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Read more about the article Much-misunderstood Lady Mondegreen

Much-misunderstood Lady Mondegreen

"I watched you suffer, a dalek in pain . . ." When I heard Mick Jagger drawl those words in the Rolling Stones version of Wild Horses, I was momentarily jolted by the Doctor Who reference. A dalek in pain would not be a nice thing to witness, I imagined. Then reality intervened and I realised the words I'd mis-heard were "a dull aching pain". Which made more sense but was far less picturesque. I had, of course, experienced a mondegreen. Just in case you are one of the few people in the English-speaking world who…

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Read more about the article The one-eyed king and the devil’s picture books

The one-eyed king and the devil’s picture books

Has life dealt you a bad hand? But do you still manage to come up trumps most of the time? Or, more to my point, have you ever noticed how many playing card expressions have made it into our regular language? After a long period away from card games (I’m a lousy player, actually – can’t keep a poker face), I was recently induced to play a few hands of euchre, and my son taught me a new game called cambio. One thing I liked about this game was that it alerted me to the fact…

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Another thing coming, I think . . .

I was at work at the newspaper doing what journalists do - minding everybody else’s business - when this question came up: If you think somebody thinks a thing and you think the thing they are thinking is wrong, do you think you should say something? More particularly, if you did think of saying something about the thing you think they are thinking, which of the following things do you think you would choose? A: “If you think that, then you have another think coming?” or B: “If you think that, then you have another thing…

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