Americanisms have been entering Britain for quite some time. It is natural for oldtimers like me to bemoan the language being pulled out from under us. However, I am well aware that it is inevitable that language should change constantly – and I am certainly not interested in being any kind of linguistic (proverbial) Canute. Further, I am also aware that it is an error to see American English as diverging from British English: the …
I have a friend who is most concerned about what he perceives to be his growing vulnerability to having his online activity spied on. He feels that increasingly his privacy is being compromised. His proposed solution is either to drop out or else to beef up his security somehow. I said to him that to put up a wall around you is, ironically, to draw the attention of the very forces you fear – for …
When I was younger, it never occurred to me that most of what I said might not ‘get through’ to the other person. Similarly, I believed that I understood most of what was said to me. I no longer feel that way. Now it seems to me that thoughts survive the leap from one person to another only very rarely. Mostly, we are islands to each other. I do not see this as a cause …
