a woman’s work

I get very irritated about all the different ‘international day of this’ and ‘world day for that’ events. Particularly when there seems to be so little consensus about the celebrations. (I’ve commented before on how the UK celebrate an entirely different World Book Day from the rest of the planet and I always miss it – though I do remember the one on April 23rd. )


Be that as it may, Google has reminded me that today is International Women’s Day, and I find from clicking their commemorative logo that it’s the 100th anniversary of the event and that women around the world will be standing on bridges to celebrate. Continue reading “a woman’s work”

accuracy in advertising

I understand that there are people who have little grasp of the grammar, syntax and spelling of their own language, but should they really be allowed to work in jobs that require them to write for the public?

Texts published on web pages are often faulty – many are written by badly paid hack writers with a deadline to meet – but it’s fairly simple to go back and correct them.

Slogans and texts for major advertising campaigns, on the other hand, are worked on by teams of professionals and they pass through the hands of many people before being approved. And yet we get things like this:

Advertising slogan: "It's time oil companies get behind the development of renewable energy"

Continue reading “accuracy in advertising”

moral education

I am intrigued by the institution in the photo:

centro educativo los morales

I’m not sure if the C.E. is centro educativo or centro de educación, but, either way, it looks like they will try and give students a moral education.
Continue reading “moral education”

“it killed the ancient romans…”

Despite being as ready as any of my classmates to chant the rhyme –

Latin is a language as dead as dead can be;
It killed the ancient Romans, and now it’s killing me.

– Latin was actually my favourite school subject and I have long believed it was the most useful subject I studied.
Continue reading ““it killed the ancient romans…””

dewi sant

daffodil

I’ve been keeping an eye on the daffs outside my window for the last month and wondering if they’d make it out in time.

In the end, despite showing colour for a week now, they haven’t. Perhaps later on today, if the sun keeps shining, they will unfurl their yellow flounces in celebration of St David’s day.

Mind you, they aren’t real daffs, anyway, as they are multi-petalled, double flowers, not the clear bright-trumpeted kind that line the road down to South Wales.

(For information about the wild daffodils of Britain, check out the I Hate Daffodils! website.)
Continue reading “dewi sant”