Archived essays


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  • The Ultimate Roller-Ride

    by Ray

    Giannuccio (pop.: 70, altitude: 500m.) is a cosy little hamlet nestled in the mountains 8 kilometres up the road from the bigger village of Monaccia d’Aullène (pop.: 400, altitude: 100 m.) in southern Corsica.
    It is best known as the starting-off point for the two-and-a-half-hour hike up to the (...)

  • How to improve your English diction (with useful sayings and proverbs)

    by Ray

    Here you will find some tried and proven guidelines, exercises, tips and tidbits designed to help learners of all ages and stages to improve their verbal-communication skills in the language of Shakespeare and Laurence Sterne.
    Audio versions have been included at the end of each section. TABLE (...)

  • Good Words

    by Ray

    These are some useful words that I have come across fairly recently (since my previous Good Words Register was last seen going north in a Montreal taxi in the wee hours of a morning, never to be seen again, some 4 years or so ago) that have been used to good effect by the rather top-notch (...)

  • Shakespeare on Football

    by William Shakespeare

    In King Lear, Act I, Scene IV, 76-84, there is the following dialogue: Lear: "O! you sir, you, come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir? Oswald: My Lady’s father. Lear: ’My Lady’s Father!’ my Lord’s knave: you whore-son dog! you slave! you cur! Oswald: I am none of these, my Lord; I beseech your pardon. (...)

  • My struggle to overcome the CBBS (Compulsive Book-Buyer’s Syndrome)

    by Ray

    I‘ve suffered for many years from this expensive, very time-consuming and rather frustrating affliction (the CBBS), whereby instead of just getting down to attacking the big pile of unread books that have been endlessly accumulating on my desk and bookshelves and floor space, I go out and buy (...)