Mind Your Language by Trevor Plumbly

My schooldays are long past, but I still expect there to be some sort of censure when people make poor use of the English language. Sadly this deterioration is happening at such a rate these days that an army of pedants couldn’t correct or punish the culprits. Newly minted words, phrases and abbreviations are inflicted on us, totally unchallenged, by the Education System or the Media. Like most kids from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the 1940s, elocution wasn’t high on my education list, but that didn’t stop the English teachers of the… Read More

Bottled Inspiration by Trevor Plumbly

There are only two options available when your brain isn’t producing anything worth writing about: you can, either (A) flag it and do something else, or, (B) seek inspiration. Being a stubborn sort, I decided that (B) was the way to go. But deciding to seek it and actually finding it caused a problem. Inspiration, I discovered, is bloody elusive. All sorts of important people credit inspiration for paving the way to their fame and fortune. But there’s the rub, they only do this after the event, publicly spouting “I owe it… Read More