Thursday 9 September 2010

A few odds and ends...


The rabbit has been busy tearing up and down the country this week - including to places he has never been to before and has no wish ever to go to again - namely Worksop (Nottinghamshire) and Hertford ('Is that Hertford in Hertfordshire' the hapless Indian person in the Rail Enquiries callcentre asked. I was nice and did not let rip with a sarcastic remark concerning Hertford being in - erm - Hertfordshire despite the temptations). So here are a few updates and odds and ends...

The posting on Hague and his - erm - difficulties led to a thread about Welsh spelling in the comments, eruditely resolved by Mahal. This in turn reminded me of the most famous bilingual sign in Wales (above). Th English bit is clear enough. The Welsh bit below translates as 'I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated'. All official signs in Wales are bilingual so Swansea council e-mailed its in-house translation person and assumed the automated out of office reply was the translation sought. Ooops! A certain amount of amusement was called before the sign was inevitably but regrettably taken down.


The above person is Andy Coulson, the Conservative Party's Director of Communications. Coulson is is a spot of bother in relation to his former editorship of the News of the World, an unpleasant Murdoch rag. It emerges that in gross breach of privacy laws (and in breach of the criminal law) the News of the Screws had been hacking into various prominent people's phones in hot pursuit of a story. The question is, as editor did Coulson know? If so - huge scandal and egg on face of Conservative Party and 'Dave' Cameron, a prime minister, who appointed Coulson. The New York Times is doing sterling work on the topic in the face of a News International attempt to smother the story here amid allegations of a cosy relationship between the Murdoch press and the Metropolitan Police. But that's slightly by the by. The really good story is this...

With Hat Tip to Samuel-Dean, it can be revealed that Coulson was formerly a model for the Dear Deirdre agony column in the Sun - another crappy Murdoch rag I say for the benefit of overseas readers. Dear Deirdre has a photo feature for the terminally illiterate of its 'readers' and also as an excuse to show pictures of young women in their underwear. Follow the link and there is Coulson posing as Mick, a somewhat - erm - overexcitable husband.

'My husband demands sex five times a day' announces 'Linda'. Indeed he does, although it must be said that Coulson/Mick's chat up lines - 'You're looking very horny, Linda. How about pulling into that field for a quickie?' and 'Put that book down. I need some attention' - are not suggestive of a subtle or romantic nature.

Perhaps the coalition government ought to clarify its position on that sort of thing. Mind you, Blair's spin doctor Alistair Campbell wrote some pornographic novel in a previous manifestation - something to do with bagpipes, the rabbit gathers. Sounds altogether too disgusting to contemplate...

11 comments:

JoJo said...

OK, bagpipes and porn should never be in the same sentence together. Ever.

word verif: fedshemi

sybil law said...

That sign is hysterical!!

Petit fleur said...

In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen.

The Dental Maven said...

Yup. That sign takes the cake. Too bad they took it down!

white rabbit said...

JoJo - I copy and paste from Wikipedia...

'Campbell became interested in journalism. His first published work was Inter-City Ditties, his winning entry to a readers' competition in the pornographic magazine Forum. This led to a lengthy stint writing pieces for the magazine with such titles as Busking with Bagpipes and The Riviera Gigolo, written in a style calculated to lead readers at the time to believe they were descriptions of his own sexual exploits'

Erm... Quite so.

Sybil/Maven - the sign is wonderful and the fact it was taken down a tragedy. It did occur to me that if the out of office autoreply was - erm - bilingual then the confusion need not have arisen.

Little Flower - Hindeed. I have also spent some time in Hereford recently. It has a local brand of gin. And a lot of very pretty countryside around it.

Findon said...

Ye Gods man Worksop. Court cases there must be consstantly in a state of confusion. Watson v Watson, followed by Watson v Watson and then in the afternoon, Watson v Watson etc etc. I once had a client there, three in fact, I asked one client company called LGT, why they were called so, thinking maybe names, but all their names began with H so I was intrigued. When we bought the building he said we didn't have a name for the company. We walked in to the building for the first time and the previous people had left lots of green paint tins, so thats what we called it Lots of Green Tins. That as they say counts for genius in Worksop.

white rabbit said...

Findon - Lots of Green Tins? Yeah, that works...

Barmaid said...

Worksop - bloody hell WR. Many moons ago my hubby was a manager at a Mecca nightclub there:-)

white rabbit said...

Barmaid - The experience must have been traumatic for poor Mr Barmaid. When I was a mere leveret (okay a leveret is a small hare and not rabbit but bear with me)Jimmy Savile was manager of the Leeds Mecca. He was noted for having his hair dyed in candystripes. this is not a good thought.

ps to Findon - the more I think of Lots of Green Tins the more I like it. I hall have to think of a business idea just to pinch the name.

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

You J-U-S-T caught the Welsh road sign?

Here's a post I did a while back:
http://lacithedog.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/siarad-cymraeg/

It seems the Welsh have a propensity for weird roadsigns.

white rabbit said...

Known about this for ages you silly canine! Just I forget what prompted me...