Credit where it’s due: today’s mischief is brought to you by WordDaily’s ‘Word of the Day’, which kindly informed us that ‘declivity’ means a downward slope.
Which, frankly, describes half of modern life. From where I’m sitting anyway (Airdrie lost at home yesterday)
So let’s take a gentle Sunday roll downhill across sport, music, technology, and cheese — with a nod to the planet while we’re at it.
SPORT: The Declivity of ‘Progress’
Take Irish scrums — especially yesterday’s.
For years they’ve been as immovable as a granite monument. And suddenly referees have discovered… penalties? Cards? Against Ireland? Surely some mistake.
We’re on a declivity now where every big moment tumbles into a bunker full of officials checking 400 angles to confirm what the crowd already knows:
It went down because 900 kilos pushed it down.
Sometimes the slope isn’t the pitch — it’s the rulebook.
(And let’s not talk about Liverpool FC - now THERE’S declivity - with pace).
MUSIC: The Sonic Declivity
Back in the day, bands made guitars sound like urgent telegrams from the heart. Crooked. Brilliant. Human.
Today we’re halfway down the declivity of algorithm-approved sheen: perfect vocals, perfect compression, perfect nothingness.
Thank goodness for the likes of My Girl the River, and my mate Alan in Serious Child — not indie, strictly speaking, but full of soul and storytelling. A reminder that music made by humans (not machines) is still the most sustainable cultural resource we’ve got.
(Oh and I am going to see the Wedding Present in Cardiff next month - still brilliantly doing their thing live…)
TECHNOLOGY: The Exponential Declivity of Sanity
We were promised smarter lives, not steeper slopes.
Now your fridge needs Wi-Fi.
Your watch monitors your breathing like a suspicious Victorian doctor.
Your phone apologises for “background processes” while melting in your hand.
And all the while, the tech industry insists this is “sustainable innovation” — as if the cloud itself isn’t one massive, global sauna politely sweating the planet.
Welcome to the declivity of digital convenience: slick, slippery, and slightly exhausting.
CHEESE: A Delicious Declivity
Most cheese has been sliding downhill for years — from characterful farmhouse wheels to bland, plasticised supermarket compliance.
But there’s hope on the gentler slope.
Biosolutions. Low-impact fermentation. Actual flavour.
Sustainability meets dairy, and suddenly the decline becomes a glide into a greener, tastier future.
A rare declivity we’d happily roll down.
The Third Half Conclusion: Declivity Isn’t Always Doom
Some slopes deserve warning signs.
Some deserve a sledge.
Today’s word from WordDaily reminds us that life tilts — in sport, culture, tech, and cheese — but not every tilt is trouble.
Some declines are momentum.
Some are renewal.
Some even point toward sustainability if you look closely enough.
And some, wonderfully, are just pure mischief.