philmophlegm | (Brief) random jottings (Reply)

Radio 4 listeners are apparently complaining that 'Desert Island Discs' has been dumbed down. How do you dumb down a show whose fundamental premise is asking celebrities what songs they would want on a desert island? It's hardly 'Civilisation' is it?

The British team at the Winter Olympics has 52 members. The BBC team at the Winter Olympics has 74. From what I've seen of the coverage, they spend most of their time talking to each other and precious little showing actual, you know, sport.

I didn't watch the Brits (preferring instead to enjoy Manchester United beating A.C. Milan), but it sounds like host Peter Kay was on form. He described Lady Gaga as "New York's answer to Su Polllard", former Spice Girl Mel B as "Yorkshire's answer to Beyonce", described Kasabian as "Leicester's answer to Aswad" and called Robbie Williams "Stoke on Trent's answer to Shakin' Stevens".

Trivia from the Brits: La Roux is the daughter of Trudie Goodwin, who played Sergeant June Ackland in The Bill, while Bat for Lashes is the niece of squash legend Jahangir Khan.

It's good to see that it is once again legal to say that someone who died in sordid circumstances has died in sordid circumstances.

On the radio today was an interview with Ken Taylor, the Conservative leader of Coventry City Council. The council is going to save £700,000 a year by fitting dimmers (controlled by someone in a control room) to all of its street lights at a cost of £125 million. "But it won't cost us anything, because central government is funding it", he said. Head, desk, repeat.

At a motorway services I stopped at today, sales reps were giving out free sweets (bunny-shaped Malteser things). When I was little, accepting sweets off strangers was just about the naughtiest thing a child could do. Those of a certain age will remember "Charlie says...". This made me wonder - at what stage of my life did it become safe for me to accept sweets off strangers?

How on earth has Reader's Digest survived into 2010? It is without doubt the dullest magazine I have ever flicked through. And don't forget I get sent 'Accountancy' and 'Oxford Today'.

Death Awareness is up to 96 members now, almost all of whom I've never met, and most of of whom are not from this country.

Sky News newsreader Kay Burley has got into trouble for failing to realise that what looked like a bruise on the forehead of the American vice-president (yes, they have one, but he keeps out of the way - which is probably for the best as he's the guy that thought that a Neil Kinnock speech was worth plagiarising...) was actually some sort of ash to commemorate a christian festival called 'Ash Wednesday'. The American VP is apparently a devout catholic (just what America needs - yet more devout christians in positions of power...). She then apologised but apparently compounded the error by saying "I’ve said three Hail Marys, everything is going to be fine." Jeez, you can't take the piss out of anyone any more. If you can't take the piss out of christians who walk around with ash on their forehead, who can you take the piss out of?

I must admit that I've never heard of 'Ash Wednesday'. A couple of people I used to work with and who shared a house in Ivybridge once convinced warrior_princess that in their house, every Wednesday was 'Naked Wednesday', but I'm guessing that was a rather less catholic festival.

On a related note, random and I are trying to persuade everyone in the office to wear some item of knitwear on Mondays when they are in the office. Knitwear Mondays. Each week we plan to name a Knitwear Wearer of the Week. Monday's inaugural award went to fox_hunter for the bright pink V-necked jumper she wore without even realising it was Knitwear Monday.

Researchers from Oregon State University estimated that someone in the US who does all the headline 'green' things like buying a Prius, using public transport whenever possible, using energy-saving light bulbs, fitting double-glazing etc, will reduce the amount of CO2 he is responsible for emitting into the atmosphere by just under 500 tonnes. But if that man chooses to have one fewer child than he otherwise would have done, he will reduce it by almost 9,500 tonnes. I'm not planning on having any children, so I reckon that's 19,000 tonnes I have in hand over the average. Now, where did I put my Porsche...

A celebrity chef on the Italian version of 'Ready, Steady, Cook!' has been suspended for recommending cat casserole. It is apparently a local dish in Tuscany...