Boom!

That was an incredibly inventive ladder match (the best ever?) on AEW Dynamite. Back to the pits with junking Punk.

Alternate reality

The weirdest thing on the weekend news has to be the bloke whose father was killed when he was 9 when the IRA turned a peaceful protest march into a bloodbath on what became Bloody Sunday.
    His response was to join the IRA when he was old enough, he said. But he didn’t offer any details of how many people he killed, or helped to kill, for revenge. I suppose it has a sort of circular Irish logic.

More yawning

Is it possible to care less about Prince Andrew? Hearing he needs to have 5 teddy bears on his bed lined up in a specific order helps.

Passes the time

It’s quite fun reading newspaper forecasts of when the Sue Gray partygate bunk will be published – and watching the predictions fail and fail. Lots of aimless bluster flying around.

Pretend it’s something different

The things you learn from watching TV include the news that in the US, UFOs have been cancelled in favour of UAPs, which sounds like a threat as deadly as OAPs but actually stands for Unexplained Aerial Phenomena.
    Unless, of course, the scriptwriter for the government cop show was trying to do some trend-setting with a bit of fakery.

Like as if

The government is threatening to put social media bosses in gaol if they fail to censor the criminal stuff on their websites properly? Like that’s going to happen.

Static policing

Sue Grey does her investigation of locked-in meetings with booze in government circles in a couple of weeks. The Metropolitan police want to take a couple of years.
    Someone is taking the taxpayer for a ride.

Nick it!

If it’s not moving, nick it. That seems to be the philosophy of the wiseguys who are hoovering up rural pillar boxes with a bit of history and flogging them to collectors.

Rank bad planning

Kill Bill 2 on from 9 to 11:50 p.m. on Great! Movies. And also from 11:05 p.m. to 1:35 a.m. on TCM. Whatever happened to synchronization or separation?

What about us taxpayers?

There are hundreds of civil servants on huge salaries skiving at home while their trade union tells us it’s an insult to expect them to go back to their offices. New Normal or alternate reality?

Interesting Factoid

Britain has sent 2,000 anti-tank missiles and some instructors to Ukraine. The US is also doing a bit. But Germany is doing nothing to help to stop Russia on the march again.
    How very 1930s.

Any old excuse, eh?

Forget about doing anything about criminals in the London area. The police are doing a months-long pointless investigation of what might have gone on harmlessly in government offices a couple of years ago. Wonderful.

Rant @ Aldi

It’s difficult to imagine anything more stoopid than printing cooking instructions in pale grey on white. It might look cute to some moron of a package designer but instructions need to be LEGIBLE.
    And able to be read without the aid of a magnifying glass and a desk lamp.
    Frankly, I’m amazed that a retailer as clued in as Aldi fails to get this.

“This is awful!” clap, clap, clap

A bloke with a diamond stud in his earlobe? There’s no way he’s a real wrestler. You’re not fooling no one, John Moxley; or whatever your name is this week. Neither is the guy with the cute necklace.

Somewhat affordable?

A couple on a joint income of 100 grand complaining they can’t afford to pay more national insurance is not likely to win much sympathy from people on real salaries, I have been informed by someone on one. And having been on a salary of less than 100 grand myself, I can only agree.
    Everyone else should pay, seems to be the message.

Yawn again

An ex-maid doesn’t give a toss about Prince Andrew. The vice is likely versa. But who cares about a spot of bile between the adverts?
    There’s so much revenge flying around that everyone who doesn’t have a massive moan available is feeling left out!

The Pits

Is there anything more vulgar than putting a price on every stitch of clothing and every bit of bling on a glamourpuss in a newspaper photo?

Pointless space-filler

What the hell is the point of printing a picture of a woman with her face blotted out pushing a buggy containing a child with a pixelled face and claiming it’s the PM’s son and his nanny?
    Nett contribution to story nil.

Not too late?

Here’s a trick Pink Floyd missed when doing all the weirdness on their Dark Side of the Moon album – incorporating the sound of a cat snoring during a really weird bit.
    But something that can still be done in one of the endless edits & reissues for fun & profit.

Alternatively . . .

Maybe the WW should have two separate casts. One that does the ranting and one that does the pretend wrestling.

Innocent amusement

It’s like a game show, watching the 6:15 film on ITV2 at the moment. Who’s The Hissy Git?
    The other night, it was Spiderman’s best mate, whose father was a homicidal nutter, to start off. But there was another along later.

Needs to be done

Maybe the WW should be rebranded the World Wranting Federations to avoid falling foul of the Trade Descriptions Act. There’s certainly an abundance of ranting and a death of ring action these days.

Murray Miss 3

There are lots of people who have things to do and who don’t spend the whole day listening to one or other of the BBC’s radio stations. I suppose everyone who works at, or has worked at, the BBC thinks the same.

Not again

The more recent Superman films have been filled with absolute rubbish with special effects of mass destruction and hissy characters. Man of Steel (2013) started off looking like it was going to be a well-made film but couldn’t resist going right over the top when the hissy git turned up.
    Shame the writers don’t feel obliged to make an efford to do something out of the formula.

Considerably Reduced

“Thousands of happy readers” do the Daily Mail on a tablet or phone. Which is a bit piffling compared the 4 million daily circulation that The Sun used to enjoy. Drek on the internet replacing real information?

Another Murray ‘crime’

Not paying attention is the only way to describe the blessed Jenni claiming that footballer Frank Lampard was driving with a phone in one hand and a drink in the other.
    He wasn’t driving. He was stationary in a traffic jam. Blame it on the 2 years of hysteria?

A way ahead

Looks like the only way Labour can form a government is to get stooges elected on a winning Tory ticket and then defect once they’re installed in the Commons.

Actually, no

“The case that rocked the world”, ITV? Most people don’t give a rat’s arse at what Mr. Epstein and his buddies got up to. Only those with no life of their own, or who are making money out of it, take any notice.

Calm down, dear

You do start to wonder about the people who write for newspapers, like Jenni Murray – who claims she’s spent the last 2 years in a state of abject terror.
    If it’s not just routine journalistic hyperbole, there has to be something seriously wrong with her. As for the rest of us, we’re not all nutters, Jenni.

Need to try harder

AEW really let the side down with this week’s Friday show. The worst of the WW crap scripts crammed into one episode, it felt like.
    Especially the rubbish rants.
    But it was redeemed slightly by the 1½ face-painted team, Sting + Allin, at the end.

Subscription Beeb

Maybe the BBC should be on a home meter, which changes only for what you watch. A trip to the news at lunchtime, 5p. With a subscription ceiling at the licence fee so that addicts don’t end up having to take out a mortgage.

A lot less stress

Anyone wanting to watch Kill Bill 2 twice last night needed two TVs as it was on @ 9 p.m. on both Great! Movies and TCM.

Insider Knowledge

Apparently, the gang at Downing Street didn’t take much notice of the plague rules because they were in a position to know that the so-called experts who created them were totally useless at forecasting what the Chinese plague would do.

’Tis the season to skive

It was real. I did see partyg- ate as hyphenation at the end of the line in the paper. Proof reader on an extended Xmas break?

Impurely notional

What’s the difference, I found myself wondering whilst reading the latest Rebus, between a tungsten-silver VW and a silver-silver one? Not all that much, apparently, to some people, but others, if they try hard enough, can see all sorts of differences.

Don’t you just wish . . .

“Seal off all the exits,” yelled the boss.
    Later: “Sir, they got away.”
“How!” demanded the outraged boss.
    “Through an entrance.”

Extreme stamina required

Glutton for punishment? Last night, you could have watched Kill Bill 1 on Great! Movies @ 9 p.m. and after a 10-minute break to recover, watch it again on TCM @ 11:30 p.m.

The Beat Goes On

Looks like Inspector Rebus is heading in the same direction as the one Inspector Morse took, but by a different route healthwise. Is anyone going to mind if Mr. Rankin writes him off and lets Inspector Siobhan Clarke keep on with the trucking?
    We could even be heading for TV prequels similar to the Endeavour, Morse, Lewis chain.

Hope springs eternal

How many people will to pay £500 for a 78-part part work about Tarot cards and what they mean? Not me, for one!

Slowing to a halt

The latest story about ailing and retired Rebus, A Song For The Dark Times, should be subtitled Rebus Occasionally because the rest of the cast do most of the work.
    Random thought: If the sometime crime boss of Edinburgh is Big Ger, is that to distinguish him from a Wee Ger? Maybe a guy with a board . . .

Starmer Sussed Out

Is the Opposition leader Sir “don’t call me Sir” Kier Starmer a clandestine boozing hypocrite?
    He’s a politician on the make.
    What else could he be?

Cat vs Me, one-all

One of the cat’s excursions across the keyboard of my laptop switched the Start button from access to programs & closing down to some unwanted Lenovo gadget.
    Moving the taskbar to the left of the screen then back to the bottom cured the problem when the available ‘help’ proved to be no help at all.
    Which is why I learned from experience and didn’t waste too much time deluding myself that help would be available.

No rush

Will I be rushing to the British Museum to cop for one of their limited edition NF Tokens for selected works of art?
    Not until they can prove I’ll actually get something for the money instead of laughed at for being a mug punter.
    I suppose you’re supposed to be able to hang your pretend picture in a 3D virtual universe. Big deal.

Not a concern

Do we have to worry about the Tories ditching Boris and letting him go back to writing to pay for his latest family?
    Only if they replace him with a boring control freak like Starmer. Or someone who want more green crap and more taxes, and does lots of pointless posturing.

Ban Inclusives

Some American word game has got us all hooked? Well, no, not actually. The entire nation watched something on TV? Well, no, not actually.
    Lazy inclusionism is now an instant turn-off for me. ‘Turn the page and move on’ is now my default.

Too high a price to pay?

Research has shown that people are not willing to save the planet by eating insects and worms instead of proper food, even if the offerings are dressed up to look vaguely appetizing.
    No doubt there are gangs of researchers looking miserable because they’re not getting a chance to pontificate about the swings and arrows of a bug diet.

Timely Observation

 Daily Mail puts Prime Minister in clear. There is no problem at Downing Street. A nation rejoices!

Nature’s revenge?

Drink ‘milk’ made with nuts or grains and it’s bad for your health if you’re a woman because you miss out on all sorts of essential micronutrients.
    Nothing about men in the story. Are we assumed to be too sensible to fall for fads like artificial milk?

Good on yers!

Nice to see the Aussies having the courage of their convictions and not letting an unvaccinated tennis bloke contaminate their country, no matter how big his sense of entitlement.

It’s an explanation

One of the Mansion staff was wondering if the reason why smart meters and the monitoring gadget don’t talk is because the meter speaks Mandarin and the gadget speaks Cantonese. Or vice versa.
    Which sounds daft enough to be true!

Maybe I’m just insensitive

I’ve chopped my share of onions in my time and I’ve never ended up with tears running down my face. Which is why I won’t be dashing out to buy ‘tearless’ onions at three times the price of ordinary ones.
    p.s. Maybe I use the wrong sort of onions and that’s why they don’t affect me. If so, I’m actually doing something right for once!

Film Fail

Superman Returns deserves a capital L for Ludicrous for that space shuttle on top of the airliner sequence.

Balanced view

A woman on the Sunday Post letters page was wondering how people who are not bothered by all the bruhaha over Boris can sleep at night.
    Could be because they are not over emotional and able to put things in their proper perspective.

About as smart as a motorway

Smart meters come with a little gadget which drinks electricity to tell you how much energy you’re using. Except that it doesn’t.
    Half the time when I look at it, the gadget is claiming the meter isn’t talking to it and I need to move it closer to the meter. Which is made in China, of course.

Mug’s game

What does going alcohol-free in January by drinking Gordon’s no-alcohol gin involve? Paying just one quid less than for a bottle of the stuff containing alcohol.
    That’s a hell of a lot of dosh for a bottle of water with some bits and bobs in it.

Get out of that!

The Treasury has a great excuse for not abolishing VAT on gas & electricity. The more people have to spend on energy @ 5% VAT, the less they’ll have to spend on consumer goods @ 20% VAT and the Treasury is going to end up with an even bigger Brown Hole in its accounts.

Just a thought

Are we really supposed to believe that the only boozing during 2020 and 2021 took place at Downing Street? There could well be an element of political piss-taking in putting a former pub landlady in charge of all the investigating.

Stuck in the past

Okay, life has been rotten to some people but there’s nothing to be done about it now. And being outraged because some others had a brief good time when they were miserable ain’t gonna change anything for the better.

Ode to an open fire

When the wind don’t blow,
And the gas don’t flow,
And the lights go out,
I’m still in with a shout,
’Till the coal and the furniture and the floorboards run out.

Will it last?

I have been assured by an older wrestling fan that AEW is what the WW used to be like before they gave up putting on a wrestling show and switched to pantomime.

Not at ground level

The people looking at satellite data are claiming we’ve had the hottest 7 years in recorded history – which is only the last 50 years as far as satellites are concerned.
    Cue some wiseguy looking at his energy consumption and finding no sign at all that it’s going down because the world is getting warmer.

No shame because he’s an MP?

How strange that the Opposition leader, Starmer, should use the ‘work event’ alibi for going boozing with comrades during lock-in. Especially after he claimed that the prime minister was lying when he used it.
    One rule for him, another for everyone else.

Extreme measure

Companies which use a TV advert commanding us to ‘search’ without an attendant ‘please’ should be fined £10,000 after every showing. Maybe that will teach the bastards some manners.

Other times

‘Buggerlugs’. There’s a word you don’t hear any more. Except in repeats of early episodes of the TV series Dalziel & Pascoe.

Interesting point

The Pope, who isn’t allowed to have kids, thinks not having kids diminishes people and takes away their humanity.
    Is he doing some crafty lobbying for an end to a nominally celibate Catholic clergy?

Another big laugh

Writing a book is easy, the author of  The Puppet Show claims. A writer of my acquaintance responded to that pearl of wisdom with a scornful laugh.

Blatant provocation!

Gordon Bennett! A TV ad telling us to start getting ready for Xmas 2022. Just exactly what we need right now. Especially with inflation going up to 109% – or something equally daft. Who’s going to be able to afford next Xmas as we all huddle in huge bundles of clothing in the dark because we can’t afford to keep the heating and lighting on?

Big laugh

Australian pilots who have been put on furlough tend to forget everything they learned, including which cockpit dial tells them what and rules like it’s a good idea to take the brakes off before you take off. They’ve obviously not been practising on their computer to keep up their skills whilst skiving at home.

Not doing The Planet much good

This strange notion that we have to send members of every ethnic grouping imaginable on an expedition to the South Pole in the name of diversity sounds like it has more to do with sheer perversity.

Kind of reassuring

On the other hand, if all the looney left have to moan about is people going to parties two years ago, we must be doing okay on the quiet.

You can’t win

People not going abroad to lounge on a beach and going hill-walking instead have shot up the number of deaths due to being struck by lightning.

Thanks for the contempt for your public

We’re really supposed to think the country wants the prime minister to resign over some Friday afternoon cheese & wine party in the Downing Street garden 2 years ago?
    Just how bloody stupid do the news media think we are?

None-ebrity

Some guy shed a couple of stones with Weight Watchers, said the joyous headline.
    “Good for you, fatty,” was my reaction. “Now remind me who are you because I’ve never heard of you and I’m not too impressed.”

Not the bloke for another job

No-vaxx Jokervich is not someone you can take very seriously.

Not the bloke for the job?

You have to wonder about the credentials of a London mayor who wants to turn parts of the city into havens for drug dealers & addicts.
    Is he hoping everyone will get too stoned to notice he’s useless and vote him back for more of the same? Or does he think the drug-dealer vote could swing another election?

Strange idea of urgent business

Most of the population of Afghanistan is starving, so what do the occupying Talibandits do? Go round chopping the heads of the dummies in shop because they are unIslamic.
    Typical lefty loonies; any old excuse to avoid tackling the real problem.

Crossword moronity

Lunch (6) – dinner is nothing to do with lunch except for school children.

Idea not bought

Skyscraper (2018) starring The Rock (as was) has one obvious defect. Why would anyone put up a high-tech building like that in a Hong Kong which is under the control of a distant and oppressive Chinese regime?
    And stick a Yankee baseball on the top of it as a clear act of provocation?

We should be told

Is it possible for a TV wrestling referee to count to ten in less than 2 minutes and 20 seconds?
    Does the world have the stamina for another endless match between Daniel Bryan and Adam Page? Assuming they didn’t bleed to death after Dynamite’s efforts.

Practical Suggestion

Why doesn’t the Wredskins NFL team call itself the Washington Numbers if that’s what they have on their hats instead of a proper team logo.

Note to the author

Still reading The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven and I would like to mention that it is perfectly possible to read a paperback book without putting creases in the spine. Thus a lack of them on a row of books is no indication that they are all unread and just there for show.

It’s all about ME!

A headline in a newspaper about to disappear into the recycling told me that there were 40,000 hangers on at the CoP climate splurge in Glasgow last year.
    No wonder Greenhouse Grotta was mumping because she wasn’t getting enough attention.

Not taken in

A blend of 14 spices, said the voice-over for an ad for some vegan gunk. 14 spices all fighting each other and creating . . . what? A bland mish-mash?

Half-measured wokeness

Apparently, the wonk Paxperson, when doing University Challenge, asks junior wonks questions about things that are ‘human-made’ rather than ‘man-made’. But surely that should be ‘huperson-made’ to deny the existence of non-female persons completely.

Who he?

“Britain’s answer to Harry Bosch”, it says on the back of my current paperback. One small snag – I’ve never neard of him and I’ve never read any of his stuff, so I’m not that impressed.
    “It blew my socks off”, it says inside about the book. Sure, it did!
    Mind you, The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven is turning out to be a very good read, so maybe a bit of the hyperbole is justified.

No Entry

Australia’s refusal to let an anti-vaccine tennis player into the country is a clear victory for the rule of law over the rule of entitlement. Good on you, mates!

Another “Why bother?”

“Hey, stop!” the cop yells at the fleeing bad guy.
    Ain’t never gonna happen.

Never gonna happen

Lots of steam being blown off by Tony Liar’s knighthood but given the sort of bloke he is, he’s never going to hand it back.

That’s me educated a bit

Back in the 1930s, people knew what the word ‘meed’ meant. I met it in the text accompanying illustrations by Heath Robinson. My Chambers 20th Century Dictionary told me it means ‘reward’.

Choices, choices

Should a tennis player have a right not to get vaccinated? Yup.
Should Australians have a right not to let him into their country? Yup.

Reformed character?

Someone else in the world of politics who isn’t to be taken seriously turns out to be the Speaker of the Commons, who was trying to sell the daft idea that Princess Diana was done in by British spies when he was just a newly elected MP.

Daft idea

Some people just don’t know when to call it quits; but can President Biden really be serious about running for another term as president of the US in his eighties? That bloke Putin would do it. But surely America is more democratic and wants more from its leader.

Nice to be proved right

I’ve always been convinced that England’s football team loses penalty shoot-outs because the blokes doing the kicks are useless rather than the goalkeeper. Turns out there has been a survey and our keepers perform as ‘well’ as anyone else’s.

Jolly good show

AEW Rampage was exactly that, with the girls shedding gallons of blood in their 4-headed street fight. And a crash onto the bagful of strewn drawing pins.
    Just as well the Mansion cat slept through it!

Caught up

I thought I’d seen all the J.C. van Damme films but Street Fighter (1994) turned out to be wonderfully daft. The rip-off of the Incredible Hulk was fun!
    How did the head bad guy manage to keep his uniform cap on during that huge battle with our hero? Nailed to his head, maybe?

Cold air

“If Blair had a shred of dignity he’d turn down the honour”, moaned a pundit. But Blair obviously didn’t turn it down last year when it was offered to him, so he obviously doesn’t have a shred of dignity. Which makes the whinge rather pointless.

Ego Trip

Giles Brandreth’s relatives are going to really love him when he pops off, leaving over one hundred boxes of his treasured memories but their junk to be carted away and dumped.
    Bummer!

An ill wind . . .

Do we have to worry about the NHS running out of cash? Apparently not. The plague has helped hospital trusts to make a bomb out of car parking charges.

Rare outburst of good sense

A court has ruled that believing that your co-workers will give you a dose of the Chinese plague is not a belief system on the same level as a religion – even though some people pretend it is – and therefore not an excuse for skiving off work.

Get it right

Victim’s lawyer IN SEARCH OF A PAYDAY warns: ‘Andrew should be quaking in his boots’
    That would have been a more accurate headline.

Hypochondria on steroids

I was amused to read that the omicron symptoms list is now so long and vague that 90% of everyone can think they have it 90% of the time.
    People not getting tested in case they come out positive is another contribution to making dodgy statistics even dodgier.

No chance

“Xmas 2022. Where will you be?”
    Turned out to be an advert for a care home. Blecch!

Pointless Puff

What is the point of the logo parade of the cute and the ‘never heard of’ at the start of a film? Total waste of time. Ask the average punter to name one of them as the closing credits are rolling and 99.99999% will draw a complete blank.

Don’t add up

We’re told the Chinese plague is something we can live with, like flu and the common cold.
    But if we have to have 6-monthly boosters forever, the wheels drop off that analogy pretty quickly.

Not helping any

How strange that sports commentators don’t know that it does an NFL player no good at all to tell a TV audience that someone has made his second interception of the season when we’re doing Week 17!
    Only the second by some useless slacker, is the message that comes across. Especially if it’s done on the same night as some guy scores his 20th touchdown of the season.

I’d buy a ticket for that!

“Assets belonging to the Japanese Nipon Steel corporation are to be liquidized on the orders of a Korean court, I read in the Sunday Post.
    Do they really have a blender big enough to hold steel-making machinery?

Dosh 1, Wonks nil

I see Sky Cinema and Sky Ordinary have no problems with offering a binge of Hairy Potter films and related stuff despite the attempts of the appalling wonk cast to cancel the author.
    Oh, dear!
    Never let the wonks get in the way of making a profit.

A life’s work

The James Webb space telescope will show us things we’ve never been able to see before, the head of the UK Space Agency reckons. If it has taken 25 years to put into space and cost the US taxpayer $10,500,000,000, the only response to that has to be: “It had bloody well better do just that!”
    Still, it has kept lots of people in work, and will continue to do so if the telescope itself works.

Perception gap

Having watched a few episodes of Murder, She Wrote whilst normal programming was binned for the holiday season, I was struck by how the US attitude to the Irish differs to ours.
    To the Yanks, they’re cute & great guys. To us, they are nutters with bombs until proven otherwise.

A night off

What a load of crap we got from ECW on Friday. Still, I suppose they are entitled to the odd off night.
    C.M. Punk is still junk.

Cold Turkey

The alleged experts who concoct scare stories were outraged by the government’s failure to issue plague numbers for Xmas & Boxing Days.
    You can’t stir up a good panic if you don’t have any numbers to distort.

Not funny

Start the year with a sick joke. A knighthood for Tony Blair.

Numbers for the sake of numbers

The number of deaths ‘involving’ the omicron version of the Chinese plague is still being offered, even if it includes ‘hit by a bus’ as the actual cause of death and the plague was just incidental.
    Which makes collecting the numbers just make-work for some civil servant who could be doing a proper job of some use to the taxpayer, who’s paying him/her.

Feeling left out

I’ve just read that the Netherlands dropped the name Holland in 2019. No one told me!

Gaining perspective

Just a thought but could one (wo)man’s ‘marginalized’ be another’s ‘irrelevant’?

Hair kept on

Am I outraged that a road serving Lord Gage’s museum, farms and people living on his estate was de-potholed with a grant of £330,000 from the taxpayer?
    Sounds like the money was much better spent than a lot of the cash which the wonks splurge, and the ‘outrage’ is just a media fake news concoction with quotes from usual suspects when outrage is required.