…taking a hammer to my head and hammering non-stop. I get that analogy can occasionally be a useful tool for explaining something. But it can also be so horrendously misused by employers who’ve done some kind of mini business course and think the best way to communicate is through telling silly little stories. Whilst doing
MonthOctober 2013
George Orwell was right about cliché
George Orwell wrote six simple writing rules in his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut out
Why feminists are angry
I’ve been told off by friends and family for being an angry feminist. They say that if I was less angry, people would hear what i’m saying. My response is: if I wasn’t angry hearing that old, white, ugly British men think that young Thai women like being paid to have sex with them –
Pop Idols
Our daughters, the little ladies of the world, are idolising (and emulating) pop stars like this: And this: And this: A performer comes onto the stage. If they look ordinary, maybe interesting, but not particularly sexy – we wait for them to start performing and then judge them on that. When a pop star comes
Perfect Moon
by Patti Smith I am calling perfect moon clad impure I approach your naked neck barefoot baying perfect moon perfect moon I am with you perfect moon I adore surrendering to thy great hands I am yours perfect moon
National Poetry Day
To celebrate National Poetry Day – a poem from Frank O’Hara, written in 1950: TODAY Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas! You really are beautiful! Pearls, harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all the stuff they’ve always talked about still makes a poem a surprise! These things are with us every day even on beachheads and biers. They
