by Kevin Burton It turns out there really was a band called Sultans Of Swing that inspired the great 1978 Dire Straits hit. “Sultans Of Swing” is one of those tunes that stops you in your tracks. It just exudes cool. We tell its story, evoking a musical proverb from “Take It …
Tag Archives: London
Blind BBC Reporter Gets Best Of Mugger
by Kevin Burton A blind BBC reporter, retrieved his cell phone from a mugger and restrained the assailant until help arrived, multiple sources reported in late December. “Wrong blind person, wrong day,” said Sean Dilley, a blind news reporter and project lead for the BBC’s Reframing Disability program. Dilley was taking a …
Younger McCartney Travels His Own Path
by Kevin Burton The English singer known professionally as Mike McGear has a birthday today. He turns 79. Among the greetings and well wishes, he may get a birthday call, or maybe a musical card that plays the Beatles song “Birthday,” from his brother – Paul McCartney. Peter Michael McCartney created the …
My Bilingual Doubletalk In Mexico
by Kevin Burton My career as an English as a Second Language teacher came to an abrupt early end one night under the streetlights outside a small taco shop in Puebla. To tell you how and why that happened, I first turn to BBC writer Nicole Chang, who recently wrote about what speaking …
The Bell Tolls For Olivia And For Me
by Kevin Burton There is a picture of Olivia Newton-John that haunts me. The picture is of her at the end of “Grease,” her character Sandy riding in the car with Danny, John Travolta’s character. She turns around and waves at the camera as they ride off into the high school and movie …
Cats’ Purring Says More Than We Think
by Kevin Burton Apparently the purring our cats do isn’t all good vibrations. These are cats after all, I should have known. It just had to be more complicated than we thought. “We think we know what a cat’s purr means,” writes Stephen Dowling of the BBC. “It is arguably the most recognizable sign …
My Phone’s Not Dumb, You’re Dumb
by Kevin Burton One last petulant blast. That’s all this is, I fear. BBC business reporter Suzanne Bearne did a story on the return of the “dumbphone.” I hadn’t heard that anything not a smartphone is considered a dumbphone, but it doesn’t surprise me. Neither am I surprised that flip phones like …
Thoughts Behind NBBA Code Of Conduct
by Kevin Burton Last Friday on Page 7 we had some fun with the National Beep Baseball Association’s code of conduct policy. I turned the clock back to a time even before my playing days and talked about brawls among Chicago teams. But the incidents weren’t limited to the Windy City. Former …
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