Simon Koppel

The dark side of nominative determinism.

Benedict Cumberbatch is the main reason I have stopped attending the otherwise wonderful Letters Live events.

Excellent/unfortunate choice of shirts by this pair of fans at the NFL London game.

I always challenge myself to find an antedating for at least one newly-added word in each OED release. Here's "campuser" from 1929, five years earlier than OED's current entry. digitalpublications.beloit.edu?a=d&d=ROT192...

The OED's latest update added an entry for "bothsidesism". As is often the case, it proves to be older than I expected (1964). More of the new additions are discussed here: www.oed.com/discover/new...

Registration is now open for Brain of London 2027, the QLL's individual competition. Qualifiers take place through October and November, and you don't have to be on a QLL team to compete in BoL. For more details and to register, see quizleagueoflondon.co.uk/competitions...

I feel like this person is getting Padel and Pickleball mixed up. It's all right, every quizzer has done that at some point.

The perfect joke doesn't exis....

If you, like us, are heading to the Padel at Olympia, be aware that despite what your tickets say, the doors don't open till 12, and the first match isn't till 2.00

Ooh, @jenniferhurd.bsky.social, @petermgilliver.bsky.social, do you have "yes and" as a verb on your radar at the OED? Very common in discussions of improv.

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Please enjoy a few minutes of personal rule by King Charles III

Chanced upon Bruce Grobbelaar's autobiography, and it has one hell of an opening line

We've been conned in believing sourdough bread is superior. The crust is too solid and the inside is just fluffy and floppy. It's inferior as toast or as a sandwich. It's just a con.

@primetimepod.bsky.social Some inspiration for future special episodes? www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

HEATWAVE (Palindrome) To hoses I ran: Use now, as I saw one sun arise so hot.

The great thing about the UK and the USA is that we share a common tongue, so we can all get on board with… the… this… er…

@heywoodquarterly.bsky.social Disappointing phrasing in your latest round-up article. Reporting on the Boston Consulting Group analysis, you headline it as "The cost of support payment fraud". But it's not just fraud, but also errors. This framing leads to a false perception of rampant benefit fraud

I want to mention something nice that happened to me today, in part to document, for my own sake, that good things still happen in this horrible world. It involves the London Underground, an escalator, a small boy and some rubber ducks.

Hey @zachweinersmith.bsky.social, are you aware of this partial translation of Beowulf into modern, sweary, Canadian English? stronglang.wordpress.com/2026/05/19/w...

Austria seem to have borrowed Poland's metal corset (just none of her singing ability). #Eurovision

Cheekbones! #Eurovision

Cyprus just feeling very flat. Curiously low energy for such an energetic song. #Eurovision

Finland feels like very much one for the juries rather than the public votes #Eurovision

Yes, that was Boy George you just saw. #Eurovision

Every year has one song like Croatia's. This is way better than most of them. #Eurovision

Malta has a weird disconnect between the singer's outfit/styling and the song. #Eurovision

Greece will not be the last entry tonight trying too hard to be Cha Cha Cha #Eurovision

Albania forgetting that if you're going to subtitle your song, it helps to have half decent lyrics #Eurovision

Essyla for Belgium has massively stepped this up from the semi-final #Eurovision

Israel the first, and not the last, act tonight to fail to hide the camera operator in a mirrored set. #Eurovision

You: Please act normal you need these people to like you. Me: Okay! People: Hi. Me: So there's this annual event called Greek Geek Week, where dozens of middle-aged quizzers go on holiday together, and sit around the pool asking each other quiz questions.

I don't believe I've ever come across this phrase in my life, and now that someone I respect has complained about its overuse, I fully expect to see it everywhere. #BaaderMeinhofEffect

happy 9th anniversary to the day we watched Zendaya fall madly in love with Tom Holland in real-time

‘Thanks, or just a voucher is fine’

The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 could have begun and ended twice in the time this frame has taken. #TheSnooker

In East Anglia they even put their civic/ football beefs on road signs

No lynxes in unisex nylon. #palindrome

@scottnicholson.bsky.social Hello! Do you happen to know of a more recent study of escape rooms than your own "Peeking Behind the Locked Door"? Academic or more general, but well researched and reliable. Thanks in advance if you can help, no worries if not.

I dunno, what do you think @sagathingpodcast.bsky.social?

Every so often I get surprised to discover that a word is either much older or much more recent than I think. Discovering that people have been referring to a bartender who makes cocktails as a "mixologist" since at least 1856 is definitely the former. I'd have guessed at the 1970s!

Strong “large boulder the size of a small boulder” energy here

DAWN OF THE DEAD (Anagram-Haiku) Woodland: The day breaks. Another dead body walks and wreaks bloody death.

@davidallengreen.bsky.social Have you seen the latest example of, "when your lawyers tell you one thing and ChatGPT tells you another, maybe listen to your lawyers"? fortune.com/2026/03/17/k...

Wait, the Oscar nominated makeup guy who did Del Toro's Frankenstein is the same guy who did Jeremy's disguises on Beadle's about?! 😀