Beau Bo D'Or

The rabbit was sad to see that Beau Bo D'Or - of whom he is a huge fan (link to the left for a parting collage) - has closed his site. The YouTube clip above is another collage of his best-known images. I am undoubtedly biased but one of my favourites was the (British General) election poster from last May - Disobey 6th May - words by the rabbit, artwork by Beau Bo D'Or (all seems a very long time ago, doesn't it?). Cheers, Neil and all the best for the future, You have a singular talent.

A flying visit...

I seem to be very time poor of late so have been falling behind on my blogging duties - a lot of travelling mostly. Grantham today, Gloucester tomorrow. Etc. Etc.

Above is another Glen Baxter to be getting on with plus Catch Her in The Wry (link you know where) set me thinking about words in the English language that don't rhyme with any other (English) words. Here is a list of 70...

A - Almond, Angry, Angst, Anxious, Aspirin
B - Bachelor, Breadth, Bulb, Bulbous
C - Calumny, Cannabis, Caveat, Chaos, Chimney, Chocolate, Circus, Citrus, Citizen, Condom
D - Denizen, Depth, Diamond, Different
E - Eighth, Elbow, Else, Empty, Engine
F - Fift, Film, Foible, Fugue
G - Galaxy, Glimpsed, Golf, Gulf
H - Hostage, Husband
I - Iron
J - Justice
K - ...
L - Laundry, Luggage
M - Monster, Month, Mulcts
N - Ninth, Neutron
O - Obvious, Of, Office, Olive, Orange
P - Pint, Pedant, Penguin, Pizza, Plankton, Plinth, Promise, Purple
Q - ...
R - Reptile
S - Sanction, Sandwich, Shadow, Silver
T - Transfer, Twelfth
U - ...
V - Vacuum
W - Width, Wolf
X - ...
Y - ...
Z - ...

So your challenge people, should you be prepared to accept it, is to find words that rhyme with any of these. Hat Tip to Hubpages.

Plus, to soothe the furrowed brow as you think about this knotty problem, here are The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain with Teenage Dirtbag. I may be in a silly mood but I kid you not...

Van Morrison and YouTube

Some time ago all Van Morrison's stuff came off YouTube. There was some sort of more general kerfuffle about YouTube and copyright at about the same time and it is a well known fact that Van the Man protects his commercial interests very fiercely indeed so I assume that he/his commercial people demanded that the (free and therefore problematic) material be removed, no doubt in the belief that making YouTube take down his material was to his commercial advantage. I can only assume that there has been a change of heart in this regard as Van's stuff is back up again. Above is Sweet Thing from the absolutely astonishing Astral Weeks album. Astral Weeks and Moondance just drip with romance and desire. Who could resist with one of those albums as the soundtrack to the evening? Well not many as I recall ;)

Let's liven up the tempo with our man performing Star of the County Down with the Chieftans. If Sweet Thing is silky and seductive, then Star of the County Down fizzes with sheer exuberance.

And then from when Van was just the lead singer with rough edged Belfast band Them, here comes Here Comes The Night. Strange man but a genius...

Bad news, I'm afraid...

"You have been suspended from Christine O'Donnell for Senate

Sorry, Andrew Keogh, you can not access Christine O'Donnell for Senate as you have been suspended. If you think you've been suspended in error, you can contact the administrator".

Quelle horreur! as the cheese eating surrender monkeys would say. The rabbit had a peep at Chrstine's website yesterday evening to be greeted with this devastating news. Of course I thought I must have been suspended in error and so immediately contracted the administrator saying that either there had been a terrible mistake or the North Korean infiltrator mentioned yesterday, Kim Il Skot, had been doing bad things. I further informed the administator that Christine would be very upset if she heard of this.

No reply from the administrator. Having given these matters careful consideration, I have concluded that it is my unpleasant duty to withdraw my support from Christine. Someone with such bad judgement as regards her staff (Kim Il Skot and the supine 'administrator') cannot possibly be relied on. I have further bad news for Christine, the jackpot on the Euromillions draw tonight is a very acceptable £112 million (that's $177,788,340.94) and the rabbit has 4 lines and is quietly confident. When I win Christine ISN'T GETTING A PENNY by way of donation!

NUR!!! NUR!!! NUR!!!

More seriously, I was relieved to finally get a response. It had got like trying to bait a collection of blocks of wood. How dumb are these people? Okay, don't answer that...

Even more seriously, the rabbit has from time to time expressed that the gruesome gargoyles who run China are excessively indulged because China is viewed as the up and coming world economic - and by extension political - power and therefore it is best not to upset them no matter how revoltingly they behave.

It is therefor pleasing to note that imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize. He is doing an 11 year stretch for 'inciting subversion of state power' (sic) having done 3 years in a labour and re-education camp (how creepy is that for an idea?) previously for 'disturbing the social order' (sic). He sounds remarkably moderate "I oppose systems of government that are dictatorships or monopolies. This is not 'inciting subversion of state power'. Opposition is not equivalent to subversion".

One pleasing aspect of the award is that the Chinese government has gone batshit crazy and a volley of toys have gone flying out of the Chinese governmental pram. "Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who violated Chinese law. It's a complete violation of the principles of the prize and an insult to the peace prize itself for the Nobel committee to award the prize to such a person." whinged the Chinese foreign ministry. There has been an attempt to bully the Norwegian government (the Nobel prizes being a Norwegian thing), summoning the Norwegian ambassador to Beijing to tell him that relations between China and Norway could be damaged. He explained that the Nobel committee is an independent body and not under the control of the Norwegian government but no doubt such subtleties are beyond these gorillas.

The US, German and French governments have called for Liu Xiaobo's release following the award. I haven't seen that the British government has done the same. If I am right about this then maybe Wild Bill Hague could get on with it and do so?

On a lighter note and for the weekend, here is another Glen Baxter cartoon. Think of this as you do the Saturday morning shopping. Our man does some animated ones too such as this and this and this. Have a good weekend all (except Kim Il Skot and the 'administrator' - I hope the cat wees in your shoes). I expect I'll be back over the weekend, though.

Glen Baxter

Sybil made a comment on the last posting to the effect that she liked to think of strange storylines to the old stills. The comment made me think of Glen Baxter, sometimes known (don't ask me why) as 'The Colonel'. Baxter is an English cartoonist and natural surrealist. He's from Leeds in fact and studied at Leeds College of Art. His stock in trade is cartoons of cowboys, children or explorers. The twist is that the cartoon characters are making bizarre or incongrous remarks, often connected with art or literature. Here are a few...


Some typically literary cowboys.

And - erm - explorers.

This one is entitled Meetings and is typically bizarre and enigmatic.

Words fail me. Okay, one more...

Meanwhile all is not well on Planet Christine. The rabbit's well judged comments have attracted the attention of a so-called 'moderator' calling himself 'Scott'

I copy and paste my latest contribution:

"Oh dear.... Let's clear a few things up. Firstly, it is unlikely that Ronal Reagan was a bearded Marxist. Just his little joke no doubt. And indeed it is right to say that he brought down the Berlin Wall single handed. In fact the cheeky chappy used to sneak up on it and administer a series of deftly delivered head butts. A wall can only take so many head butts, I'm sure all will agree.

Now 'Scott' says- 'I'm a moderator. You need to tell me'. Now no friend of freedom (or 'frenna freem' as that other great intellectual among recent Presidents George W Bush was fond of saying) would talk in terms of 'you need to tell me'. Sounds like the Stasi to me. I can only conclude that 'Scott' is a hacker placed on this site in a fiendish conspiracy between the Coons person and various North Korean high ups and is probably really called Kim Il-Skot.

Did you know that W had a thing with a woman called Evelyn Tent by the way? He was always on about her. Does Laura know? But I digress...Kim Il-Skot also impertinently asks - 'Andrew, since you are from the UK, you don't have a genuine interest in Christine's campaign. Do you support her or are you just here to make snarky comments?'

Cheeky fellow! Of course I have an interest in Christine's campaign. Firstly, I look forward eagerly to her first speech to the US Senate on her sensible policies as regards - how does one put this delicately? - Self-pleasuring. So there!

Secondly, when Christine is elected President she will have her finger on the nuclear button. I would advise her to press it immediately so as to bring on the rapture.

WHEE!!!

BOOM!!!

GIGGLE!!!

A load of fun, I'm sure you'll agree. Trust this clarifies matters".

...I will report on further developments.

That dreadful picture...

...the lips that touch liquor one, that is. Hank commented that it is a movie still. Further researches reveal that he is right but not a great deal else. This much I have found out: it is a still from an unknown film - maybe dating from 1909 but that is not certain, it seems. The still derives from Edison's Black Maria - Thomas Edison's movie production studio - sometimes referred to as America's first - in West Orange, New Jersey and has been described as the West Orange Temperance Movement.

There are a number of other stills from the same source online - above is Charlie's Reform - again of unknown date. It looks rather fun and has me wondering what the storyline was.

Above is of unknown date and is entitled Grand Opera in Roubeville. And very strange it looks too. Again, I have to wonder what demented narrative this still represents. The bloke in the fez looks particularly unhinged.

Again of unknown date, the above still is named Martin Chuzzlewit. Okay that was a novel by Dickens but beyond that I haven't a clue what this is about. There is one man lying on some sort of sofa or bed, another sitting on a stool looking something between thoughtful and downright pissed off and a woman peering through the window of the open window of the log cabin. All very odd...

Above is Lucia Di Lammermoor from 1913. I like the crazed exuberance of these old stills.

And finally, I rather like this one. It has a date - 1903 - and a title The Great Train Robbery. No, not that one British readers. well obviously. And as an extra treat - here it is!

Totally changing the subject, what you lot in the USA are up to has come to the rabbit's attention - via the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behaviour (I added a 'u' on principle) you are very naughty and I will be straight over. But not before putting up a song that Unique Stephen (link to left) posted amid claims that it deserves to be Australia's national anthem. It's a very good song - Land Down Under by Men at Work and is a huge improvement on the turgid official Australian National Anthem (Yes before anybody says - the UK one sucks worst of all). I remember being on a Quantas jet years ago and getting bounced about quite scarily by tropical storms over Darwin. When the storms passed the tension in the plane was instantly dissolved when they put this song on the plane's PA. It got a cheer and quite rightly.

Niqabs, hotpants and lips that touch liquor...

A flying visit by the rabbit as he catches breath during a brief respite from charging up and down the country. The above clip - with Hat Tip to M - shows two young women protesting against the French ban on the wearing of the niqab in public places by wandering about wearing niqabs and - erm - some very short pants and that's about it. I'm with the young women here. Though I can't imagine why anyone would want to wear the niqab, it seems to be me to be absolutely none of the state's business if women choose to do so of their own free will. Okay, being coerced to do so is wrong too but two wrongs don't make a right.

As an extra treat before more substantial postings are resumed here - compliments of Mahal to whom Hat Tip - are a fine looking body of women. And not a niqab in sight. The one front inside right looks as if she is puckering up for a snog, though. Maybe she doesn't care.

Dear me, it's not nice is it?

Odds and ends...

With Hat Tip to Catch Her in The Wry - one of the rabbit's favourite bloggers and link to the left - here is a Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test - one of the earliest clips of colour film you will see. It almost, but not quite, seems modern while at the same time drawing the viewer back to a bygone age. It is 88 years old after all.

The rabbit is hopping down to London for the weekend to see his younger bunnies and do a few other things so here are a few more odds and ends, starting with two from the indefatigable Mahal. After all the American politics stuff, here is a bit of British politics. Hazel Blears was Secretary of State for Being An Annoying Dwarf (okay Communities and Local Government technically) in the last Labour Government before resigning having had an embarrassment over a £13,000 expenses claim our heroine found herslf obliged to pay back. Anyway, Blears has denied describing the last Labour government as sometimes 'wicked and malicious' at a fringe meeting, saying that she was referring to her Conservative successor as Secretary of State for Being Stupefyingly Fat, the jaw-droppingly corpulent Eric Pickles. However, the above tape reveals Blears to have been - erm - a touch confused in her denial. Below is Pickles practising being jaw-droppingly corpulent.

Talking of weight, the rabbit is pleased to report that he has lost 8lbs in three weeks of the sort of diet reported here recently. Meanwhile in Australia, all is well as is apparent from the report here. One is however constrained to ask that if this is what Australians are like at breakfast, how do they conduct themselves by dinner time when they have had the chance to wake up properly and perhaps even partake of strong drink.

The rabbit was sad to learn of the death from lung cancer of Johnny Edgecombe, the subject of a White Rabbit posting late last year, aged 72. On learning of his condition, he is reported as saying 'I'll get high till I die'. He no doubt did too. The above pic is from the early 60s and shows Johnny in a cab with 'Lucky' Gordon.

Very finally, the rabbit has discovered a sort of British Shorpy, except more narrative and thematic. It is called Another Nickel in The Machine and describes itself as 'a blog about 20th century London, its history, its culture and its music'. I know already I'm going to be back and back again for goodies. It's where I found above pic of Johnny Edgecombe.

Introducing Rachida Dati..

The above person is Rachida Dati, who was formerly French Justice Minister and was recently interviewed by French TV Channel Canal+ Our new friend caused some puzzlement when she announced in the course of the interview 'I see some [foreign investment funds] looking for returns of 20 or 25% at a time when fellatio is close to zero'.

One may struggle for the connection.

The explanation is that The French word for fellatio is 'fellation', which - we are assured - sounds similar to the word 'inflation'. Erm, quite so. Our heroine blames talking too quickly but what can have been on her mind? Christine would not make such an error, would she? Some spoilsport has disabled embedding for the relevant clip on YouTube but here is the link. Hat Tip to Mahal.

And further to the posting on the Titanic, the rabbit has been contacted by a person with very considerable relevant experience who writes...

'Titanic - from one who knows about these things, the two sets of orders gambit is rubbish - hard a starboard (or previously larboard) has always meant that.

The nearest ship, the Californian, had absolutely no real capacity to rescue everyone anyway. The exhibition at Harland and Wolf shows plainly that in terms of survival, money really did talk. The interesting thing is the idea that the ship was unsinkable - what an advertising campaign! So I think this story is worth a look but there have been even more noteworthy disasters in terms of avoidance than Titanic'.

So that settles that. I was somewhat puzzled as previously remarked on that the story took about a century - and the publication of Mrs Patten's book - to see the light of day. Prompted by my informant, I end with the good advice to keep on trucking. Memo to self: must blog on R.Crumb sometime...

A flying visit...

Informative stuff from Christine above I'm sure all will agree. The rabbit has been time poor of late so a flying visit to briefly break the silence. The rabbit is faintly concerned by his continued interest in US politics - or at least its comedic possibilities and is troubled by information from the Washington Post via Laci the Dog (link to left) to the effect that it is alleged that Christine may not have been entirely - erm - truthful about her academic qualifications.

Say it isn't true!!!

O'Donnell's LinkedIn bio page lists 'University of Oxford' as one of the schools she attended, claiming she studied 'Post Modernism in the New Millennium' - as one does. But it turns out that the course conducted by an institution of the utmost obscurity known as the Phoenix Institute, which merely rented space at Oxford. No doubt as Christine is noted for her truthfulness there is an explanation. Just like no doubt there are explanations for no doubt unfounded rumours that Christine only got her degree last year after a load of unpleasantness in the courts about unpaid fees. Or the other no doubt unfounded unpleasantness about whether or not Christine ever did postrgraduate work at Princeton.

Oh dear! What can a rabbit say?

Well at least all is well in another corner of Planet Republican. The rabbit was pleased to learn that Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul belongs to a doctors’ group that among other -erm - curious beliefs has suggested that President Obama may have been elected because he was able to hypnotize voters.

Ah! That would explain things.

The rabbit is pleased to report that he has been invited to involve himself in the release of the film Conviction - trailer above. There is to be a gala screening at the London Film Festival on 15th October and the plot concerns one of the first cases of DNA being used as evidence. Hilary Swank plays Betty Ann Waters, a woman who devoted her life to earning a law degree to free her brother, Kenny Waters, from life without parole for a murder he did not commit. The film is to be screened in the morning but the rabbit is not quite sure what part he will play, possibilities include meeting Betty Ann Waters in the morning and/or and attending the press conference in the afternoon. The rabbit will report back.

Oh what fun! I wonder if Hilary Swank will be there!

A new angle on the Titanic story...

Time to change the subject from you-know-who, methinks! An interesting new story has just surfaced (as it were) as regards the Titanic. The story comes from Louise Patten who is the granddaughter of the Titanic's second officer (and also wife of Chris Patten but that's by the way) and tells the following tale: when the Titanic First Officer spotted the iceberg he gave the order 'hard-a-starboard' so as to avoid it. There was a problem. At the time there were two steering systems in operation - the sailing ship system (tiller orders) and the steamship system (rudder orders). Let Patten take up the story: 'a command to turn 'hard a-starboard' meant turn the wheel right under one system and left under the other'.

The man at the wheel - Quartermaster Robert Hitchins - was trained under rudder orders – but tiller orders were still in use in the north Atlantic. So when First Officer William Murdoch first spotted the iceberg and gave the 'hard a-starboard' order Hitchins turned the liner into the course of the iceberg instead of as far away from it as possible.

It took two minutes to rectify the mistake but in those two minutes it became inevitable that the Titanic would hit the iceberg. But it gets worse. It is generally considered commonsense that if you have a crash, it is best not to keep moving forward. After the iceberg struck, the chairman of White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, persuaded the captain, Edward Smith, to keep sailing. The only rationalisation of this is said to be that he may have been fearful of damaging the company's reputation, although I confess that I struggle with the logic of this.

Let Patten take up the story - 'My grandfather described the decision to try and keep Titanic moving forward as criminal" Pressing on added to the pressure of water in the hull, forcing it over the bulkheads and sinking the ship many hours earlier than it would otherwise have sunk. The nearest ship was four hours away. How many of the 1,500 lives lost would have been saved had the chairman not thrown his weight about? The story never came out as Patten's grandfather said he felt duty-bound to protect his employers, fearing it would bankrupt the company and every job would be lost. 'He made the choice to keep it a secret; he thought he had a duty to protect his employers and he never doubted for one moment that it was the right thing to do'.

And why is the story coming out now and not before? Because Louise Patten is promoting a novel she has written around these events. Hmmm....

The rabbit despairs of Team Christine. What do I have to do to get a reaction? It's like trying to get a response out of a field of turnips. The latest is that Christine's pals are all very excited about an allegation that her Democratic opponent, a man called Chris Coons is supposed to be a 'bearded Marxist'. I don't quite follow the story, which seems utterly specious, but made a comment on the discussion forum at Team Christine 2010. I copy and paste...

'As regards the Chris Coons chappie and bearded Marxists, I see he doesn't have a beard any more. Does this mean that he's not a Marxist any more or is he in disguise?
I've done some research and Marx and Engels had huge great beards. Lenin and Trosky had little pointy ones and Ho Chi Minh had a really pathetc straggly puny one. Is it compulsory for Marxists to have beards? Is it some sort of Marxist thing? And what about female Marxists? Most of them can't grow beards. It doesn't seem fair'.

Replies so far? Naff all. They're no fun. I forgot to mention Stalin's moustache, it just occurs to me.

Titter Ye Not!

Oh dear! It is the rabbit's unpleasant duty to report that his latest poster girl, Christine O'Donnell is somewhat in the poo. Some unsporting fellow has dug up a VERY OLD CLIP in which the young Christine admits to having - ahem - delved in witchcraft. Does everyone thank Christine for her frankness?

No. They do not. Shocking though it is to relate, people are mocking her! And the Karl Rove fellow, who strikes the rabbit as the kind of self-abuser that Christine quite rightly takes a dim view of, pontificates that 'a lot of churchgoing people' will 'want to know what was all that about'.

Ever available to come to the rescue of a damsel in distress, the rabbit has posted some helpful comments on Team Christine's most excellent website. I copy and paste...

'I see that a lot of people are geting very excited about so-called 'revelations' relating to matters when Christine was much younger and perhaps a little less omniscient than she is now. Christine apparently fessed up to having a date with a witch 'on a satanic altar - and I didn't know it'. Well really! What on earth is the fuss about? The best of us could accidentally - indeed entirely unintentionally - find ourselves on a satanic altar. There is no way any suggestion that Mr Satan was himself present at the time or that any unpleasantness took place. Christine elaborates 'there's a little blood there, and stuff like that'. Well quite so. The blood was probably from one of those chickens that satanists like to sacrifice and therefore no big deal. They use the chicken's entrails to tell the future apparently. Well that's no sillier than the weather forecast, I'm sure all and sundry will agree. I relied on the assurances of the BBC Midlands weather person that it would be dry and sunny only the other day and went out without my umbrella. I got very wet indeed to my considerable annoyance.

So no more of this witchcraft nonsense thank youuuuuu! As the late Frankie Howerd was fond of saying 'titter ye not!' Did you have him in 'Up Pompeii' in the States? You should have done. He was very funny'.

I await any reaction...

Keep calm and carry on...

It will not have escaped the notice of regular White Rabbit readers that this blog has been under a particularly nasty form of troll attack over the past day or so. The target is not actually this blog in a direct sense but another blogger who comments here from time to time. The immediate cause of the troll attack is my posting congratulations on the other blogger's blog on his engagement. The troll has assumed the other blogger's identity and unleashed a load of twisted, sick bile. I can only wonder at the mentality of someone so eaten up with hatred for another. In any event, I have had to take a step I have never wanted to, namely activate moderation. Sorry people but I trust this will be a short term measure. the troll has been reported to the appropriate channels and hopefully will be taken out of circulation soon. I have a disparate group of bloggers who comment here. I am genuinely grateful that they respect this space - as I respect theirs - and do not exploit it to use the considerable differences in belief systems and world view among them to attack each other. I do believe in free expression and have let comments go that have made me wince in the past but this particular troll has forfeited the right to have his hate laden obscenities heard.

Now let's carry on as usual...

The rabbit is pleased to report that he is now a member in good standing of Team Christine and as such can post comments on her website. As regards her past financial difficulties, the rabbit has already advised Christine to take no notice and quote Oscar Wilde as per yesterday's posting: 'those who live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination'. Whether Christine takes this helpful advice remains to be seen but the comment has already attracted further comment. One person helpfully explains that this is alll the fault of something called the 'lamestream media', which would seem to clarify matters. Sadly, another person reports that people have been posting hate stuff on Christine's facebook page.

Ever helpful, the rabbit has posted the following comment:

"I'm very sorry to read that there have been hateful comments posted on Christine's Facebook page. Political differences are no excuse for bad manners, I'm sure all would agree. Toujours la politesse as the French - or cheese eating surrender monkeys as they are wittily known on your side of the pond - would say. Actually, you are fortunate to have distance between yourselves and the French. The English Channel (or 'La Manche' as the French impertinently call it) is only 22 miles wide at its narrowest. This results in an influx of French onion sellers on bicycles and attired in berets and stripy tops trying to sell strings of onions and garlic. This can be a considerable nuisance as I'm sure you can imagine".

I await a reaction.

;)

With Hat Tip to JoJo for drawing may attention to this deplorable state of affairs, it is my unpleasant duty to report that there has been a march of - ahem - self-pleasuring fellows in Wilmington Delaware objecting to Christine's sensible pronouncements on the subject. A Mr Farger, apparently head wanker or somesuch, stated 'in this economy, masturbation is one of the few simple pleasures people still can afford' and threatens a 'Million Masturbator March'.

Tsk!!!

As a member of Team Christine, I can only deprecate this sort of stuff. Hands on the table, people thank youuuuuuuuuu...

Moving briskly on and asking American readers to bear with him, the rabbit has to mark the retirement of Andrew 'Freddy' Flintoff from all forms of cricket. The great man's body just couldn't take it any more. Apart from his huge talent, the crowds loved his physicality, wholeheartedness and power. The above clip is Freddy in Trafalgar Square after England won back the ashes in 2005. He's been up all night celebrating and is drunk as a skunk. The crowd are chanting 'you're pissed and you know you are'.

And who could argue with that?

The clip below is Freddy hitting an enormous 6 (that's like a home run Americanpersons) into the stand at Edgbaston. Not just into the stand but straight at his dad. What does his dad - apparently a decent club cricketer in his youth - do? He spills the catch, that's what. Amazing, lovely guy is Fred - I hope he has a happy retirement.

The rabbit has been vegging out on films on Channel 15 of late. Last night had Run, Fatboy Run, which was entertaining enough but somewhat spoiled by the fact that Simon Pegg isn't really fat. On Friday night there was The Untouchables, the 1987 one with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, that is. It did strike me that the scene in the station when the two surviving untouchables close in on the Capone book-keeper and the pram - with child in situ - goes careering down the steps is lifted from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Here's the original...



And the step sequence in The Untouchables... You need to get about 6 minutes in.

Saturday musings...

The rabbit can attest to the efficacy of the 'chainsmoke yourself through seperation and divorce and all sorts of associated grief' diet. Works a treat. Trust me on this - just watch the pounds fall off. The problem is that on regaining some equilibrium and stopping smoking (stopping smoking is easy - I've done it loads of times - but I think this time it's for real - eighteen months without a single craving) and the pounds pile back on again. So I decided to do something about it. I haven't gone on a structured diet but I eat lots of fruit and veg and very little red meat or bread. Beer has been rationed to two evenings a week and I allow myself fish and chips once a week plus the occasional Tunnocks teacake with a light lunch.

I reckon I'm doing 1,500-1,800 calories a day. I'm also doing some serious gym work. I actually enjoy the gym. Okay I hate the 20 minutes on the static bike but I love giving the weights some humpty. There is of course always canned music. Like I suppose everybody else, I respond to some songs more than others. Today Squeeze's Up The Junction came on. And there it is above. Notice the young Jools Holland. The song reminds me of my spiritual home of Clapham (South London for overseas readers) and the lyrics are a gem. A wonderfully English piece of whimsy.

'I’d beg for some forgiveness
But begging’s not my business'

Me neither. The rabbit being a dreadful old namedropper, he announces that someone he knows (and has blogged about but the rabbit lips are sealed) knows Jools Holland and has a story of an evening spent with Jools and Chuck Berry at the Park Lane Hilton. Ever the soul of discretion, the rabbit is saying nuffin except that it sounded like a good evening and the rabbit would have tagged along. However - oh all right - if you insist...



The rabbit is hugely entertained by Christine O'Donnell and has signed up to join Team Christine on her website. As the rabbit's membership is still pending approval best behaviour is in order - at least for the moment! The rabbit will when duly approved propose setting up Un-Americans for Christine and seek her advice. I gather Christine has had financial problems in the past (thus endearing her to the rabbit - as Oscar Wilde said 'those who live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination' - and am anxious to take Christine's advice as to whether to bother paying my next VAT bill as she evidently also takes a dim view of tax. I also intend to express my eager anticipation of Christine's first speech to the US Senate on the subject of twanging the wire. Sensibly, she is also against that sort of thing. The rabbit will keep the readership posed (posed is a typo - I meant posted - but I quite like it!)!

The rabbit has absolutely no comment...

...as to what may be going on here. Don't think that nice Christine O'Donnell would approve of this very bad example by Dubya though... Belated Hat Tip and apology to jailhouselawyer.

A flying visit...

...to Blogland. Here is Bob Marley with Guava Jelly, which was played at the wedding scene on This is England 86 on ITV1 last night - check it out if you can. The original This is England was a dark gem and its successor shows promise. Checking out the lyrics, I found a comment that suggested they may have a sexual content. You don't say...

Below is a clip from the original This is England where Shaun meets the skins. Watch on...

Which calls for some ska... Which is a good excuse to post Toots and the Maytals with 54/46 Was My Number. Those with long memories may remember that I've posted this before but I don't care 'cos it's quality. For the record, 54/46 was Toots Hibbert's prison number while serving a sentence for possession of one joint. There's a superb relatively recent version recorded by Hibbert with Buju Banton but it's not on YouTube or anywhere else I can find.

Woolas, the French and a cat that thinks it's a squirrel

Okay, let's get the serious stuff out of the way before going on to certain French difficulties in the bedroom department and the cat that thinks it's a squirrel. It does occur to me that I may have been treating certain things as self-evident - for example what MP stands for, but perhaps the abbreviation may not be immediately accessible to overseas readers. MP is Member of Parliament - that's like Representative Americanpersons. Okay, having got that over with, the above is Phil Woolas, Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth. His previous claim to fame was having claimed tampons, women's clothing and bibs on expenses. Appearances do not deceive. Phil is indeed a male person.

Go back to the May General election. Phil was apparently very anxious that he might lose his seat to the Lib Dem (Liberal Democrat overseaspersons) candidate, the ever so slightly overweight Elwyn Watkins - and thus be obliged to purchase his own panty liners etc rather than be reliant on public funds for such bounty. Then it got nasty. Woolas's election agent Joseph Fitzpatrick pronounced gravely 'we are picking up the vibe that Phil is going to lose'. The distress among manufacturers of sanitary towels does not bear thinking about. Enter the Muslim bogeyman.

It was decided by the Labour campaign team (on the basis of absolutely nothing at all) that Watkins would be portrayed as a friend of Islamic extremists, whereas plucky Phil would be painted as a fearless opponent of militants. At the risk of repetition, there was absolutely no factual foundation for the attack on Watkins as a friend of Islamic extremists. The next manoeuvre - again an attack with no factual foundation whatsoever was a claim that the Lib Dem was being backed by groups that had issued death threats against poor diddums Woolas.

The next gem was a fairly obviously photoshopped picture of Watkins looking as if he has just been detained by the constabulary. The upshot of all this is that two High Court Judges have hot footed it up to Saddleworth Civic Centre where an electoral court has beeen constituted. This is a rare event and is on the basis of a provision in the Representation of the People Act that anyone involved in an election who 'makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct' is guilty of an illegal practice, which may result in fining and disqualification from office.

It is far too early to say whether this may happen to Woolas but I do have to say that, were I a member of the Labour Party, I would not be comfortable at being associated with the stuff that emanated from Woolas and his campaign team.

Now on to sensible stuff - all is not well in the French bedroom, it emerges. A survey has revealed a sorry story of bad sex lives for three quarters of French couples, with one in three women and one in six men pleading that they had a headache. So much for the myth of the French lover, it seems but help is on the way, reports the BBC - erm - from a pharmaceutical company. Hmmmmm... Hat Tip to Mahal.

And with Hat Tip to jailhouselawyer, a heart warming story from Mississippi. A baby squirrel with the distinctly unsquirrel-like name of Rocky fell out of a tree, was placed with a litter of newborn kittens and was adopted by the mother cat. The squirrel adapted so well to his new family that he eventually learned how to purr. As one does...

The greatest sporting commentary ever...

Bear with me... You don't have to know a thing about cricket to find this hilarious. This is the late Brian Johnston trying to commentate on a cricket match. He loses the plot totally after a certain point.. He's gone... And on BBC Radio too!

Just enjoy.

Saturday musings...

It's a pleasant day in Brum and the Birmingham Back to Backs are having an open day round the corner. Not much summer left, though. The nights are drawing in already. There was a programme on the radio earlier about the Blitz, this being its 70th anniversary. The Blitz - and what people lived through - is worth commemorating. It's hard to put yourself in their place and imagine what our parents and grandparents went through. Things like this, for example.

The first photograph is of course St Paul's which survived more or less intact despite everything about it being devastated. The second photo is Hoiborn Circus. There's something agreeably surreal about the equestrian statue on the right raising his hat to the burning building. A lot of the programme was about the popular music of the time. Tony Benn was on the programme. He was 15 at the time of the Blitz and said his mother liked the song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. So do I for some odd reason. Here it is. Who else to perform it but Vera Lynn?

Backy the Bactrian Camel (who keeps an eye on the government to save the rabbit the bother) writes: some fellow with the improbable name of Jonathan Djanogly is somewhat in the poo. Djanogly is MP for Huntingdon (as was Cromwell but that's by the way) and something in the sinisterly named Ministry of Justice. It emerges that Djanogly hired a firm of private detectives to conduct an undercover investigation into his aides and colleagues. The subject matter of this investigation: what they thought of him. The answer? They think he is a complete arse. The cost to Djanogly of finding out that people think he is a complete arse: £5,000. Almost makes you sorry for him. Almost but not quite.

Above is Djanogly with his unfortunate wife Rebecca. Looks like a complete arse too.

It is interesting to note...

..that the infamous Andy Coulson Dear Deirdre strip mentioned in the previous posting is no longer available on the Samuel-Dean website. Has poor little Rupert got upset and thrown his toys out of the pram and in the general direction of Samuel-Dean? Well as a rabbit service, here it is again. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough, Rupe...

The bottom right frame is today's Fawkes caption competition. The strangest entry is by streamfisher and reads as follows:

Top bubble: You get off to sleep love while I amuse myself with this piece of roofing slate.
Bottom bubble: OMG!, not another DIY expert

The rabbit is still thinking about that one... Oh and this below quite amused me.