Why Scrabble is Wrong (and a big shout out for Welsh-speakers)

It’s a great little-non-story for a Saturday. A few years ago, a bookshop in Camarthen stocked a few sets of the Welsh Scrabble game.  No-one bought them.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/24/scrabble-yn-gymraeg-the-board-game-no-one-wants-to-buy

Now, after we’ve had all the jokes (about the board isn’t big enough for all those long Welsh words like llongyfarchiadau… which is not true), or the more prosaic explanation that Camarthen is in the south where there are more English speakers, perhaps I can offer an alternative suggestion- that it just shows the Welsh (or at least, Welsh speakers) are more intelligent than the rest of us.

Why? Because they don’t like Scrabble. It’s a Bad Game, a Very Bad Game.

Absolutely Bonkers- Kynren’s last night

Imagine taking a fast walk through a vast art gallery with a small child, pausing to quickly explain a few of the more colourful bits to keep their attention, so they don’t start fidgeting. Well, you’d focus on the busier bits, wouldn’t you? That’s Kynren’s approach to British history, writ-large, and… it’s Big.

Save Morgan Freeman’s Career! (A New Campaign)

It must be tough being Morgan Freeman. All the time, he wants to express his acting talent in a whole range of arthouse movies and voiceover documentaries, but casting directors keep sending him major big-budget roles that call for a certain type of character.

Bake-off, Channel 4, and The End of Civilisation As We Know It.

Oh dear. Oh deary me.

The sky has fallen in. Parliament must be recalled. COBRA must meet to discuss the security implications. The Queen must be informed. And a few nights ago, the announcement even made the headlines of the main BBC News, ahead of one or two other tiny items about more mayhem going on around the world.

The Great British Bake-off is leaving the BBC, to enter the commercial waters of Channel 4. Apocalypse Now, apparently.

School Uniform- the truth at last!

I hated my uniform at Therfield Comprehensive School in the 1970s. 

It was one of the reasons I couldn’t wait to leave. There was a thick blazer with pockets that weren’t deep enough, and a school tie. What idiot invented ties? There was even a school cap that nobody in their right senses would choose to wear- I stopped wearing mine on the first day, after realising I was the only person on the playground with a hat. So when it came to A-levels, I was off down to the road to the local technical college where I could study English, Sociology and Geography with a lot of other non-conformists, and somehow manage to scrape together enough ability to go to Newcastle University, two years later. At Ewell Technical College I was allowed to wear Levi jeans and a Capital Radio T-shirt, and no-one in authority minded or cared. Bliss. Jeans were so magnificently 1970s and rebellious- so we all wore them like a uniform, when we could, as you do, when you’re 16 or 17.

The Elusive Moose

Last week, Mrs PGD and I returned from Canada. All in all, we’d have to say that Canada is definitely everything you’d expect in matters Canadian, with an abundance of trees, maple syrup, Mounties (always getting their man), Rockies and what-have-you. Yes, Canada is definitely the place for seeing all these things in their natural habitat.