Social psychology, Ideas
Erik Brown
The Magic Rule of Three

IT’S CHALLENGING to write about The Rule of Three because it’s such a fundamental part of culture, so embedded in our way of thinking, that even those who could not tell you precisely what it is already know about it intuitively.

The Magic Rule of Three
Erik Brown
Grammar skewl

FRIEND recently took me to task for a grammatical error I made in a Facebook post. I haven’t caught up with him since, so I don’t know whether he was being serious or not, but he was right: I made a grammatical error, and I did it deliberately.

Grammar skewl
Erik Brown
From Tunbridge Wells to Tuscany by train (and ...

THE WOMAN in the seat in front of us on the bus we had never intended to take was Asian - perhaps Filipina - middle-aged and dressed like a fashion buyer. She spoke softly in perfect Italian into her smart phone, which she charged from a USB port in the roof of the coach. At one point, she caught my eye and smiled.

From Tunbridge Wells to Tuscany by train (and bus)
Erik Brown
You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life

I GUESS I HAVE ALWAYS been a “walker”. When I was a kid growing up in the town locals nicknamed Slaggy Island, I would often walk the four miles or so to the bottom of the North York Moors escarpment and then scrabble up 750 feet or so to reach Eston Nab, once the site of an Iron Age hill fort.

You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life
Erik Brown
Fjord focus

THE RAVEN ON the dockside roof cackled into the wind, its range of vocalisations surprisingly broad. There was that familiar low kronking call like a football rattle slowed down, and a series of chattering noises ending in a higher, repetitive sound almost like laughter. There were no other ravens in sight, and as we walked across Ísafjörður high up in Iceland’s Westfjords I played with the idea that it was trying to tell us something. I couldn’t guess what*.

Fjord focus

Ideas

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The eyes have it

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The eyes have it

IN 1790, A young Frenchman named Xavier de Maistre published a travel journal entitled: A journey around my bedroom.

Like me, he was missing travel - although in his case it was because he had been injured in a duel, and was confined to his bedroom while he recovered.

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Why getting 'old' is old hat

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Why getting 'old' is old hat

WHEN I WAS just 17, Simon & Garfunkel released the album Bookends, which included the plaintive song of ageing Old Friends.

The first verse sets the scene. ‘Old friends sat on a park bench like bookends. A newspaper blown through the grass falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends.’ 

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Why back stories are hidden gems

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Why back stories are hidden gems

BACK STORIES are a rich source of information and entertainment, but we have evolved not to think about them because absolutely everything has its own history - and dwelling on the history of everything can lead to cognitive overload. It’s a shame, though, because we miss so much - we look without seeing. And so I’m going to offer you a practical exercise in curiosity.