Oh, Babe, What Would You Say

 Friday evening's sports bulletins on Times Radio reported three stories. A rugby player was thinking of going to play in France or Japan which would mean he was inelegible to play for England; a tennis player had been stung by some bees and the manager of Chelsea Women was off to take charge of the USA's team even though between them the two opposing managers of her last match hadn't managed to ensure that the two teams wore different coloured socks.

What does a racehorse have to do to get on the news these days? Galopin des Champs had earlier retained the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the most prestigious prize in jump racing, which very few winners of it prove capable of doing.

Times Radio is a fine thing but its sports reporting is awful, as if written by someone with no knowledge of sport and certainly not proof read by anybody who does. Many of its presenters are very good at what they do and yet the other night a presenter who shall remain nameless here didn't know what monogamy and polygamy are. One might have thought 'O' level English Language would be a prerequisite of such a position in journalism and maybe he has it. Perhaps it's not his fault. Maybe such words are by now considered above and beyond the standards of such education but, dear me.

 

Education is, of course, never over and the lad now knows those words. And I now know Mosaic, not in terms of a picture made up of small tiles, but as in 'pertaining to Moses'. It occurs in Catherine Nixey's book, The Darkening Age, more of which in a few days' time and took me by surprise. A first look at the internet suggests that there is no connection between these identical words. It would not appear to be the case that Moses was an adept at the art form that looks as if it is named after him.