Category «Numbers»

Random abuse (Mistake #89)

I’ll admit from the off that this is partly fuelled by an irrational pet hate that has been simmering for years, probably due to having a background in mathematics, but I can no longer keep a lid on my feelings for the abuse of the word ‘random’. Random is a terrific word, with a useful …

Waiting too long. And in pain (Mistake #79)

Okay. We’ve had a few silly posts about numbers before – see here and here to save you the trouble of searching for them – and another is long overdue. 77 years. That’s how long we “waited” for a British man to win Wimbledon. So said The Times, so said the BBC, and so said …

Getting your age wrong… ish (Mistake #34)

It was my birthday at the weekend. I am still in my thirties, having just turned thirty-twelve. I understand some people call this number “forty-two” but they are just pedants and we don’t need to concern ourselves with them. Because I’m (possibly) middle-aged and (definitely) grumpy, here are some other age-related writing mini-misdemeanours which trip …

Numbers with character (Mistake #20)

It’s summer. Everybody’s been talking about hot temperatures. Here’s the Press Association, here’s Sky, here’s the Daily Record, and here’s the Daily Express, all insisting that a temperature can be hot. But it can’t. Temperature is a number. A number can be high. A number can be low. A number can be average. What a …