What with the 2054th anniversary of the death of Julius Caesar this week (Et tu, Brute?) and London’s mayor Boris Johnson urging state schools to start teaching Latin again, the old language has been in the news saepius sepius (frequently). Boris even went as far to say "I firmly believe that we must not starve the minds of students eager to...
This blooper was spotted in the Arsenal programme for this week’s big match against Porto. (We won 5-0 since you ask. What? Oh you didn’t ask.) Fantastic cause. (Great Ormond Street Hospital). Amazing Football Club. But rotten old punctuation. Remember: Child in singular. Children is plural. Anything belonging to children is children’s....
This is the second part of my interview with Andy Maslen. (Read part one here where Andy reveals the inspiration for his latest book, what he really thinks about content mills and why he proofreads his tweets.) TI: So tell us a bit more about your background Andy. How did you get into this copywriting malarkey? AM: I was booted out of...
I’m a little giddy about this month’s interview. I’m delighted to be joined by copywriting expert/god/guru Andy Maslen, who’s also a well-known speaker, coach and author. During our conversation we discussed everything from Andy’s latest book and the future of copywriting to content mills and Andy’s goal-setting paperclip system! We talked for a while. So part two of this interview is...
Me to my nephew Jack: What are you up to? Jack: I’m just looking for something online Me: What you looking for? Jack: Some goal posts. I just put ‘goal posts’ into Google but I couldn’t find what I wanted. Me: What are you after then? Jack: Ones for the garden. Let me try ‘garden goal posts’. Nah. I wanted smaller ones than that. Let...
I had a bit of a light bulb moment last week. It was when I turned on my computer last Monday and saw I had 338 emails in my inbox. Eeeek. How come so many? Well I don’t use RSS. So every blog update comes via email. And to be honest, I’ve been slack with my reading and filing. There were quite...
I was thinking about metaphors on the journey into work this morning. And that’s because practically every single segment on the radio used a metaphor at some point. Metaphors make a comparison between two things that are basically different but have something in common. So Arsene Wenger was boiling mad over Porto’s dodgy goal Bankers’ bonuses are difficult to swallow The ball rocketed into...
Friend and SEO colleague, Rob Dobson, emailed me this pic this afternoon from the Fulham Road, London. Hmmm…nice shop. Poor sign. But La Maison is in good (bad?) company. Take a look at these corkers that have been sent to the MSN News site recently. Do not cling? Do not climb? Or what the heck. Let's have both. Yeah, help us reduce crime against...
I have a sneaky regard for Mr Justice Tugendhat. Not least because I once stayed in his villa in France. The esteemed Tugendaht, you may recall, last week revoked an injunction granted to England football captain, John Terry, blocking newspapers reporting his alleged affair with an England team mate’s Mrs. Waving the flag for free speech, Tugendhat decided it was in...
I spotted this on the Holloway Road this week. Well we have just had a recession. So I guess some businesses may be stationary. But I don’t suppose this is what they are talking about. Come on people. This is a schoolboy error. The easiest way to remember the difference: stationers (with an E) sell stationery (also with an E). ...
