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In a DT crossword today: "Country in Central America (6)". MEXICO. Mexico is in North America.

And in a TV quiz the other day, Northampton was described as a city. It's a town.
Its river, the Nene, was pronounced Neen, as it is later in its journey, but in Northamptonshire it's pronounced Nen.

Orson

I have always thought Mexico to be in Central America, but if you mean the continent of North America, it would be in that.

I agree about Northampton.

Somewhat irritated by 'conflab' for 'confab'. It should surely be based on 'confabulation'.

I greatly admire the journalism of Matthew Syed, especially on sport, but on p.21 of today's Sunday Times he does use 'conflab', unless it was a 'correction' by a sub-editor.

My, admittedly old, edition of Chambers does not have 'conflab', nor is it allowable in Scrabble.

The internet in places does acknowledge 'conflab' as an informal dialect form of 'confab', so I suppose we have to accept it on the strength of general usage. Similar to another pet hate of mine: the much heard 'lay-in' for 'lie-in'.

It's what pedants are up against.

Paul

I agree confab is correct, but I only hear conflab, probably because of "flabby".

Thanks for the confirmation, jigjag. I expect you too may wonder what connection 'flabby' has with a chat.

Acronyms are much beloved by pundits/presenters who never explain what they stand for.
PGMOL seems to be a football referee organisation which deals with VAR. I
have no idea what the former is, while the latter is often badly used!

Paulh ... I`ve never heard anyone say `confabulation` but I have heard `conflab`. It seems many people just get things wrong ... `Omnicron` instead of `Omicron` is another example!

Jigjag ... Best of Luck tonight!

Paul

I think people just use something familiar, so to them, conflab seems right, as they have heard of flab, whereas fab has not been used since Beatles days. The same goes for "off his own back" which is ludicrous, instead of bat.

Tyke

I think VAR is very awful referee, and the other is Post Game Misuse Of Laws as they try to explain obvious errors, at least 5 last weekend.

I am quite confident tonight.

Tyke

I am sorry to hear about the death of Raquel Welch. The obituary in the Times mentions the wedding in Yorkshire and that Fred found her to be "a little smasher", though his wife and mother were not impressed by her dress. According the Fred, the marriage did not last as long as his run-up.

Jigjag

Fred`s family invited Raquel to stay with them for the wedding but her large entourage meant they sought accomodation in a local hotel.
I don`t think Raquel was used to mixing with someone as famous as Fred!

The OED says that conflab is an "alteration" of confab. It's chiefly American and the earliest known recorded usage is in 1873.