Fighting Talk
This program on BBC Radio 5, is sometimes the highlight of Saturday. Especially, this Saturday, when I was hoping to go to see Ipswich at Scunthorpe and then have supper with an old friend. But the match has been called off and I don’t know what is going to happen about supper.
So I’m listening to Fighting Talk. They sometimes bring up subjects that really get you going.
The first is the game of Bum Hoopla. Apparently, someone went to a lucky dip Christmas Party, where a Bum Hoopla set was one of the prizes. Unfortunately, it was won by one of the women in the office…
They also brought up the subject of double duvets in football colours. One of my sons had a Liverpool duvet as a kid, but now he has seen sense and supports Ipswich. I wouldn’t have one on my bed, even if you could get one, but just imagine bringing a new lady to your bedroom and seeing a full size duvet cover in say Manchester United. For most women that would be a real turn-off.
I did find one in Arsenal colours. Yuck!
Julie and Julia
I went to see this film last night in The Hague. I liked it and hadn’t realised that it was also about blogging and Senator McCarthy. Will we ever see a film that covers those two topics again? I doubt it, but never say never.
I found it strange though to see a film in English, where part of the dialogue was in French, with Dutch sub-titles. It took me some time to get the hang of ignoring them.
Meryl Streep must now hold some sort of record for playing someone, who in real life was some twenty centimetres taller than she is!
Our World
Whilst writing the previous post about students, I looked up Cliff Michelmore. I’d quite forgotten that he was the presenter of Our World, the first global television link-up, which included segments from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia.
I remember the program for the performance of the Beatles.
Today, it is most famous for the segment from the United Kingdom starring The Beatles. Performing at the height of the Vietnam War, the group wanted to spread a message of peace and love to the world. They gave a live performance, transmitted at 8:54 p.m. GMT, performing a new song written by John Lennon, “All You Need Is Love”, composed especially for the occasion. The Beatles invited many of their friends to the event to create a festive atmosphere and to join in on the song’s chorus. Among the friends were members of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon and Graham Nash. The performance required only a single rehearsal.
It made a boring, but worthy program, absolutely memorable. But then no-one in the history of pop music comes anywhere near the Beatles.
Can I remember anything else?
Yes! I can remember tram cars coming out of a tram-shed somewhere. I thought it was Toronto, but it was in reality Melbourne in Australia.
Students will be Students
When I was at Liverpool University, I had a friend on my course called Alvin John Slasser, who was known as Shaun. He was an experienced climber and climbed everything in site, including the giant crane that was being used to build the Catholic Cathedral.
So when I heard on the news this morning that students had put Santa hats on Kings College chapel I was amused. It was just students following the tradition of Shaun and others. It would appear though that the college authorities are not amused.
The article in the Telegraph also notes this student prank.
In 1958 a group of Cambridge engineering students hoisted an Austin Seven onto the roof of the Senate House at night and left it balancing there.
A few years after this happened, I remember them showing how they did this on the legendary Tonight program with Cliff Michelmore. On the previous night they’d hoisted beams to make a crane and then the car with its back axle removed was lifted, followed by the axle.
I sometimes wonder what happened to the students who did that stunt.
I got a lot of that wrong, when I originally wrote it. The full tale is here.
Sadly, Shaun, my friend at Liverpool University died when abseiling down a rock face in Snowdonia.
Life can be cruel.
The World’s Greatest Cars
Top Gear is waffling on about how Lancia is the world’s greatest make of cars.
What bollocks! After all the collective noun was a rust of Lancias.
They showed a K-reg Lancia Delta Integrale and described how good it was. Perhaps it was, as that Car magazine of about that time, said that the three greatest cars were, the Porsche 9-11 Carerra 4, the Integrale and the Lotus Elan. Admittedly, they were judging them on a cross-country route rather than on the M1.
Judge those cars now nearly twenty years later.
My Elan is currently filthy, but turn up anywhere smart and you get the proper treatment. (The landlord of my local pub likes it in the road outside!) Have an argument with an oick in his BMW and you can lose him down a country lane. Show it to a real lady and she knows it’s a real car! Ask it to corner fast and you chicken out before it does!
Lotuses are like that!
Mine has done over 111,000 miles and except for those things you’d expect to replace like filters, brake shoes and the occasional exhaust pipe (one in all those years), very little has broken. A window winder motor and a sun visor for a start. And possibly a finish!
They’re like that too!
I’ll never claim the top spot, but my Lotus is the second greatest car in the world.
The Art of Brevity
It’s a week late, but I’ve just watched the last episode of Garrow’s Law on my Sky Box.
What fascinated me wasn’t the case, which was about the treason of Joseph Hamer, but Garrow’s method. At the start of the case the prosecution opened with a three hour speech to the jury, but Garrow just made a brief statement and sat down.
My late wife always felt that brevity was a weapon that was rarely used. But used well it could be the most powerful of weapons.
How to Break the Law
One of the ridiculous laws brought in by Blair and Brown is the rules about entertainment licences.
Perhaps it was well-meaning, but it meant that loads of places could fall foul of the law for just a single impromptu performance.
Take the case of Faryl Smith, who got up and sang to promote her record at HMV in Kettering. It’s reported here on the BBC. HMV are now being prosecuted for not having a licence.
The trouble is if you create stupid laws like this, that are not properly thought through, you get even more stupid cases like this.
Surely, the test of laws like this, should be that if no-one is annoyed or disturbed, then you are not breaking the law. I suspect, in Faryl’s case, everybody was enchanted.
Laws like this cost businesses a lot of money and don’t serve any worthwhile purposes. I suggest that most are created by civil servants to make sure that there are lots of jobs that need to be done in the public sector.
Years ago in the UK, we used to have a dog licence. It went because it cost a lot more to collect, than was brought in. No-one mourns such a silly law and has there been any adverse affects. Some will say yes, but when you look at the dog laws in detail, other laws have been brought in to deal with the more extreme cases.
All laws need a cost benefit analysis. If they cost more to implement and keep than any benefits, then they should be broken on the anvil of progress.
That’s the way to really break the law!
Henning Wehn
I usually listen to Fighting Talk on Saturday and today was no exception. It is hosted by one of the Colin Murray identical twins. There must be twins as they pop up everywhere.
One of the panelists is the German comedian Henning Wehn, who often plays to British stereotypes about his country. Today he came up with this joke.
Q. Why did my grandfather cross the road?
A. To invade France.
It’s funny! But I wonder what his fellow Germans would think.
BBC Expenses
There is a lot of adverse comment about the money spent by Mark Thompson, especially on a trip to Las Vegas. He went to one of the prime media shows, which I would have thought was something we would complain about if he hadn’t visited.
Years ago, I used to go to Comdex at Las Vegas. If you didn’t book the previous year, rooms were impossible to get and I suspect although it may be better, you don’t have the option of affordable rooms unless you book months ahead. Unless of course you want to stay in Lake Mead. And that’s miles away!
I sent this e-mail to Victoria Derbyshire to further explain.
To get a decent room in Las Vegas at one of the big trade shows, you normally need to book for the whole week or at least a year before. I paid $500 for one night nearly twenty years ago at Comdex in Las Vegas. I stopped going because I didn’t want to be ripped off any more.
Mark Thompson got better value than I did.
On the other hand those trade shows are probably a must see for someone like Thompson. We would probably be complaining a lot more, if he hadn’t gone and missed the launch of something important.
Expenses should be kept to a minimum, but how much BBC time is spent asking questions? Especially, when many of those asking the questions have other agendas.
The Anonymous Widower 