Gategate
We have had a lot of scandals lately in the UK. Two major sporting ones; Bloodgate involving Harlequins Rugby Club and Crashgate involving Renault have come to light in the last few months. There’s even a list of “Gate” scandals in Wikipedia. I haven’t counted, but there are a lot that occurred in the UK.
We need a Gategate! It’s a pity an MP didn’t guy a set of ornamental gates and stick them on his or her expenses.
I just wonder how many people who use the suffix ‘gate’ with impunity, even know the story of the original Watergate scandal. The burglary that started it all was on June 17th, 1972.
St Therese of Lisieux
When I heard of this story I thought it was a joke. Some of the Saint’s bones will be paraded around the UK. For what purpose? To promote healing and reconciliation? Perhaps a worthy aim, but there are better ways of doing it, than using old relics. But then you don’t get the publicity you get with this stunt.
They didn’t really work when they went to Iraq, did they?
I always read Matthew Parris in the Times, as he puts a humorous slant onto things I think deeply about. He is in good form today, calling for atheists to come out and fight.
What? And we’re reporting this deadpan — and not in the Wacky World pages of light magazines? “Organisers said that the arrival of the casket, containing pieces of her thigh and foot bones, was likely to attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.” I’m sorry: “pilgrims”? Isn’t the word “dupes”? Does balanced reporting require neutrality even towards the self-evidently preposterous? Would a conference of the Flat Earth Society get giggle-free treatment on the news?
There is a lot more in the same vein. Great!
Three Men who Gave Pleasure
I always read the obituary columns of the Times. Yesterday’s was interesting in that the three featured, although different, had all gave us a lot of pleasure.
Keith Floyd had been a very unusual celebrity chef and had perhaps departed in a way that fitted his persona to a tee, with a heart attack after a very good lunch. We need more people like him on television. Brilliant, but flawed!
Brilliant, but flawed and from the obituary, it would appear he shared Floyd’s financial acumen, could also be applied to Troy Kennedy Martin. But he did give us the iconic Z-Cars and wrote the script for that thoroughly British film, The Italian Job. It is a pity that a lot of his other and possibly better work never made the screen, small or large.
And then there was an obituary for Patrick Swayze. I have never seen his two most famous films, Dirty Dancing and Ghost, but I do remember him in that excellent film, City of Joy. From his obituary he seems to have had his flaws, but he will be someone, who will be missed by many. My thoughts go out to his widow, who was his wife of nearly forty years.
I know how she feels.
The Anonymous Widower 