Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday Catblogging
Greg and me. (Apologies for the quality: It's a photo of a photo.)
Well, there's some bad news on the catblogging front. Greg has departed. Not this plane of existence, but he's gone to live with our pastoral assistant, who was his chief caretaker. A lot of turnover in the parish--several longtime priests have moved on to another parish the order runs Kent--meant that Greg was feeling a little out of sorts. His new home is a little more rural, perfect for a maturing cat like Greg. I was chatting with the pastoral assistant about his new life. She said he'd mastered the catdoor to go outside, but was having a little trouble figuring out how to get back in through the same door. To teach him how to do it, she said she'd gone out another door, then "posted" him--as a postman might--through his catdoor.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The PSA Tales
I might have mentioned in the past that public service advertisements are a bit different here, with a tendency to scare instead of persuade. Here are a couple more examples:
Dear Hollywood,
My film-going habits have changed in recent years not because I'm downloading pirated movies, but because I've grown weary of your constant recycling of superhero movies and remakes. I could tolerate this advert if it were simply on my television--that's what mute buttons are for. However, that I'm forced to sit through this advert in a cinema after I've paid £8 to get in is well beyond insulting. Knock it off.
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I doubt even 1 percent of this advert's viewers are benefit thieves. I would applaud your vigilance if I didn't know that this ad was instead aimed at me, the taxpayer, to try to persuade me that you're doing a good job at cracking down on benefit fraud. However, what this ad reveals to me is that the scale of the benefit fraud and the efforts to eliminate it are about equal. Not a good use of resources.
(This one is rather unpleasant.)
Dear Think! ad campaign,
This ad is just disgusting. You know what having this ad thrust in front of me during a quiet night's TV watching is like? Imagine me coming into your house at dinner time, and spitting on your plate. Yeah, it's like that. Please take it off.
Dear Countryside Access,
This one is still enjoyable after all this time. I could watch this one again and again. Thank you, Countryside Access, for coming up with a PSA that is charming and persuasive.
Dear Hollywood,
My film-going habits have changed in recent years not because I'm downloading pirated movies, but because I've grown weary of your constant recycling of superhero movies and remakes. I could tolerate this advert if it were simply on my television--that's what mute buttons are for. However, that I'm forced to sit through this advert in a cinema after I've paid £8 to get in is well beyond insulting. Knock it off.
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I doubt even 1 percent of this advert's viewers are benefit thieves. I would applaud your vigilance if I didn't know that this ad was instead aimed at me, the taxpayer, to try to persuade me that you're doing a good job at cracking down on benefit fraud. However, what this ad reveals to me is that the scale of the benefit fraud and the efforts to eliminate it are about equal. Not a good use of resources.
(This one is rather unpleasant.)
Dear Think! ad campaign,
This ad is just disgusting. You know what having this ad thrust in front of me during a quiet night's TV watching is like? Imagine me coming into your house at dinner time, and spitting on your plate. Yeah, it's like that. Please take it off.
Dear Countryside Access,
This one is still enjoyable after all this time. I could watch this one again and again. Thank you, Countryside Access, for coming up with a PSA that is charming and persuasive.
Labels: British life, media
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday Catblogging
If you look at Greg's tail closely, you may find it forms a golden spiral.
Labels: architecture, cats, photos
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Who Made Steve Guttenberg A Star? We Did! We Did!
Pantomime: One quarter comedy, one quarter vaudeville slapstick, one quarter rock opera, one quarter Christmas celebration, one quarter kid screamfest, and, uh, that's five quarters, but you get the idea. Throw in an out-of-work movie star, some minor TV celebrities, some West End actors, a children's dance troupe, some topical jokes for the parents, some silly jokes for the kids, and some audience participation. Sounds like a right mess, but it's fun. And they're still playing through January.
And in other panto news: Mickey Rooney's in one somewhere on this fair isle. I thought he was dead.
-- Post From My iPhone
And in other panto news: Mickey Rooney's in one somewhere on this fair isle. I thought he was dead.
-- Post From My iPhone
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Swiss catblogging
Nala, who lives with our friends in Switzerland, gets snuggly with her stuffed chicken while it snows outside.
Labels: cats, non-UK travel, photos
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
December Sunsetblogging
The sun sets way too early.
That's better ...
... because it's better to light a single snowman than curse the darkness.
We're in that part of the year again, when the sun doesn't rise until after 8 and sets before 4. It's nice to see the merchants lighting up our streets during the dark months.
Labels: British life, latitude, seasons