Personally, and this is probably my mother’s fault, I like to know all the small details. When I go to the supermarket I check all the apples for bruises. When I drop one—which is bound to happen when you’re as ruthless as I am—I make sure that I put it back so that the light […]

“Please be positive!”: no three words—apart from “I’m leaving you!”, of course, and the one involving the word beginning with the letter before M which will not be mentioned here—have such an emotive, punishing, smack-you-about-the-head effect. Be positive, you think to yourself, cursing this big-headed individual whose absurdity knows no bounds, what kind of stupid […]

I had to smile when I read this Enigin Stories about how people always go over the top with their Christmas decorations on the outside of their humble abodes. There is nothing humble about the lengths that some people go to in order to make Blackpool Illuminations look like a forty watt bulb. The […]

This article comes with a disclaimer: this is just how it happens with me; it’s not necessarily what will happen with you.I found this out some years ago—it’s a very odd idea, but with me it works every time. It’s something that seems ridiculous, but has proven itself with me a thousand times or more. […]

In 1958, director Stanley Kramer released the greatest film of his career. ‘The Defiant Ones’ tells the story of two escaped convicts shackled together. But the story really begins to get interesting when we learn more about the characters.John ‘Joker’ Jackson is a racist and being chained to black Noah Cullen is not his idea […]

What exactly is ‘normal’?Many people would say that normality is a certain way of behaving, living and interacting with others. This is down to a sort of ‘social expectation’ that most of us have. If something does not quite fit in with what we deem to be ‘right’ then it is not ‘normal’.But actually, there […]