Category Archives: Culture

Posts predominantly culture related.

So long Harlan Ellison, writer of my favourite hour of TV ever… The City on the Edge of Forever

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

On Saturday I was sad to wake to the news of the death of the writer of my favourite hour of episodic television and indeed many peoples favourite hour. Harlan Ellison the writer of the beloved original Star Trek episode … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Heritage, Life, Popular Culture, television | Tagged Harlan Ellison, Obituary, science fiction, Star Trek | 3 Comments

Language by the numbers

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

Following on from my mini-series of posts on the English language, I was contacted by a reader who thought we might all be interested by this great graphic all about languages. I hope that you like it as much as … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Life | Tagged Arabic, Chinese, English, Foreign languages, Hindi, Internet, Language, Languages, Spanish, Websites | 4 Comments

The Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

The Fourth Plinth is probably the most famous public art commission in the world and it all began back in 1994 when after 150 years with an empty plinth, Prue Leith, then chair of the Royal Society of Arts wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, history, Life, London, News | Tagged Fourth Plinth, Iraq, ISIS, Michael Rakowitz, Nelson, Nineveh, Terrorism, Trafalgar Square | 5 Comments

There’s English and there’s English.

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

Language is very important to all of us, which ever one it is that we speak. Over 20,000 people a year read my old post on 102 Words That Aren’t In English But Should Be 102 Words That Aren’t In English … Continue reading →

Posted in Cool Britannia, Culture, Life, News, Opinion | Tagged Business English, English, English as a second language, Foreign words with no equivalent in English, Idioms, Language, Words | 9 Comments

Tracing words back through time

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

Back in the mid 1990’s when I was studying at SOAS, one of the classes that I most enjoyed were those given by Professor Alexander Piatagorsky. He is said to have been the greatest Russian philospher of all time and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Heritage, history, Life | Tagged English, Etymology, Foreign words with no equivalent in English, Language, Proto-Indo-European, Words | 5 Comments

First Footing at New Year

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Stephen Liddell

First Footing is still very much alive in modern Britain. A survey shows that nearly a third of people in Britain say that First Footing continues to play a part in their New Year celebrations. The greatest number of followers … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Heritage, history | Tagged 2018, First Foot, First Footing, Folklore, Happy New Year, Hogmanay, New Year, Northumberland, Scotland, tradition | 5 Comments

My Top 12 movies of 2017

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Stephen Liddell

As half the planet is in the midst of not doing very much of anything but eat and watch films, here is my lowdown of my favourite 12 films of 2017 or one per month for those who want to … Continue reading →