No force used

It’s all very well, former rugby stars trying to put 100% of the blame for their dementia on the sports authorities. But no one forced them to racket around on a rugby field, and if some of them thought it was doing them harm, they could have quit. 50% of the responsibility at most.

Perfect for the part

Watching some of the Queen stuff on Beeb 2 the other night, I was struck by the realization that Freddie Mercury had the looks to play a convincing screen vampire in a film.
    He’d have given Nosferatu a good modern outing, should he have been feeling well enough to try it.

Not sold

60 unmissable Xmas shows, yells the TV magazine puff. The first 27 are completely missable, I decided as I gave up on the piece. Still, I suppose it helped to space out the adverts.

Nail-Biting!

Isn’t it annoying, not knowing how much we should be panicking over the Botswana variant of the Chinese plague? There’s nothing more upsetting than a sloppy crisis.
    Especially with the South African doctor who knows about it saying she doesn’t know what all the fuss is about, the cases she has seen are mild.

He’s still junk

How much to they pay the AEW crowd of wrestling fans to be so enthusiastic about C.M. Punk? Or is it just stuff broadcast over the speaker system and a few strategically placed stooges?

Cliché Continuum

Where would we be without the evil counterpart in sciffy series from Star Trek to Quantum Leap? Forced to do something original, is the obvious answer.

Atomically yours

Crossword clue: type of bomb or clock (6) v. original!
    Although elephant’s teeth (5) is highly dodgy if the answer is supposed to be tusks. Current elephants don’t do that much chewing with them.

Sneaky, or what!

The BBC News channel comes from Singapore @ 11 p.m. Presumably, to avoid paying studio staff here the union night-shift rates?

The relentless march of the health/wealth industry

Something else for us to worry about – our body’s inflamation age. It’s supposed to be the ultimate index of health and a test for it will be available in the near future. At a suitable price, of course.

Politeness a thing of the past?

“We just want to live where you live,” says a potential illegal immigrant.
    “And when did you ask us if we want you in our country?” is the question which is never asked of these rude pests.
    Everyone who wants to come here should have to pay all the bureaucratic and legal costs of applying, not us. That’s only fair.

On up his kilt

That was a deft clip round the ear our PM dealt to President Macron of France. If he can’t police his northern beaches to stop migrants drowning in the Channel, he should give the job to someone who can – the Brexited British!

Yatter, yatter

Miami has just been saved from being wiped out, the credits are rolling and some continuity bloke starts wittering about something else on another day. Does anyone listen? Unlikely.
    So why do they do it?
    Custom & practice, I suppose, not anything sensible.

No chance of something better

As someone who isn’t bothered about cricket, I won’t be too distressed if it comes to a dead stop because everyone involved has been tarred with the racialism brush. But knowing our luck, something else equally tedious will be on TV instead. Probably baseball.

Choices, choices

Do you do your Xmas shopping now to avoid all the shortages of delivery drivers and stock, or do you leave it to the last minute, as usual, to see what bargains shops are desperate to get rid of before they face the new year?

Now what?

I was not surprised to read that the Milwaukee SUV killer is a violent criminal who was out on bail. Will they put him away for good after killing half a dozen people? You never know in the USA if what we see of their justice system in TV shows is anything to go by.
    Is President Biden going to go in to bat for him? That’s something you can’t rule out.

Dreadful prospect

Anyone who likes proper food is advised to stock up the freezer. Only algaeburgers will be on offer in the 2030s.

Shame, really

The idea of putting the Parole Board in gaol until it learns some sense is doomed to failure. The buggers will only let themselves out right away.

Even harder

Same desperation in moaning about a cricketer blacking up as his fave rapper for a music themed party a decade ago. Bring back the pillory and a handy heap of rotting fruit & veg for the racialism confecters.

Try harder

You have to be really desperate for a whinge if you start claiming that Prince Charles using diesel generators to power some of his Xmas light show is causing climate change.

More remote spying

The police are in line for a gadget which will tell them if a phone is being used in a nearby car. Which means that gangs of them will be causing vast amounts of global warming as they trawl the nation’s roads for £200 fine clients.

Necessary accessory

Full face masks are going to be needed in a few years, when a bunch of scientists in Israel perfect their gadget, which will let them scan someone’s face, in person or on video, and tell with unerring accuracy that they’re lying. Especially for politicos.

No spikka?

There are TV adverts for a firm called Bosch full of garbage about their stuff preventing climate change. They must be foreigners if they don’t know that bosh is another word for tosh in English.

Bad choice

If you’re not looking for a Julie Andrews lookalike, you’re not going to M&S for your Xmas stuff. And they actually paid good money for a TV advert that limits their custom like that?

Not much doubt

“My wife and I have been looking at how to cut our carbon footprint”, writes a newspaper doctor. Does that make him wonderful and virtuous? Or just a blockhead who doesn't realize that there is nothing he and his wife can do to save the planet from global warming because they are not causing the problem?

Who changed the rules?

How come Tampa Bay didn’t get a delay of game flag when their defence played canoes in the New York end zone after making an interception on Monday Nite?

Who’s going to listen to him?

It’s all very well for former PM Gordon Brown to set himself up as an expert on global warming. But there are too many people around who remember that he wrecked the private pension system here, he let all the banks go bust on his watch and all the rest of his Roll of Shame. Including a previous gas and electricity crisis 14 years ago.
    Put him in charge of saving the planet and anyone who can’t get to Mars and join Mr. Musk’s colony there has had it for sure.

Disconnected thinking

The longer your hair, the more power you have, according to a TV advert for hair goo. This is the sort of thinking that gives BS a bad name. Although, it would be rather a hoot if the Leader of HM Opposition grew his hair down to his waist to see if it made him Boss of The Universe.

Alien Concept

Will Labour get their heads around levelling up means getting everyone to pay the same price for the same service? No chance.

Just not credible

How can deliberately driving an SUV into children doing an Xmas parade not be an act of terrorism? Terrorists can be other than exploding Islamists.

No one is impressed

Big boooo! for all the stooges kneeling down in Qatar in the dead of night. What happened to the new normality of a crash on lap 1 of a Grand Prix?
    Vroom, vroom, quite a lot of overtaking down the field but no drama. Just a paddle in the park to a win for Hamilton?
Lots of sparks from Bottas on lap 37 when a tyre failed. Same for Russell on lap 51 and Latifi a lap later. No worries at the front, Alonso back from the dead to finish 3rd behind Mad Max.

One way to do it

Apparently, the Bank of England has a strategy for inflation going up to 5% when its target it 2%. Ignore it and hope it goes away. Well, might just work.

No fear of missing out

Half an hour of crap to speed through at the start of the recording of WW SmackDown. Same old, same old and not a reason to watch their pay-per-view. Oh, no, I can’t. It’s been on.

Pull the other one, Percy

Recycling some old newspapers, I came across a headline from a month ago yelling about a major turkey crisis at Xmas. Which has now gone away. Which explains why it’s difficult to be excited or impressed by newspaper hysterics.

It takes all sorts

A bit further on in the paper, I came across someone claiming Russia won World War II for us by beating Germany. Entirely unaided by the UK and the US? Well, of course.

Passing thought

Is it a matter of profound shame for the England football team that they only put 10 goals past lowly San Marino in a World Cup qualifier? They were obviously not trying.

Include me in

Drinking a glass of rosé wine with a bacon sandwich, I turned the page of the morning paper and found myself confronted with an article telling me that all the cognoscenti are drinking it now. So that’s me categorized!

Goes around

Nothing gets wasted, apparently. All the apostrophes which Twitter is killing off are being recycled, I read. They are coming back as multiple exclamation marks!!!

Really shoving the envelope

On the Comedy Central TV channel the other day: Final Destination 2 (2003) – a horror sequel!!

Not enthusiastic

Do we need a Grand Prix in London? Only if they can guarantee that it will be something more than another boring procession.

Boots of clay

Oh, dear, halo in pieces, that Yorkshire cricketing bloke is as guilty as all the people he’s pointing a finger at for racialism. No surprise, though. Seems he indulged in a spot of routine anti-Semitism. Years ago, but that’s not any sort of excuse he can get away with.

Just another repeat

I had my attention drawn to a news website and its content from about 15 years ago. Back then, the New Labour government was selling peerages to donors but no one was to blame. And its members were doing second jobs and no one was to blame.
    And, of course, no one was still to blame for starting a war in Iraq on the basis of some ‘evidence’ concocted by the prime minister’s spin doctors.

Not paying attention

The lazy buggers of Glasgow have been getting into trouble by letting down the tyres of SUVs. Unfortunately, they ones they have had a go at are quite modest ones rather than mega-polluters, but it’s obviously expecting too much of the lout tendency to know what they’re doing.

Yawn yet again

Do we still need to be told about the Hunt for the Top Nazis in a TV programme? Seems like something that’s been done to death over the last 8 decades and a refuge for people who lack the initiative to offer anything new and original.

Rethink needed?

Maybe we need to take a look at the definition of deprived if the ‘deprived’ areas of the country are producing so many obese people.

Domination of a heap of wreckage?

Is there anywhere Russia has neglected to attack? It seems to be having a go at everywhere in the West on the planet. Next thing you know, it’s shooting missiles at the International Space Station. Probably something to do with relieving global warming.

Total Stupidity

You have to start wondering whose side the government is on if Boris & Co. think going carbon-neutral in 2045 instead of 2050 will encourage the Chinese to do it earlier than their stated 2060. All that will happen is that our goods & services will become excessively expensive and the Chinese will step in and take over our markets.

Shooting from the fingertip

Labour’s health mouthpiece, I read, was forced to apologize after offering his condolences to the Liverpool hospital bomber’s family by mistake.
    Where do they get characters like that, who feel obliged to poke their noses in uninformed instead of taking the trouble to find out that the casualty was the mad bomber, not a valued member of the community?
    I suppose it’s the new normal. People are able to express an opinion instantly online and they don’t feel obliged to make sure it’s worthwhile before they hit the send button.

The Select Few

I was surprised to read that just 4% of the population can still get through their day without massing about with a mobile phone. I went through a phone phase myself but I found I was wasting far too much time on trivialities, assisted by lots of enthusiastic helpers. Which is why I’m one of the 4% now.

What was his game?

I was baffled to hear that this bloke who’s making a new career out of claiming he had a rotten time at Yorkshire Cricket Club went back there for a second helping.
    On the face of it, that sounds like a rather severe case of masochism. And we don’t seem to be hearing anything about his character, which means we don’t know if he’s unpleasant and made himself unloved.

Sucks to bossyboots

The remote control’s mute button is an essential these days. Which is why I have a big red sticker on mine for instant location. Whenever I’m a bit slow using it, there’s usually some bugger telling me to search something or other on the internet. An order sans ‘Please’, which evokes my standard reply of “F in the direction of off”.

Damned Forever

Is the Daily Wail ever going to forgive that woman who has the temerity to wear M&S pyjamas (instead of a cocktail dress?) when she stabbed her husband to death? Seems unlikely.

Completely Useless

All the people who are moaning about the zillionare MP and former attorney general G. Cox taking loans and exploiting the Parliamentary rules are just making fools of themselves.
    If they don’t like what’s going on, it’s up to them to get the rules changed. Simple as that. Moaning about something that is entirely allowed is pointless. Same with the antics of the members of All-Party Parliamentary Groups.

Long overdue

Is it not time that the news meeja started to make a distinction between money that is earned and cash which is paid to usual suspects with no regard for Value For Money?

What another relief

A few years from now, the world will be safe from current glitter products, if the boffins at Cambridge University get their way and start producing biodegradable vegan glitter that’s irridescent!

The Cleese Card

It was rather amazing to realize that the students union at Cambridge actually got that it wouldn’t have any speakers if they started cancelling them left, right and centre. What are they going to do when they no longer have the likes of John Cleese to poke them in the eye when they do something daft?

Back ahead

The Brazilian Grand Prix started off with Red Bulls at the front and Hamilton having to do lots of overtaking. He was 3rd when the safety car bunched the field early on.
    Hamilton made 2nd, which did him no good, championship wise. If you’re called Mad Max, it’s okay to force your opponent off the track. It didn’t work on lap 59 and Hamilton was past him in a faster car! And off to win again. But he’s still not the points leader.

What a relief

Well, that’s the planet saved by the jamboree in Glasgow. Shame some unpleasant people had to point out that the final deal is totally useless and just another political farce, but that’s the way of the world.

No malice, just confection

How can President Biden describing a deceased baseball star as a negro be considered racist? It was a factual description of his racial group and nothing more than that. Anyone who was offended was just looking for an excuse to have a moan and deserves to be cancelled.

Verbal challenge

Yank-speak has inflicted “I was like . . .” on the yoof of everywhere else. But does it ever occur to them to use the direct opposite in applicable situations? “I was unlike . . .”
    Probably not.

Tedious Tosh

I’ve heard that E.on Previous was quite sparing with its emails. E.on Next showers them out like confetti and they are full of BS about ‘saving the planet’, which is totally dishonest.
    We are not the problem and nothing we do will make a scrap of difference to the global climate. China, India, Russia, the US and the other big consumers of fossil fuels are the ‘problem’. And cute crap from E.on Next is just that.

Ducati’s Day

Martin was on pole for the MotoGP and Quateraro was secure as champion. Rins crashed out of 3rd with 17/27 laps to go. The comms were talking up Bagnaia, 2nd, as a potential winner. He was in the lead with 12 to go. Would Miller try something daft to get past Martin for 2nd? Nope. An all Ducati podium at the finish.

Bad people do bad things? Yup!

Switching on early for the next programme, I keep seeing the end of episodes of Lor ‘n’ Order. That Prosecutor McCoy! He’s a prize piece of work. About 10x more crooked than anyone in the dock. No wonder lots of people think all lawyers are crooks.

Not going nowhere!

Four crashes and a red flag on lap 1/25 of the Moto2 race. Just a 16 lap sprint when they got back to the grind with the pole man out with a technical.
    Fernandez had to win without Gardner scoring points to be champion. Series leader Gardner stayed out of trouble. DiGi led for a while but Fernandez was not to be denied an 8th win of the season. 10th place was enough to give Gardner the title. Sam Lowes was 7th.

Over and Out

The last Moto3 race @ Valencia had front-runners still with lots to prove, the comms reckoned. Crash @ turn 4 of lap1/25 and Basher Binder gone.
    Champion Acosta led from pole; for a lap. Foggia blew hopes of a win with too many trips onto the green stuff? He was back to 5th towards the end after his long lap penalty, and in the lead with 4 laps to go. Acosta was hopeful of a win but he was crashed out by Foggia on the last lap.

Cute slogan, shame it’s tripe

Spotted on the back of the helmets of Miami Dolphins during the Thursday Night Football match: “It takes all of us”.
    But if you think about it, the inclusivity notion contains the implication: “Without me, the rest of you guys are going nowhere”. Not quite the intended message!

Seen it all before, only on an epic scale

Government sleaze is the current sensation? Chapter 18 of Rogue Shooter by Jon A. Gored contains lots of complaints about New Labour sleaze in the 20-Noughties. And I’m sure there are lots more to come as the initial chapters contain a generous sprinkling of them.
    Plus ça change . . .

Government sense?

Care home staff have to be vaccinated against the Chinese plague right now. NHS frontline staff have until next April to do it or lose their job. And that’s supposed to make sense?

That will help

The individual being paid to keep the police up to standard is planning to bin their macho culture. And do what? Turn them into a bunch of wimps who wouldn’t say boo to a burglar?
    Not that it would make an awful lot of difference if modern police forces don’t bother with burglaries any more.

Just a thought

Are all the people yelling that Oxford colleges should repay the millions donated by the Moseley family feeling ashamed that they didn’t cough up enough cash to make the Moseley donations unnecessary?
    Probably not. Looking for something to gripe about never seems to include suggesting a fix or offering one.

Brilliant idea!

 

 

We could be saved?

Someone on TV last night came up with an interesting solution to global warming. Stop the likes of David Attenborough swanning round the world to make TV progs and ground Prince Hairy and his ilk, and that will get us into carbon balance and let the rest of us carry on as normal.

Not a friendly way to do it

“An experienced caver who was trapped underground has been named”, the TV newsreader told us in the same manner as naming and shaming a really nasty criminal. A highly unfortunate choice of words to be sure. And will the name mean anything to people who aren’t into caving? Probably not.
    Which means that all the effort that went into tracking down this bloke to his hospital bed was a waste of licence-payers’ money. But hey, there’s lots of that.

Trying to make Virtues of Defects . . .

. . . and failing miserably. It says ‘Rapid Start’ with a picture of a sprinter leaping out of starting blocks on the CFL box. But getting 60% of the output in 5-30 seconds is definitely not rapid as we know it, Jim.
    Made in China, it says on the box in tiny print. Maybe that’s their interpretation of rapid, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
    Also, the output is described as ‘warm white’. Something redder and inferior to the pure white you get from an incandescent bulb. And don’t even mention the mercury in it to get the fluorescent gases excited.

Definitely Inferior

They put the most blatant lies on the packaging for CFL bulbs. I’ve just had to replace one in a reading lamp that croaked after just a couple of months rather than the lying bastard 10 years of life claimed on the box.
    I’d feel narked if I’d paid a couple of quid for it rather than 10p in the local supermarket when the government was trying to seduce everyone away from fluorescent light bulbs which give much better illumination.

Saviours of the Nation

Everyone with working coal fires is feeling really virtuous now because they reckon they’re doing their bit to relieve the gas shortage by using an alternative fuel to heat some rooms. Which is hard to argue with.

Plot Spoiler

Rule Number One for sci-fi films never observe: when some clown starts quoting the Bible, shoot him in the head. It will save a whole lot of bother later on.

Otherwise engaged

I didn’t watch the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven on TV. I’ve seen the original and I don't see the point of watching other people do the same story.

1/10 for trying

There was a video on the TV news the other night with a CGI dinosaur telling the UN that extinction is a bad thing. Not for mammals, it wasn't. A category which includes human beings, let us not forget. Cute message, load of bollocks if you have your brain switched on.

Who comes up with these things?

The scientific study of hard substances such as gold & iron, was the crossword clue. Gold, a hard substance? What rot. Imagine a dentist trying to hammer something hard into a tooth cavity rather than maleable dental gold film.

Definitely NOT Arrakis

The film Planet Dune is a con job. The sand worms in it wouldn’t make a between-meals snack for Shai Hulud on the real Dune. Especially if they can be blasted with an ordinary hand-held zapper.

SF cliché No. 1

When you run out of inspiration, hurl your spaceship into a completely unexpected asteroid field. Cue some fancy flying and a few moments of drama.

Pause for thought

How do you excuse the conduct of police officers who put pictures of bodies at a crime scene on the internet? The best one I’ve heard is that dealing constantly with the criminal dregs of society has a dehumanizing effect, and therefore society is to blame.

Bogus, bogus, bogus

E.on Next claims to be a brilliant shade of Green in all its doings. Which is garbage, one of my contacts has found. Its website treats customers as non-persons if they don’t have a mobile phone number to offer.

Too cold a turkey

People who have a 30-second cold shower are healthier than people who don’t, I read. Not something I feel inclined to verify from personal experience.

There’s always next year

Mexican mayhem and a safety car on lap 1 on Sunday. Then the shouty bloke was reduced to getting excited about back-markers getting stuck in ’coz nothing was happening @ the front. Hamilton was about 10 minutes behind Mad Max at the end and watching his title hopes go down the plug-hole.

An “I” for Imagination

A 30-0 lead, like the one the Broncos had at one stage of their match with the Cowboys, is a Thirtyburger. How long was someone saving that one up?

One in the eye for the commentators

Moto2 is normally quite civilized but there were a few early crashes. Sam Lowes did well, rising to 4th from 8th on the grid, and finished on the podium in 3rd.
    Gardner & Fernandez battled for the championship at the front of the race and Gardner is now 23 points ahead of Fernandez, who was expected to win today, with one race to go.

Miracle in Print

‘supery-’ was at the end of the line in the newspaper. My mind went into brain-fade. What on Earth could be at the start of the next line?
    It turned out to be ‘acht’, which is the German for eight, someone with an O-Level in it knows.
    How in the name of all that’s unholy did the paper’s computer decide to put the hyphen there? Unless the editing program was written by a comedian.

Short-changed!

No Marc Marquez in the MotoGP race; he’s concussed. Brother Alex claimed 4th place early on behind Bagnaia and Mir. Quateraro, the newly crowned champion, crashed out with 5 laps to go, his first DNF of the season.
    A 2-bike crash was bad enough for red flags on lap 24; over 75% distance; and the result was declared on positions at the end of lap 23, which put Miller on the podium in 3rd.

Making the world safe?

One minute, the idiot protesters in Glasgow are claiming they’re going to sabotage the climate junket, which is supposed to be about fixing the things they’re moaning about.
    The next, they’re claiming ‘You can’t breathe money’. Which is true but so what? It’s not as if climate change is going to make the planet airless.

One for the record books

Nobody cared about the guy who went off at turn 1 of lap1/21 in the Portuguese Moto3. Foggia was the early leader and rookie Acosta had a shot at bagging the title. McPhee bit the dust with 16 laps to go.
    Foggia was mugged by Acosta’s team-mate, who did the same to his principal! Acosta went backwards, Foggia retook the lead. Acosta to the lead on lap 19. Foggia on lap 20. Acosta on lap 21 just before Foggia was crashed out behind him. Acosta won the race and he’s the champ.

Come on!

If you’re going to make up a story about a celeb, rule number one is that it has to be credible. Ringo Starr drinking 16 bottles of wine a day? Right.

Not exactly top of the list

How on Earth did some American parents come up with the name Nyheim for their son? Who scored the first touchdown for the Colts on Thursday night’s fumble-fest.
    The Jets got hammered but they still scored 30 points, so no prizes for the Colts’ defence.

Doctor-Mister Syndrome

On the rare occasions when I have had dealings with the medical profession, they have always seemed quite decent human beings.
    Which makes it all the more baffling why the leaders of their union, the BMA, hate us so much.

Weird Country

Still on Scotland, if the head of Glasgow city council thinks it’s the new normal to have rats and rubbish in all the streets, maybe we’d be a lot better off to let Wee Burney have her independence and make her rattle her begging bowl at the IMF instead of the Treasury in London.

Burney Rot

“The eyes of the world are on Scotland”, claims the SNP boss Sturgeon. Which is complete garbage. But when did you ever get the truth and good sense out of a professional politician on the make?
    And Greenhouse Grotter f-ing & blinding all over the place to get herself noticed. Desperation time, obviously.

Cute, real cute!

That was a brilliant idea, playing bagpipes right next to some mug who was stuck to a roadway. Squirting the buggers with ink, especially an indelible sort, also rocks.

Sigh of Relief

That’s Black History Month over. Let us hope we don’t get bombarded with something similar this month. If we want to be educated, we’ll go to night school or read a good book. We don’t need endless trailers for stuff we’re not going to watch on TV.

Business pragmatism

Apparently, it’s a lot cheaper for water companies to pay a fine for dumping raw sewage into rivers and the sea than it is to do what they’re paid to do, i.e. clean it up. No danger of the government reversing that, of course.

Man for the Job

Something else amusing was the view that the whole climate thing should be turned over to those sages Prince Hairy and his missus as they are the most important people in the world and they can do anything and everything.

PR Spaghetti

I was amused to read that the legend of the jamboree in Glasgow has been shuffled about so much that no one will ever be able to tell if it was a wonderful success or a total flop. Which spares Boris the fleeting embarrassment of the latter.

Klee-shay, Klee-shay!

It seems to be a rule that US crime series have to chuck in a character obsessing about the bad end of a sibling (Unforgettable), a parent (Castle), etc. Series 7 of NCIS has the whole gang obsessing about the disappearance of Agent David instead of doing their jobs. But not for the rest of the series, apparently.

Some things endure

The Nebula Winners 16 volume contains an essay on contemporary films. Most get a thumbs down. No mention of the music that goes with the scoffed at Flash Gordon, but Flash is still cleaning up the impossible 40 years later. And putting cash into the pockets of the members of Queen and their heirs; if they haven’t flogged off the rights.
    Mad Max was also sniffed at.

Other things to do

Would I pay 150 quid for an XXL book by Taschen about James Bond, even if it is magnificent? The book is the complete story of all 25 Bond films in 648 pages. But am I really desperate to know every last factette? Naaaah.

Eyes Averted

The current version of All Creatures Great And Small is hardly an original Channel 5 drama if it has been done on TV before. But does OfTV care about such blatantly false advertising? Obviously not.
    Recycled rather than original?

Logical Approach

If nations becoming developed have caused a climate crisis, we should be clamping down on developing countries to prevent them from adding to the problem.
    Doing anything else makes no sense.

Buzzzz Word

Everything is about power, these days, whether it’s pretending a particular shampoo will give it to you, or young optimists thinking they have the power to control the planet’s climate and that what China does is somehow irrelevant.

Weird World

What strange messages you get from newspapers – such as it’s okay to murder your husband but somehow a crime against the whole of humanity to do it wearing M&S pyjamas.

Empty Boast

‘US vows to safeguard atomic bomb’, I read in the Sunday Post as a reprint of a front page from 75 years ago. Didn’t do much of a job of keeping it out of Russian hands, did they?

The enduring persistence of ignorance

They still don’t get it, whoever compiles the Daily Mail Quick Crossword. Treacle (6,5) is not the same as golden syrup. No matter how often they claim it is.

Journalistic Junk?

‘Barca are broke, broken and beaten’, I read. But if Barcelona United are 9th in a league of 20 football clubs, as shown in the table offered with the story, they must be doing something right.

Systems Failure

The new normal for TV ads is becoming a terribly sincere voice, usually female, telling us what a wonderful contribution to saving the planet what’s on offer makes – as well as boosting the profits of the manufacturer.
    My default reaction now is to put them on my personal black list along with everything French. If you’re still allowed to have a black list with a welter of wokista wibblers slopping around our ankles.

The same tripe every weekday

NCIS – The naval team that’s cracking the cases that fall within their remit, not ‘cases which no one else can’, as a continuity bloke tells us.
    No one else gets a shot at the cases because NCIS bags everything naval. Not that you’d expect the people running the 5USA channel to get that. Not that you’d expect them ever to have seen an episode of something which has been going . . . forever. 19 or 20 series.

Mighty fallen, etc.

I’ve just started reading the Nebula Winners 16 collection in the UK hardback edition published in 1983, having completed another trip through Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
    My latest book is a library copy originally sold @ £8.95. It was retired and sold off for a mere 20p!! despite looking in new condition; apart from the library retirement stamp.

Wallets to be emptied even more

Oh, dear. Install a heat pump to save the planet and your energy bill will soar because it runs on heavily taxed electricity rather than the cheaper gas used in a gas boiler. Cue another swindle of the taxpayer by the government.