Hiccupps

In simpler times you had to go out of your way to find useless motivational banalities. There'd be an aisle in the shops that you could easily avoid or a spot on the office kitchen wall next to the milk rota that you could stare straight past while the kettle boiled and you fantasised about another job.  These days, unless you've vacated social media, it's much harder to avoid having decontextualised generalities with a side of misleading infographics thrust in your face. I scroll hard past that crap but I was reminded of one that comes around frequently the other day. It goes something like these ( 1 , 2 , 3 ): "Ready to unlock your 38X potential in just one year?" "Imagine being offered a 365% return on any investment!" "Every day: 1% stack or 1% slide. You choose." Naturally, "better" and "return" and "stack" are pretty vague and the directions for achieving these easy wins are even more so...

If you've met me anywhere outside of a wedding or funeral, a snowy day, or a muddy field in the last 20 years you'll have seen me in Adidas Superstar trainers. But why? This post is for April Cools' Club .  --00-- I'm the butt of many jokes in our house, but not having a good memory features prominently amongst them. See also being bald ("do you need a hat, Dad?"), wearing jeans that have elastane in them (they're very comfy but "oh look, he's got the jeggings on again!"), and finding joy in contorted puns ("no-one's laughing except you, you know that, right?") Which is why it's interesting that I have a very strong, if admittedly not complete, memory of the first time I heard Run DMC. Raising Hell , their third album, was released in the UK in May 1986 and I bought it pretty much immediately after hearing it on the evening show on Radio 1, probably presented by Janice Long, ...