To use TV subtitles or not to use them? With my digital hearing aids my ears deal with most everyday situations pretty well. But I find some TV a bit difficult and often use the subtitles as a back-up. This is fine for most programmes, but for live programmes (such as the news) the subtitles are pretty hopeless because they’re not synchronised and seem to be spontaneously produced, buggered up and (sometimes) corrected as the programme unfolds. I watched the BBC News channel at 1pm today. At one point, the presenter was giving some background to a story about former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. He was explaining how long Sharon had been in a coma. The subtitles, however, told a puzzling story: “Mr Sharon”, they said, “has been in e-commerce since 2006.”

Bet you didn’t know that!