There’s an old joke about the Moon landing hoax conspiracy. You know: “Sure it was a hoax, but they got Stanley Kubrick to direct and he insisted that they had to be on location.” I thought everybody knew that one. It’s an oldie but a goodie that suitably lampoons the lunatic fringe who imagine the … More When a joke about the moon hoax is taken too seriously
This week’s obscure English word – well, in this case, a term – is argute. It means shrewd. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2020
Its Jutland day this 31 May – 1 June; 104 years since the biggest naval battle of the First World War. My great uncle, H. C. Wright, was in it – safely behind 12 inches of armour aboard the super-dreadnought HMS Orion, with a Graham Navyphone clamped against one ear, passing on targeting information to … More It’s 104 years since the Battle of Jutland
It’s seventy nine years this week since the battle for Crete reached its bitter end with the defeat of an ad-hoc force of British, Australian, New Zealand and Greek troops at the hands of crack German paratroopers. Exactly how and why the island fell has been subject to a good deal of historical debate, not … More Remembering the battle for Crete
This week’s obscure English word is pogonotrophy. It means growing a beard. No really. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2020
There was a story in the Guardian the other week about a real-life ‘Lord of the Flies’ adventure: six boys, hoping to escape life in Tonga, ended up cast away on a desert island for 18 months in 1966-67. They survived: and they did not become animals. On the contrary, they maintained the values and … More Can humans go feral?
You get a bonus dose of obscure words this week! I wrote an article over on the Navy General Board website about some obscure naval words that were hijacked into English. Most of them, needless to say, were pinched from old French. And most, as you’ll see, are far older than you’d think. Here’s the … More Six obscure words this week
As the pandemic rolls on globally I expect the next few months will provoke a kind of public ‘blame game’ in which the lockdowns – and those who ordered them – are held responsible for a world economic crash. What worries me is that the debate has been reduced to two positions: either there’s a … More Who’s to blame for Covid-19
This week’s obscure English word is epeolatry. It means (wait for it) really liking – and worshipping – words. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2020
One of the problems with lockdowns is that they carry a direct economic hit. Here in New Zealand, it’s been calculated this week at 37 percent for the complete ‘Level 4’ lock-down, and forecast at about 9 percent for the ‘nearly back to normal’ Level 2 into which the country is expected to go. I … More Economic pain and the ethics of lockdowns
