When I first started writing professionally, I wrote with a ballpoint pen on an unlined octavo-sized newsprint pad. My scribbled pages were then sent to Janice, who processed them on her Imperial typewriter before sending them on to the copy … Continue reading
Pick up any newspaper – on paper or online – and you’ll find some of the best writers in the sports section and the business section. (Mind you, these are also the sections in which you will find some of … Continue reading
About once a week, the news media runs a story about how some fundamental aspect of life as we know it is about to change. Typically, the headlines lead us to believe that within a very short time – perhaps … Continue reading
If – a few days ago – you opened your newspaper at the business section, you may have read that Asian markets had fallen on the back of investors’ concerns over uncertainty in Europe. And if you opened the same … Continue reading
It’s not what the writer thinks he or she has put in that matters. It’s what the reader takes out. Lately, I have read or heard about several disputes in which one party says ‘We didn’t know’ and the other … Continue reading
By some stroke of fortune, a group of us – some not known for their time keeping – managed to arrive at the restaurant at pretty much the same time. ‘Ah, yes. Table for ten,’ the maître d’ said and, … Continue reading
I remember – as a small boy – reading a newspaper account of a Member of Parliament in which he was described as a statesman. ‘What,’ I asked my father, ‘is the difference between a statesman and a politician?’ My … Continue reading
In the early days of the 21st century we literally have a problem. It’s the use – or, more to the point, the misuse – of the word literally. According to a spokesperson for a well-known clothing retailer, a new … Continue reading
Tucked away in a corner of the rather crowded nook that passes for my memory is a fragment of a conversation that I overheard several years ago. Two young soccer fans were discussing players. One of the lads remarked that … Continue reading
According to one popular story, the word quiz owes its existence to a Dublin theatre impresario named Daly. Mr Daly is said to have had posters bearing the letters Q, U, I and Z plastered about Dublin one night in … Continue reading