The other day, Mulan and I were having a chat about female singers with distinctive voices. Whitney Houston's name came up; so did Sade Adu's, as did Tracy Chapman's. The discussion got me thinking about other female singers with voices which were so distinctive that you could spot them in a hundred-person choir. It's not as easy as it sounds, because most people trying to make a career of singing tend to model their voices on successful singers' voices rather than doing their own thing. But two...

Every now and then, certain words and phrases assume a greater currency than usual in Nigeria.

For example, during the 1982 era, there was the word austerity. This was as a result of the cuts in spending by the Shagari government, brought about by the collapse in world oil prices (and some may uncharitably add, the government's mismanagement of the economy).

Then in 1984-85, there was the phrase essential commodity (aka 'essenco'). This typically referred to goods...

When I was growing up, advertisements used to be a straightforward matter. Someone would come on air and tell you to buy X product because it was good for you or it did what you wanted. Accompanying the ad were jingles, or if it was on TV, there were prominent and seductive displays of the product. Bottom line was that at the end of the ad, you knew exactly what had been advertised and why you should think about buying it.

Fast forward to 2009 in America, and advertising has become...

For the last couple of months, I've been driving around more than I used to. This is partly because I want to show off my meagre driving skills to Madam; partly because Seattle is becoming drier and sunnier (and therefore more fun to drive around). Because of this, I'm becoming somewhat more pro-car.

I suppose that's why while I was out cycling this evening, I noticed that hidden near a junction in the road, there was a policeman taking speed readings. Now I understand the need to...

The other day, I was thinking about yawning. No, no - I don't mean that I was debating about whether I should yawn or not; I was contemplating the phenomenon of yawning. What is it for? I know that many people yawn when they're tired, so it could be a way of signalling that you're tired. But the problem with this hypothesis is that many people yawn when they are NOT tired; besides, people may not yawn when they are tired.

I've come across many other theories that attempt to explain...