10 July 2009

Daily Chat 10/07/09


The city of Dublin was founded on this day in 988. In 1925, the trial of Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes began in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes was charged with teaching evolution to his class, in violation of the Butler Act. In 1962, Telstar, the world's first communications satellite was launched. Celebrating birthdays today: Virginia Wade, Arlo Guthrie, Ludmilla Tourischeva, Neil Tennant, Bela Fleck and Jessica Simpson. It is Independence Day in the Bahamas.

31 comments:

  1. elementary_watson10 July, 2009 08:06

    Nice picture there, Montana.

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  2. Aah the smell of the River Liffey, one of the sights of Dublin...

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  3. Montana: As you’re a fan of David Mitchell, you may have seen the spoof he did with Robert Webb where two script-writers create a formulaic Hollywood blockbuster-type-thing based on cricket.

    It was called “It’s not over till the last ball of the last over of the final day’s play is over”, or something like that.

    It only went on for a few minutes, but it had every cliché and misunderstanding about cricket and sport in general crammed in with a shoe horn – England beat Germany (who don’t even play cricket) in the dying moments of the world cup final of cricket.

    I seem to remember that it was set in Yorkshire, and the coach who got them all through was an alcoholic ex-player who bore a passing resemblance to Boycott, though maybe that was my imagination running away with me.

    Anyway, it really was JOLLY good.

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  4. So jolly good that I found it for you.

    Cricket!

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  5. @andy:

    Brilliant, thanks for that. When they're good, M&W really are very good.

    I like spoof Hollywood-isations. "Strike!" was particularly enjoyable as well, if memory serves...

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  6. Swifty

    Someone said of the Liffey: "Joyce has made of this river the Ganges of the literary world". However, as Behan said: "Sometimes the smell of the Ganges of the literary world is not that literary".

    Alternatively: "You pull the chain and in a jiffy, your shit is floating down the Liffey."
    (Behan again)

    Lovely pic.

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  7. Thank you for the link andy - fab, never seen it before,

    I suppose you know the quip that cricket is a South Asian game discovered accidentally by the English. There is a thriving cricket community in Glasgow - English, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, even 'native' Scots, all happily getting along.

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  8. @Edwin:

    Likewise where I live (minus the Scotch persons of course - it is West Sussex, after all, we do have some standards).

    Only joking - grand bunch, the Scottish. My mother-in-law hails from Glasgow (her sister still lives up there, in Giffnock).

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  9. Edwin: I looked for comedy evidence that cricket was “INDIAN!” but couldn’t find any :-(

    Found THIS though :-)

    Everyone loves cricket!

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  10. Andy, thanks! I had actually seen it before but it is one that I think it always funny. "Cricket in Yorkshire? Don't talk soft, lad!"

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  11. Nice little piece about Spim Bolligan, sorry Spine Millingtune, er, over on the Culture pages of the Graun.

    Poor old Spike. My comedy hero bar none.

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  12. elementary_watson10 July, 2009 16:15

    I don't know what to think of the picture in the "mothers earn 22% less than men" article.

    Somehow, I think a photo of a mother near a nervous breakdown because of her kids and the problems to make ends meet with 78% of a man's pay would have been really too much of a cliche.

    But as it is, well, let's just say that the mother doesn't seem to care about the pay gap becuase she's happy spending time with her baby. Which I don't think was the point of the article.

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  13. elementary_watson10 July, 2009 16:15

    Or, more shortly: The picture shows no signs of devastation, quite to the contrary.

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  14. Montana

    I see they're planning open season on wolf hunting in Idaho and Montana. See link below. There's the most fabulous picture of 4 wolves standing on a rock in the paper but they haven't got it on line. I'd love to see wolves back in Scotland but don't think it's going to happen

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/09/wolf-hunting

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  15. sorry forgot to do the html
    Wolf hunting

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  16. Oh LOL
    I have just done something st00pid

    I wanted to post the youtube vid of Dreadlock Holiday with the link

    I don't like cricket-ah! Oh no
    I love it!

    So I go onto the first CiF thread I see - about the cold war - open a comment window.... and then I bloody posted it didn't I.

    D'OH!!

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/10/robert-gates-us-military-budget?commentpage=1&commentposted=1

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  17. It's been a long and tedious day and I need beer...

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  18. I've asked our lovely mods to delete it for me as "off topic"
    :D

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  19. 'grand bunch, the Scottish.'

    Swifty you sound like John Cleese's Robin Hood in Time Bandits - [from memory] 'Do you know the poor? Lovely people!'

    Re wolves there is not a hope in hell of them being reintroduced in the Scottish wild. We now have beavers back in Scotland in a monitored location & they are being eyed suspiciously by the knowledgeable country folk - one angler said 'they will eat all the salmon!' -erm. . .

    Wolves will be poisoned by crofters and gamekeepers in much the same way they now poison golden eagles, sea eagles and kites.

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  20. Ahhh Scotland!

    Up there for a few days at the end of July. My mum was scottish and most of my relatives are up there. :)

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  21. Not very "knowledgeable" then Edwin - beaver are vegetarian, as I'm sure you know. It would be like worrying that squirrels are going to eat your sheep.

    As part of me college course I was trying to get involved in that beaver re-introduction, which is being run be the Scottish Wildlife Trust, but they didn't seem interested in the prospect of an unpaid volunteer beaver reintroducer for May and June.

    I can't see wolves EVER being reintroduced in this country, though they're still around in some parts of continental Europe. I've seen some up real close in a wildlife sanctuary, and they're amazing - appear to be much more inteligent and "alive" than dogs (apologies to all dog owners)...

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  22. Part of MY college course - that wasn't an attempt at online Cockernee geezer-speak, honest guv.

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  23. Yes andy - I am a veggie myself and I know that beavers are!

    'Knowledgable' was meant with irony - obviously i'm not very good at it.

    Thomas Hardy used to try to persuade farmers that hedgehogs didn't suckle their cows, with little joy. What do poets know?

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  24. @Edwin:

    "Grand bunch, the Scottish" was meant with irony, too - clearly, I have a bit to learn in that direction as well.

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  25. Come on guys, get with the emoticons ;-)

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  26. Ach andy I inject all my emotion into ellipsis . . . three dots say so much.

    Swifty I wasn't having a dig, I thought it was quite a funny comment. I guess I should resign in dudgeon from here as well!

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  27. Don't worry Edwin, I got a hint of your irony first time round.

    It's much better when you don't have to spell it out, but some of those round here can be a bit slow, so sometimes we have to spell it out ;-)

    What's this about resigning in dudgeon? Have you had a tiff with someone?

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  28. An almighty tiff with Cif - one of the Guardian's own contributors accused me of spitting 'venom' at Muslims. I demanded an unambiguous retraction from the contributor and also from Matt Seaton and although the post was deleted I didn't get the retraction I wanted - so off I go.

    Actually it occurred to me that maybe I'm not suited to making comments without facial expressions - your mention of emoticons is pertinent - I have realised that they do make a difference!

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  29. @Edwin:

    Yeah, fuck off then :-)

    No wait, I used an emoticon dude!

    Only joking. I'm with you on the mighty ellipsis, I probably use it too much but what the hell... JayReilly's a big fan as well, I think.

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  30. I'm a big fan of the ellipsis as well...

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