A neighbour is coming towards me, labouring to carry 18 kg of bottled water (plus the weight of the bottles). He seems glad to stop, put the water down, pet the dog. I comment that he has enough water for a month. No, till this evening, he jokes. I tell him I’m very happy with Roman tap water. Oh no...

Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time had a pair of episodes on the history of cities that were packed with fascinating ideas, any one of which could probably have spun off into a programme of its own. And of course I shouldn’t criticise for what wasn't there. But really, to spend 80 minutes discussing the h...

Or perhaps it wasn't. But it feels as if it could have been. After a surgical strike on IKEA early this morning I assembled my Besta as best as I could. (Oh God, the wit of it.) And then -- here's the breakthrough -- I ditched all the bits and pieces I didn't need for this particular configuration....

A commenter wrote:

I’m interested in your choice of pronoun in the following: “Each website author or publisher has to find their own solution,” I prefer to bounce between “his” and “her,” but am always interested in hearing writers’ rationale for their choice. By the way, I see “their” more a...

There's no greater validation, when one casts a frail little paper-boat of a blogpost onto the maelstrom of teh interwebs, than to have some stranger, or even friend, respond. ¹ Go to any reasonably popular website, however, and it rapidly becomes obvious that 90% of comments are crap. What to do?