robert groves

Up Lit, Alexa Laugh & Meet Me at McDonald’s Hair: March’s Words In The News

30th Mar 2018

Well, it’s too bad I put Beast from the East in last month’s blog, because not only has it continued to cause disruption in March, it even brought a sequel: Beast from the East 2.0 or the Mini-Beast from the East. Like so many sequels, the Mini-Beast suffered from the… Read More

Suffragette, Falcon Heavy, and Frankenkilt: February’s Words in the News

27th Feb 2018

This February marked 100 years since the passing of the Representation of the People Act, which gave some women the right to vote in the United Kingdom. While not the universal suffrage that they had been campaigning for, this anniversary drew renewed attention to the Suffragettes and their long, historic… Read More

Fat Cat Thursday, Super Blue Moon, and jackpotting: January’s Words in the News

1st Feb 2018

In previous Januarys, I’ve written about Blue Monday, which is a certain Monday in January (usually the second or third after the festive season) when everyone’s back to work, Christmas is a distant memory, and there are still many more weeks of winter. But this year I thought I’d… Read More

Hipster racism, Pop-up Brothel, and the Irish Question: November’s Words in the News

1st Dec 2017

At a White House event in November, US president Donald Trump referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas while honouring Navajo veterans of the Second World War, who had translated military intelligence communications into the Navajo language so they could not be read by the Axis powers. The real… Read More

#metoo, “no deal”, and KRACK: October’s Words in the News

1st Nov 2017

To someone of my generation, red sun sounds like the sequel to a terrible 80s film about an unlikely Soviet occupation of the Midwestern United States. In fact, it refers to a bit of weather we had here in the UK in mid-October. There have been several hurricanes of note… Read More

GIF, enchroma glasses, and taking a knee: September’s Words in the News

2nd Sep 2017

Few people nowadays could imagine the internet without GIFs, but even fewer would guess that the format is now 30 years old. Yes, Steve Wilhite, a computer engineer at CompuServe, invented the format in 1987, and Atari was one of its target platforms. (And you’ll need to dust off your… Read More

Oreo, platooning, and Authorized Neutral Athlete: August’s Words in the News

1st Sep 2017

There’s a new Android in town. Yes, while the rest of the world was looking up at the prosaic and commonplace sight of the moon passing in front of the sun, covering the earth in darkness during daylight hours, Google announced the release of the latest version of its world-dominating… Read More

Russiamania, Chocolate Orange & Henry VIII powers: July’s Words in the News

1st Aug 2017

If not for a certain profanity-laced rant by new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, we’d probably all still be talking about Russia and its alleged role in the most recent US General Election. Indeed, at the start of July, it seemed to be the only thing newspapers could talk… Read More

‘Priming the pump’, ‘cloud eggs’, and ‘potica’: May’s Words in the News

1st Jun 2017

Remember when Al Gore invented the internet? Of course you don’t, because he didn’t. But during the 2000 US General Election campaign, he claimed he did, which was pretty embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as when President Trump suggested he had just invented the phrase prime the pump, in the sense… Read More