I'm famous (again)

Not sure I've aged well...

Doctor Who

Doctor Who, having already completed 724 episodes, will surpass the number of individual instalments of the Star Trek franchise (726 episodes over five programmes) during the 2007 series.

(c) Wikipedia

The World's Gone Mad (Part 205)

Another case of rules being enforced with engagin brain. An 87 year old man asked for ID before being sold alcohol at Morrisons.

Britishness

From the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1997203,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

The British Social Attitudes survey found that the proportion of the British public who say British is the best or only way to describe their national identity has declined from 52% to 44% in just 10 years since 1996

The proportion choosing Englishness as their best or only identity was 40% in 2005, up from 31% in 1992. 

In Scotland, just 14% felt their identity was British in 2005, compared with 79% defining themselves as Scottish.

This is all reasonably understandable - there has been the rise in Welsh and Scottish nationalities through more devolved regulation, and that has in turn led to a backlash in England.  The West Lothian question all over...

What I found very interesting was that there was no mention in the article over European-ness.  Does any significant proportion of British people consider themselves European?  For example, I am Welsh first, British second and English third, all of which are important to me.  But European?? Doesn't even hit the radar.  Thus, adverts that the EU put out such as the one to help stop smoking ("47,000 Europeans die from smoking each year") miss the oint with most people in Britain.

Bishop Cotton School

My grandfather taught here for 5 years between 1929 and 1934.

Salvage

Wine, perfume, BMW motorbikes and a tractor have washed up on the coast of Devon, along with the many gallons of oil and diesel from the cargo ship Napoli.  Apart from the ecological disaster which is unfolding, there are an awful lot of people salvaging goods from the wreck. 

I'm really not sure what the moral rights and wrongs are about this.  There are some rights of salvage under the Merchant Shipping Act 1955, but only if you report things straight away.  There is of course a long history of shipwrecks being salvaged and broken up.  Smugglers, wreckers and beachcombers havemade a living of it, in differently nefarious ways, for hundreds, even thousands of years, since man started moving goods by sea.

Its only different now as it is in the full glare of publicity.

Doctor Who

There is a superb series of Dr Who adventures on BBC 7 radio at the moment, starring Paul McGann, and set somewhere between the TV movie and the new series.  I have never really listened to radio dramas or audio books before, but I'm getting hooked.  And of course the two free BBC audio books that were given away with the Radio Times.

Excellent stuff.  Big Finish Productions are superb.

TMOs

Television Match Officials

While watching some of the excellent Heineken Cup rugby games at the weekend, there were more and more tries being referred to the video ref (now the TMO...).  It became very cear that "obvious" tries were actually anything but, and some that you were convinced there was no way the person could have scored were in fact fair.  Some, however, took 7 or 8 replays from different angles and were still far from conclusive either way whether someone had touched down legally or not.

I find it very interesting to see just how your immediate gut reaction can be proved exactly wrong by TV.  It just means that the jury is still out on such replays.

Groucho Marx at his best

A letter written to Warner Brothers in response to Warner suing the Marx Brothers for copyright infringement over "A Night in Casablanca".

Priceless.

Fame at last

Yes, well...

Australian washbags

Gratuitously stolen from the above link, but worth it…


If this diary has any claim to fame it is for the quality of its anecdotes. This week I hear one that is irresistible. You will remember that Dean Jones, the Australian batsman, finds fame with a double century that almost wins the tied Test in Madras. Well, this is the background. Overnight Jones is 60 not out, pumped up with not only his own expectation but the hopes and ambitions of his captain Allan Border, the next man in. Jones cannot sleep. He plays every shot in his mind's eye, he gets out, he reaches his first Test century to the rapturous applause of the crowd; and then at 5 a.m. he eventually goes to sleep. Two hours later he awakes feeling, as you do in these circumstances, absolutely wretched. He goes down to breakfast full of irritation and snaps at the waiter who asks what he would like. "Eggs `n' coffee." No please, no thank you; Dean Jones is too annoyed. Along comes the glass full of coffee. The waiter produces an egg, breaks it on the edge of the glass and pours the raw contents into the glass. I draw a veil over the next few minutes in case some of my readers are of a delicate nature. Anyway, Dean goes back to his room, cleans his teeth, picks up his gear, and heads for the team bus. He is late and gets a volley of abuse from Border. As he listens, apologetically, Jones realises that he has left his wallet on the bedside table and rushes off the bus back to his room. The door is open, good that saves a few seconds, where's the wallet; oh, it's over there and it seems to be all right, but hey where is the maid? Then he spots that the bathroom door is open and sees that the maid is using his toothbrush to clean her teeth. Once again I draw a veil over what was said. Then Jones goes back to the team bus and says: "Listen, fellas, do you know what I found? The maid was using my toothbrush to clean her teeth!" At that point, all talk of the match is forgotten, as every player leaves the bus and goes to pick up his washbag. "Just you take note," says Jones, "if you see an Aussie player in the sub-continent, he will always have his washbag under his arm."