Author Archives: aethelreadtheunread
Some belated comments on Eurovision
A Eurovision post, a whole week late? That’s s-l-o-w blogging, even for you, Aethel. I know, I know. It’s a function of the way I like to experience the contest – which is to watch the grand final first, then … Continue reading
The Bad Grammar Awards’ bad grammar
The Bad Grammar Awards have apparently come round again. I wrote about these last year. My basic opinion hasn’t changed in the time since. I still think that to conceive of there being any such thing as a single English … Continue reading
But what does “office solutions” actually mean?
I happened to walk along a street I don’t often walk along the other evening, and I saw a van parked at the side of the road. It had one of those all-over paint jobs which left it completely emblazoned … Continue reading
For a “Christian country”, ours seems to have an awful lot of hoarded wealth
David Cameron has recently taken to declaring with an unprecedented frequency and vigour that “we” are a Christian country. Some people are upset about this. Personally, I’m not all that upset. I don’t tend to get upset about these kinds … Continue reading
Nicky Morgan: the Minister for Women who doesn’t believe in equality for all women
Ok, let’s start with a very short bit of modern history. The UK government role of Minister for Women and Equality was created in 2007 (superseding the previous role of Minister for Women). The position was renamed Minister for Women … Continue reading
10 songs to explain the 1980s
The Guardian recently posed what it called a ‘Playlist challenge’: to select 10 songs that would ‘explain the 1980s’ to people who were too young to experience them first hand. [Oh, ok, it’s not actually recent at all. The truth … Continue reading
Equilux
Twice a year, as you know, there’s a day when the hours of darkness and the hours of light are equivalent. One of those days is in the autumn, and marks a point of transition as the year dwindles down … Continue reading
A cough in the night
My upstairs neighbour goes to bed at 10-30, and gets up at 5-30. I know this because I live in a 1960s high-rise block, and in the 1960s the phrase “sound insulation” would have seemed like the phrase “heat wrapping” … Continue reading
Aethelread the Unread 
Everything you need to know about the housing crisis in two headlines
The following image was grabbed on the late afternoon of Friday, 2nd May, 2014. It’s taken from one of the pages in The Guardian‘s Money section, and it tells you everything you need to know about the housing crisis (which … Continue reading →