Off Topic The Goodhand Arms

http://www.abcactionnews.com/newsy/...y-and-friends-say-goodbye-at-private-ceremony

Prince has been cremated and a small private ceremony held. I presume that the police are satisfied about cause of death. Very quick, but I can understand it. Although family and close friends may appreciate what people felt about such a person, it must also feel that vast crowds are taking over their grief. There is the public figure and the private one.
 
I also think Shakespeare was fortunate to have such a rich language to write in. I am willing to be corrected (because I have asked people before and no one has ever been able to tell me), but does any other language have so many words for the same thing with subtle nuances.....a gift for poets.

Many languages have the Latin/Mediteranean words to derive from, and many languages have the Germanic words to derive from, but English has Latin, Germanic, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese and many other tongues to enrich the language. Plus you have authors such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Hardy, etc.. who just invented entirely new words or from conjugations of separate others.Then you have authors like Will Self who takes old or little used words and puts them into a modern context and scenario, and fair play to that. English is an extremely mobile and living language. Far more so than most others, perhaps any other.
 
I can't believe there's a website that predicts which celebrities are going to die each year! The fact that such a thing exists is depressing enough...

There's a pub in Brighton with a Death Wall. You pay a quid, put the person's name on the wall, and if they go first, you win the pot. It's morbidly popular.