing about dogs yesterday (something I’m surprised I don’t do more often) made me think about the new Wes Anderson film Isle of Dogs. I’m not going to write a review or anything, because obviously that’s not what I do here. Instead, I’m more curious about that title.

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You can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It

I was sitting here this morning, not sure what to write, and thinking I might take a little break for today. You know, go outside and enjoy the drizzle. However, I was listening to the song “Lay Lady Lay,” which contains the line You can have your cake and eat it too. And that got me thinking.

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What does Shakespeare Mean?

It’s funny. I’ve thought a lot about what words mean, particularly names. Even more particularly, names which are clearly interesting or unusual. And I’ve thought a lot about William Shakespeare. But I’ve never thought about his surname before.

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Joined-Up Writing

When I was young, I was often curious when characters on American TV would occasionally mention cursive. I could never figure out what they meant, and it was mentioned rarely enough that I never really got enough context to figure it out. It also sounded quite strange as it sounded so much like the word curse (and a joke in a classic Simpsons episode is based on this resemblance).

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Why Learn a Second Language?

Good question. And I think it’s one I’ve answered here and there across different posts, if not all in one go. It’s a question I’ve been asking myself more often recently.

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Kind Regards

A lot of us write a lot more than we used to. If you work in a office, or even from home, there’s a good chance that your job requires you to send at least a few emails a day. I sent 34 work emails on Wednesday, for example (I also sent a lot on Thursday and Friday, but as the school I work in was closed because of the severe weather, I won’t count those). And this is still a relatively quiet period. Even if a lot of us are used to sending emails though, there’s something of an art to writing one.

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