Show

This is what comes of living with an American, you pick up their speech patterns without realising it. No-one would say "Watching your rodent show, Jones?" in England. We'd say "Watching your rodent programme". Shows are light entertainment, but a documentary is definitely a programme.

I'm OK with spiders, but my wife isn't. I think she's not used to the size of the house spiders we get in England. In New Mexico the spiders tend to be fairly small and crunchy - in England they can be two inches across and substantial enough for their footfalls to be audible on parquet flooring. They're harmless (unless you're a fly) but they can give you a funny turn if you unexpectedly find one in the bath.

If you want to make me run screaming from the room in abject trouser dampening terror, just show me a picture of a Praying Mantis. I don't know what it is about them that terrifies me - may be it's the fact that that head has no right to stay balanced on shoulders that small. That and the way they STARE...