Brown Motion

Take stump.  It is a cricket equipment and has some specific connotation to the sport, yet it is used colloquially to indicate how vexing the English language can be. Language has one purpose.  To communicate.  Whether to the present audience or to one in the future.  It manifests itself in the form of pictures (going back in time) to audio signals (sent into space).  Most commonly it is the written format that we exchange information in. Here are some common word pairs in written form, where even the pros find themselves in a quandary.  This does not address the pronunciation aspect of words which I can write about in a separate blog. Grammar could take up a book unto itself. Not that I propound to be an expert at any of the above but as I have said before: my blog my rules. Speaking of using words that confuse us - Use or Usage Advice or Advise Principal or Principle Antivenom or Antivenin In spite or Inspite Watch or Clock Stay or L...

Produced by the BBC and AMC networks and directed by a Dane this is a miniseries made for television.  It is an adaptation of a novel written by one John Le Carre.  It is a quintessential British spy story in the vintage Le Carre style for quiet drama, lots of stealth and borders on Bond like encounters with sexy women and even a reference to a Martini or two. The cast includes people I have never seen in any form of theater or cinema but are widely known as top of their game.  Tom Hiddleston an Englishman plays the protagonist Jon Pine who is embedded inside the compound of an arms dealer played by Hugh Laurie.  The latter apparently has been the most watched lead face on television.  The man does have a way about him. I enjoyed watching the two spar through the movie with the typical stiff English lips, as well as the photography that takes place across various exotic locales including the Swiss Alps, Istanbul, Morocco, Egypt, Spain and of course rainy Lo...

Bill Bryson is an American living in Britain that has written a few works of non fiction.  Most have a history lesson feel to them but are extremely readable.  One of the more recent ones circa 2012 that came out dealt with the story of our homes.  As in how did the home with its many rooms that we live in came to be. It is an anthropological journey from the hunter gatherer man to his present day status as a civilized, biped occupying large swaths of livable land mass to feed, clothe and shelter his brood. It is a fascinating read that takes you through various digressions including various inventions that made fortunes for a few and many a remarkable brainiac that was forgotten by history.  In it he also remarks that history is often like that.  Truer words were never said. He delves in to the story of illumination (the literal kind) from wax and tallow to discovery and use of kerosene to why certain kitchen implements are the way they are.  We ten...