Sod’s Law has been in operation today. But then, when does it not rule the roost. In today’s case it was all to do with washing. I had been out running first thing, with a light raincoat tied round my middle as an insurance policy, and it hadn’t rained on me. After breakfast (we always breakfast after I have run otherwise I might not get out and run) or perhaps during breakfast I had put a load of washing in the machine. I knew rain was forecast for later in the day but it was still fine and bright and so I hung it put in the garden to dry. After all, it was quite breezy and, besides, who wants a load of wet washing draped around indoors when you don’t have the heating on the speed up the drying process.
Of course, the washing had been out there maybe half an hour when it began to rain. So I brought it back inside and hung it on a clothes maiden in the spare bedroom. Naturally, the rain stopped not long after that. Had I left everything on the washing line it would undoubtedly have come on to rain even more heavily: Sod’s Law!
It will almost certainly start to rain again in about half an hour when Inset off to fetch he small boy from pre-school. We might have thunderstorms! I doubt that we shall walk home through the woods today, as we did last week, but you never know!
A fresh bit of madness is going on in he world. I had more or less forgotten that France has territory way off on the other side of the world: La Nouvelle Calédonie - New Caledonia. And trouble has erupted over who can or cannot vote in elections there. Monsieur le Président, aka Monsieur Macron, has sent extra French police out here to help calm things down. Just what we need: another explosive trouble spot.
Otherwise, elsewhere Palestinians are still starving and dying. Some 50 UK MPs have signed a letter asking Mr Sunak to make it possible for Palestinians who have family already settled and working in the UK to escape the mayhem and come and be reunited with them. And please, can it be arranged quickly!?
The USA is still pouring armaments into Ukraine.
And President Biden is getting a little sarcastic with for,er President Trump, suggesting that they could have one of their debates on a Wednesday, as he doesn’t have court hearings on Wednesdays. Ooh! Just a little cutting there!
But people are still getting agitated about odd things like apostrophes, which annoy me personally both by their absence when needed and their presence when not. Here is the writer Adrian Chiles on that topic’
“I’d hate to be learning English again. Apostrophes are a nightmare
Adrian Chiles
The mice’s nest was under the floorboards. The geese’s pond was smelly. There, I’ve done it. I’ve put two words, possessives I have never used and will never use again, into sentences. These were two of 10 awkward possessives that my friend’s daughter had been tasked with putting into sentences. Men’s and ladies’ were on the list too. My friend asked how she might go about explaining the rules behind these apostrophe positions to her nine-year-old. I’m afraid I couldn’t be of much assistance. Rather her than me.
The exercise was almost triggering for me. I hated doing these things with my daughters when they were at primary school. This was about the only homework they were ever set – learn how to spell these words and put them into sentences. The purpose is obvious. I get that teaching English spelling is a nightmare and putting a word into a sentence shows that you know what it means, and hopefully helps you remember how to spell it. But, oh Lord, the agonising, circuitous routes around words you’d have to find to construct a bloody sentence.
I found a list of words selected to teach year 5s (or should that be 5’s? Don’t ask me) how to deal with words ending in -ance and -ancy. Tolerance is one of them. OK, fine, it would be easier to use “tolerant” than “tolerance” in a sentence a nine-year-old might make sense of, but we’ll come up with something. As for relevancy, dominancy and abundancy, though, I’ll be honest, I’m struggling. I’ve never in my life used the first two. And anyway, aren’t you better off using relevance, dominance or abundance? Don’t they mean the same? I feel a rising sense of panic. Michael Gove celebrated the dominancy of his theories on teaching, dismissing complaints at the limited relevancy of the stupid words. Will that do?
- Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist”
So it goes.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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