1. Landgeist maps are fun, and you can easily lose an hour or two exploring their site: https://landgeist.com/maps/

Which country in Europe drinks the most coffee? Not Italy … https://landgeist.com/2022/04/19/coffee-consumption-in-europe/

And which country consumes the most cheese? Not France … https://landgeist.com/2023/02/25/cheese-consumption-in-europe/

Which country in Africa smokes the most tobacco? https://landgeist.com/2022/09/13/tobacco-use-in-africa/

Where in Asia are potatoes more popular than rice? https://landgeist.com/2022/07/05/potatoes-or-rice/

Which country has the worst roads in South America? https://landgeist.com/2023/01/24/the-best-and-worst-roads-in-south-america/

2. A new project competition for secondary school teachers of English from OUP, How would you spread wellbeing around the world? which asks students to imagine they are wellbeing superheroes, with the power to improve health and wellbeing, and to design a poster promoting good health and wellbeing. More info and registration here; closing date is 31^st May. https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/project_explore/competition?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

You can see last year’s competition’s winners – from the Czech Republic, Turkey, Slovakia and Thailand – here https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/project_explore/last_year_competition?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

3. Here’s a conversation from Radio New Zealand with the UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, on why poetry matters https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018881411/simon-armitage-the-uk-poet-laureate-on-why-poetry-matters

Mention is made of Armitage’s very-well-received poem commemorating the Queen’s death last year, Floral Tribute https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/13/floral-tribute-poem-queen-elizabeth-simon-armitage-poet-laureate – check out the first letter of each line of the poem

When you have a bit of time to spare, you can listen to all of his lectures as Oxford Professor of Poetry here https://english.web.ox.ac.uk/professor-simon-armitage-professor-poetry-lectures Try this one from 2017, We Need To Talk About Robert: Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize for Literature’ https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/we-need-talk-about-robert-bob-dylan-and-nobel-prize-literature

4. And, finally, a recent letter to The Guardian from Alan Gray of Brighton:

With Partygate back in the news, I’m reminded of a comment passed on to me by a Greek taxi driver: “Politicians are like babies’ nappies. Both should be changed frequently, and for the same reason.”