Tuesday 10 May 2011

Of odds and ends and bloggers...


The rabbit was amused and entertained by a couple of gems from the Guardian this morning. The first relates to a tv quiz programme called Million Pound Drop. The general idea is that you start with a million pounds and lose money by giving wrong answers. Yup, we are heading into stupidity territory. Deep into stupidity territory. As in really, really deep.

Here is a question for plucky contestants Andrew and Vanessa...

 'In 1954 Roger Bannister was the first man to...


  • Run a sub 4-minute mile
  • Go into space
  • Put the toilet seat down
(There is a pictorial clue as to the right answer for the hard of thinking above)

After much hesitation, Andrew and Vanessa went for.....
 
Yup... The toilet seat option.
 
Such stupidity is truly on the heroic scale. They should be given a medal or something.
 
On the other end of the intelligence scale, there was a piece by Sarah Churchwell touching on the vexed question of British and American spelling issues. Professor Churchwell, an American herself, mounts a spirited defence of American spellings. The rabbit considers himself better informed but less than convinced.

Meanwhile John Hirst aka Jailhouselawyer e-mails the rabbit with cartoon from the Torygraph attached asking what I have been up to. The answer is of course nothing. And even if I had been up to anything I would not be seeking a super-injunction (overseas readers - please google - they are injunctions to protect very important people and are so secret you can't even mention their existence - or something like that), The rabbit has always approached rumours about him on the basis that they should be admitted especially if untrue.

The above woodcut is of Thomas Cranmer, sixteenth century archbishop of Canterbury having a full and frank exchange of views with a Doctor Cole shortly before being carbonised for heresy. The rabbit mentions this as Cranmer has a contemporary imitator who seems a rather thin skinned fellow. For why? The rabbit described the Cranmer impersonator in a (fairly) recent posting as an 'irritating blogger'. Oh dear! Our hero picked up on this description and commented as will be seen here.

Calm down dear (to borrow a phrase). And please also understand that the rabbit writes any old rubbish that comes into his head without even the pretence of fact checking. Get over it. If you like religious blogs Nick Baines - who has the virtue of being a real as opposed to pretend bishop - does a much better one. 'Cranmer' may consider himself awarded the second (in succession to the egregious Grant Shapps) Knob of the Week.

Finally on bloggers and commenters, a comment by Alconcalcia to an over one year old posting 'Did you know an anagram of Gideon Osborne is "Go soon, inbreed'

Ummm, no Al (if I may call you Al). Didn't know that...

8 comments:

sybil law said...

I can't believe we don't have the Stupid Millionaire show here, but then again, we might - I simply don't watch enough television to know, really!
I agree with Sarah Churchwell, though. :)

JoJo said...

I lump game shows in with reality and talent shows, as more of the vapid pap being fed to Americans. BORING!

For the record, I would have gotten the Roger Bannister question correct. ;)

simply wondered said...

fwiw i agree with you re cranmer - annoying and gives me the impression of being totally up his own backside. but then we do seem to share several views on life. and i imagine there are people who would have some fairly choice negative descriptions of me - you just gotta accept you aren't gong to please everyone.

simply wondered said...

'we do seem to share several views on life' - err that's you and me not (definitely not) me and cranmer.
but you knew that.

Michael said...

I think it's just natural selection! ;-)

savannah said...

so, ok, where are you? what have you been doing? so, when will you post again? come by and visit when you can, sugar! xoxoxox

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

I wish I could find the clip from the weakest link about Uranus that I found whilst trying to come up with Spitting Image's routine about the same planet. Kind of similar...

I don't think they look for the brightest stars in the firmament for these quiz shows.

I found Cranmer a while back and thought him a bit of a self-righteous bore.

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