I have a blog post on the Guardian’s Mind Your Language blog today. Much excitement.
March 14, 2011
September 26, 2010
Why subs are great
Stephen Pritchard, the Observer’s readers’ editor, has written a column in praise of sub-editors. Read it here on the Guardian website. Champions, we are. Champions!
September 16, 2010
Two people sit between a clock
Excellent caption to this picture on p11 of the Metro this morning:
"Back in time: Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams sit between an old clock after their onscreen clock graphic failed yesterday."
The Daily Mail’s caption was positively elegant in comparison. And I don’t say that very often.
Meanwhile, Trenchard has emailed the following:
Did you read this from today’s grauniad?
‘The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has been hit with a sexual discrimination lawsuit from three former female employees who claim the firm has a testosterone-driven culture of press-up contests on the trading floor, male-dominated golf outings and scantily clad escorts at an office Christmas party.
‘Orlich claims she was excluded from golf outings, and recounts displays of “masculinity” including a push-up contest on the trading floor. And she asserts that a 2007 Christmas party for a sales team featured female escorts “wearing short black skirts, strapless tops and Santa hats”.’
Former female employees? Are they now men?
I don’t know about you, but push-up contest made me think wonderbra rather than masculinity … And ‘Santa hats’ … er, are these often associated with sexiness?
Blimey. Former females in push-up bras and Santa hats. Someone woke up in an interesting mood. 
June 2, 2010
Synonym quiz
It seems the Guardian, too, is raging over synonyms at the moment.
It has posted a quiz where you have to guess what the elegant variation is referring to (although I am slightly confused by the dateline, which currently claims the quiz was posted on Wednesday 1 June 2011).
For example, does “the maverick old warhorse of the London left” refer to:
a) Billy Bragg
b) Billy the pitch-clearing hero of the 1923 FA Cup final
c) Ken Livingstone
I got 13 out of 15… c’mon and beat me!
