2020-09-15 08:51
I spent a fair bit of time yesterday reading about COVID 19 and thought I would present my findings. The pandemic is over and we must understand that a second wave is imminent, inevitab… Read More
Blog Directory > Arts & Entertainment Blogs > lathophobic aphasia arts-and-entertainment Blog >
2020-09-08 08:25
I've only taught four online lessons so far - October is when it really starts. They all went fairly well. It still felt rather like putting up with the water being turned off or making do w… Read More
2020-08-22 18:23
I could not resist that heartfelt plea to share this video far and wide. Rodney, for shame, sir. You are a bounder and a cad.BTW, gentlemen, I understand the more attractive of the ladies is… Read More
2020-07-24 07:29
In England, as from today, you must wear a mask if you want to be allowed into a shop or supermarket. If you go to donate blood in England, you'll be required to wear a mask throug… Read More
2019-11-15 06:19
Fuck, what a dull life I lead. In September I decided to abstain from the grape and the long evenings on alcohol-free beer made me realise how much I mute the utter boredom of my existence w… Read More
2019-09-21 17:07
I had a hell of a time publishing the previous post. The font kept getting smaller with each edit, and finally I had to copy the piece, paste it into Word, remove all the formatting, and the… Read More
2019-09-20 20:51
For me, nothing in this sublunary world rivals the beauty of young males and after Tumblr went all prudish and modishly censorious on us last year, I nuked my ten year-old blog curating imag… Read More
2019-09-12 18:40
Maybe...Well, it's been a while. This blog was ten years old earlier this month and I have been thinking it must finally be time to retire it. I update it so infrequently nowadays, unlike in… Read More
2019-09-08 08:04
Pre-Sessional Affective Disorder 'A condition frequently encountered at this time of year is Pre-Sessional Affective Disorder (PSAD) The patient typically presents in early to mid-September… Read More
2019-04-26 18:17
An inspiration indeed! Let's make Notre Dame look almost as magnificent as Meadowhall. In that glass-covered nave, let there be built, ad maiorem Dei gloriam, a mall. We could have The Trans… Read More
2019-03-30 10:44
Early Spring. I do not like this time of year. It's like being woken up at the crack of dawn by an irritating, bouncy games teacher or pestered by one of those friends of your mother's who t… Read More
2019-03-16 19:30
Friday March the first was my sixtieth birthday. The sun (or is it the moon?) is in Pisces and this is the Chinese Year of the Pig, as it was when I was born. My thoughts on the matter were… Read More
2018-12-07 10:10
I'm off sick today. Back, legs, feet, everything south of my waist aches like fuck. Not complaining. I can go to bed when I please, get up when I please, have a doze in the afternoon if I fe… Read More
2018-10-18 06:47
This has saved me a lot of typing Read More
2018-10-12 19:52
I've just deleted my Facebook account after thirteen years as a regular poster. I reckon that's probably the best way to stay on good terms with the handful of Facebook friends I see regular… Read More
2018-10-06 09:28
I've been to the theatre three times this year, quite the giddy social whirl for me: I'm almost in danger of getting a life. There was the train wreck of a Macbeth at the National on my birt… Read More
2018-10-03 13:59
That question has bubbled up in my brain several times a day in the ten years since I started this blog. I haven't been able to answer it for months now. I used to write about what amused, i… Read More
2018-07-30 12:48
The last post has been withdrawn. If you read it, you probably know why. Read More
2018-07-25 20:40
Anybody there? It's been a while. I haven't felt much like writing this year, and here's how come.I was at home on the 22nd of February when I received a phone call from the head of the depa… Read More
2018-03-20 10:14
It was my 59th birthday on the first of the month and a friend was to treat me to Macbeth at the National Theatre. The country was like Antarctica, trains were few and where running, jammed… Read More
2017-09-04 19:18
It's always gratifying when students spontaneously make connections between the vocabulary you presented today with words and concepts introduced in earlier lessons… Read More
2017-08-30 20:36
The Albanian language has held a fascination for me for some time - I'm always attracted to the obscure. When in Greece I met Albanians and told them I was learning their language, the initi… Read More
2017-06-26 05:41
In the abstract reproduced below, Swedish gender scholar Åsa Carlson seems puzzled that most women think they're female and most men think they're male. This egregious failure to under… Read More
2017-05-04 13:56
Manchester Metropolitan University's Department of Toilet Studies and Intersectional Plumbing Research Unit find that school toilets are ableist, sexist, westist, adultist, classist, white s… Read More
2017-04-28 22:33
I've been teaching Spanish teenagers this past week. This was for want of other work, not the desire to educate the young generation: others are far better qualified to do this than I am. Th… Read More
2017-04-22 10:51
I got a letter today from Spec Savers informing me that my eye-test is long overdue. They're right, but I can't afford new specs until summer. I found myself at Leeds station the other day i… Read More
2017-03-11 13:54
This video 'Feminism for Bros' lasts less than two minutes but I defy anyone to watch it through to the end without cringing in embarrassment. It's sphincter-winking stuff. Consent in sex, i… Read More
2017-03-05 11:05
Slightly confused here. 'Women of all genders' - isn't that exclusionary in SJW terms? I mean, what about biological females who menstruate but don't identify as women - or men, or huma… Read More
2017-02-18 11:45
Back in November I received a literature review from an MA candidate. This was a short, not terribly important practice exercise for the real thing and carried only a small percentage of the… Read More
2016-12-20 13:32
A while ago I came across the Twitter account New Real Peer Review, whose curator supplies abstracts of, and links to, journal articles churned out by academics in departments of gender stud… Read More
2016-11-29 20:17
A group of students from China and Thailand are discussing the inventions and discoveries that have contributed the most to the development of civilisation and the quality of modern life. Am… Read More
2016-10-19 06:14
No, it's not what you think. A colleague was working on summary writing with her class. She asked the students to discuss their favourite leisure activity. Many Chinese students will not dis… Read More
2016-10-16 15:55
I need to point out to my new Taiwanese student that in English, we put given name first and family name last. This way 'Hung Dennis', as he signs himself, will avoid overselling himself on… Read More
2016-09-12 10:06
Our courses now are ended. Six hundred odd students are melted into air, and left not a rack behind. To those of you who have proper jobs, it probably sounds rather pathetic to hear that bac… Read More
2016-08-31 18:04
We’re testing this week. Today, the students did group presentations: ‘…and now I’m going to hand over to my colleague Ben, who will show you his piece.’ ****T… Read More
2016-07-20 18:01
It's been hot and damnably muggy this last couple of days and we were sent guidelines, set down by some kindly soul in Human Resources, for surviving such hellish conditions. We are in the W… Read More
2016-07-09 09:34
Some while ago the international office of the university decreed that The Little CHEF (Centre for Hammering English into Foreigners) would change its timetable this summer. We always ran th… Read More
2016-06-25 20:31
Hell, I’m not used to this. Fucking knackered, I am. Most of this year I’ve been a gentleman of leisure, rising when I pleased, going to bed when I pleased, going into work on th… Read More
2016-05-21 09:00
Well, I'm still here. Don't know if you are. I haven't said a dickybird since December as there's been nothing to say. I'm down to four hours teaching a week at the moment and what I earned… Read More
2016-03-27 18:20
From Change.orgMad Metaphor #1 Read More
2016-02-20 10:45
That’s it for 2015. The teachers’ room is dark and silent, and the elevated discourse that is customary there (‘I had a packet of them McCoy Thai chicken crisps. They were… Read More
2016-02-15 20:43
I have a week off. It feels unearned, despite the last five weeks being full-on, for there hasn't been much work this year. Anyway, the break comes between two five-week blocks of teaching k… Read More
2016-01-15 20:47
In which I'm a complete spoil-sport. Tell me if you think I'm missing the point.Prepare to be amazed, for there's a collection here of ‘‘foreign words so rich and layered in mea… Read More
2015-12-23 14:38
From a student essay: 'Cloud computing provides extra hard dick capacity.' Read More
2015-12-11 12:28
This week is a reading week, meaning that the students in the university (as opposed to our little antechamber) have no lectures and are thus free to enjoy the luxury of total immersion in b… Read More
2015-11-23 18:30
Dream: I am watching an episode of a detective series on TV. The series has the gritty, hard-boiled, get-to-grips-with-it title of Kiss the Banana Read More
2015-11-07 11:07
An evening, actually. On Monday and Thursday evenings, I teach undergraduate language support groups. I don’t look forward to the Monday class. In a remote and cavernous classroo… Read More
2015-11-03 07:35
A few years ago a reader commented that I have a tendency on this blog to make my job sound like hard work. What with all these tales of awkward students, culture clashes, linguistic train w… Read More
2015-11-01 18:23
Five years ago I wrote a post about my flat here in Stamford. 'Budget eclectic' was the name I gave to its appointments, and I lived with B.E. for five years until this year, when a bus… Read More
2015-09-22 04:54
Last month I mentioned that several members of a group that I taught had screwed up on their writing tests and were in danger of being kicked out of the university. I had entertained the hop… Read More
2015-08-30 17:37
That’s it for December. No more teaching now until January, and even then, not much. These last three months have been very thin, and a baffling directive from Human Resources made us… Read More
2015-08-30 08:30
2015-07-17 05:29
As some of you know, I can't stop myself getting into (largely pointless) arguments with US Jesus People on You Tube, some of whom are more convinced than ever that the end-times are upon us… Read More
2015-06-07 18:10
I saw the above on a friend's Facebook timeline the other evening and attacked it with all the Merlot-fueled contempt at my disposal. Well, I'd been reading Irish Catholic priests talking ab… Read More
2015-05-08 15:54
1. Wear your glasses more. Soft-focus is attractive but deceptive.2. Don't leap too quickly to worst-case scenarios.Passing unspectacled through the sitting room en route to the bathroom, I… Read More
2015-04-23 19:57
Kalenda Maia is a favourite melody of mine, and this gently undulating account by Hesperion XXI is one that I frequently play in class as students are discussing some issue in pairs or group… Read More
2015-04-04 12:23
2015-03-10 19:59
Today was my first day of teaching since mid-December. I have the same group as before Christmas, with five Saudis and one Libyan. They’re a nice bunch of people ranging in age f… Read More
2015-03-10 19:18
It’s my birthday again today. I’d swear that this is becoming a biannual event. (Christmas, too.) ‘It’s only a number!’ people tell you cheerily. Yeah, yeah. I… Read More
2015-02-06 07:58
Four o'clock this morning. I'm on my way, via innumerable detours and delays, from city A to city B. City B seems to be Leeds. To cut a very long dream short, I arrive in the nick of time on… Read More
2014-12-28 14:53
MERRY CHRISTMASΚΑΛΑ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑThis is Stella Splendens in Monte from the Llibre Vermell de Montser… Read More
2014-12-26 09:43
2014-12-21 17:39
This is a post from a couple of years ago, one that was pretty much ignored, so I'm dishing it up again. I think it's a pity we've lost Polari, and this is my small effort to revive interest… Read More
2014-12-02 18:38
Thin times at the Little CHEF. (Centre for Hammering English into Foreigners) Thin times, and insecure. A colleague went for an interview at another establishment. Sharon has seven… Read More
2014-11-15 07:51
Comment on the You Tube channel of fundie wingnut Perry Stone: '...and yes please pray for me Satan has been a bugger lately.' Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
When correcting a piece of student writing, you have a number of options: correction codes, cheery exhortatory comments, or correcting every spelling error, missing word and misuse of those… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Today, March first, is my birthday. It's St David's Day, which is why I'm called Steven. There will be no celebration, partly because I'm a miserable bugger and see no call for jubilation in… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
I found this on facebook. I agree with one, three, four, five and nine and disagree with two, six, seven and eight. However, since one, three and six are not about grammar and I don't… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Screen showing Jesuits arriving in Japan c. 1549.This is beautiful: an Ave Maria set to a tune by an anonymous Chinese composer from the 16th century. It's from the album 'La Ruta de Oriente… Read More
Subscribe to Lathophobic Aphasia
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!