The latest political scandal uncovered on BBC Radio 2 news this morning was a Conservative MP being “late to declare hospitality from McDonald’s”. Imagine an Italian person hearing that report and trying to make any kind of sense of it at all.
Read MoreAnother storm, another surrealist beach installation: Ferry sheds thousands of biscuits Thousands of packets of chocolate biscuits have washed up on the Lancashire shore from a stricken ferry. The McVitie’s biscuits were being carried on lorries aboard the Riverdance, which ran aground off north shore near Blackpool on Thursday night.
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I pointed out that statistics disprove the media myth of an excess of unmarried thirtysomething females, complained about the parallel emotional indoctrination of women by commercial interests, warned of the uselessness of online dating services, and described a good evening out I’d had instead […]
Read MoreIslam isn’t a race. Martin Amis isn’t a racist. This video is fun: [via The Ambrosini Critique]
Read MoreA couple of days ago, I was driving along the front at Worthing and saw for the first time the amazing spectacle of the drifts of wooden planks washed up in the recent shipwreck. This was days into the operation to clear the spill and long after sunset, yet the timber loomed unignorably two storeys […]
Read MoreMick Hartley links to a Times report of a “serious” novelist suing the proprietors of a neighbouring factory because the fumes it produced so affected her concentration that she was reduced to writing genre fiction. It’s not just a funny hook for a news story; it’s a delicious illustration of how class and status in […]
Read More…did they? [via The Motley Fool]
Read MoreOne of the reasons I’ve been quiet these past few days is that I’ve been working on a new Website for the journal Index on Censorship which went live over the weekend. The purpose of this post is to send some of my Google karma to their new URL: “indexoncensorship.org“. If you believe in free […]
Read MoreWhile I’m recommending films, I notice that The Amateurs [aka The Moguls] is being advertised on the Apple trailer site as on theatrical release in the States. This is odd because I’ve already seen it cheaply in the UK via Amazon’s DVDs-by-post service. Perhaps it went straight to video here because it had stinking reviews. […]
Read MoreOne of the things that came up over Christmas was, as usual, my continuing unmarried status as the big four-oh looms. Three different members of the family interrogated me about my non-existent love life. Yesterday, I was offered an opportunity to do something about this as I was invited to a singles event: a Website […]
Read MoreOn Christmas Day, I posted a quick snap of my niece and nephew taken with my new freebie digital camera. I’ve just got some scans of developed film back from the lab so I can share a few steam-powered Christmas photos with you. Here’s Sam playing with one of his new remote-controlled dinosaurs: Sam and […]
Read MoreApparently there exists an entity known as “Kate Lawler”, who won Big Brother and has since become a club DJ. For an organism in the contemporary UK celebrity ecosystem, the next three stages of development are as follows: [Big Brother winner → club DJ →] chick lit writer → Conservative MP → Alien Queen
Read MoreFor safety’s sake I usually stay in on New Year’s Eve. It makes no difference. There was the year when a drunk phoned me up in my bedsit in Oxford to accuse me of being in bed with his wife; I was on the bed alone with my guitar. There was New Year’s Eve 1999 […]
Read MoreThank you to Beardsleys and Counsells for their hospitality and generosity. Oop North, they know how to enjoy themselves, but local children don’t have it as good as my niece and nephew: fattist oppression in action
Read MoreSeason’s greetings from Maisie, Sam and me. Maisie and Sam say cheese
Read MoreWHSmith, home of the Tragic Life Story, brings us a Great Gift Idea for Christmas: Madeleine: A most heartbreaking and extraordinary disappearance
Read MoreRight now I am doing chores of such hellish tediosity that I am beginning to wonder if time has folded in on itself. That could be one reason why taking a break to watch this YouTube clip was so enjoyable. If you recognize all the Internet memes it references then you’ve spent too much of […]
Read MoreI was so uncool at university that I only made it to the periphery of a gang of sad scientists. One full member of the group could play immaculate air drums. I think he might have owned a small drum kit at some point, but he wasn’t a drummer. He’d sit on a chair in […]
Read MoreAlan Tracy off Thunderbirds Rhydian Roberts off X-Factor
Read MoreLately, my blogging here has been irregular and I’ve had less and less to say. I think it’s time for me to take a longer break from PooterGeek. I might be gone for a month; I might be gone for a year. I’ll probably be back eventually. say no to imitations[click image to enlarge it] […]
Read MoreThe beardy-weirdy teacher in this Metacafe video is probably a cinder now, having expired when his garage exploded during his attempt to stage a one-fiftieth-scale re-enactment of the Hindenburg disaster, but I do recommend that you visit the film on the end of that link. It has to have been one of his finest moments, […]
Read MoreIronically, I was in José Mourinho’s country of birth when Aston Villa beat Chelsea 2–0 so I didn’t write another one of these. Looks like it helped push “the Special One” over the edge: The BBC understands the impasse between Mourinho and [Chelsea FC owner Roman] Abramovich came to a head after their 2–0 defeat […]
Read MoreI’ve taken my time getting around to this because the original email I was sent read like “benign spam” (which, in a way, it was) so it went to the bottom of my in-tray. [Sorry, Paul.] The legendary Paul Wixon is promoting a Japanese band called “Sollers” with a view to getting them some gigs […]
Read MoreFIRST ANTIQUE DEALER: Do you have a double-U-double-U-double-U number? SECOND ANTIQUE DEALER: ? FIRST ANTIQUE DEALER: An, er, Internet address?
Read MoreThis video not only contains a collection of excellent car-buying advice (which is almost as useful in the UK as in the USA), but a fine lesson in how to use presentation software to support a talk and in how to give a talk that’s no longer than it needs to be.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid, my two favourite comic book superheroes were The Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man. That’s the subsequent interests in biology and physics/engineering right there—not to mention their alter egos being a photographer and an anti-communist industrialist respectively. (In my own case, I was transformed into The Geek on a school trip to a power station, […]
Read More“Meysterr McClaren, you hyev harrdly touched your sushi.”
Read MoreFollowing the success of the last one—current Messiah: Christopher Hitchens—and because I am again busy, it’s time for another poll. As an experiment, I will allow you lot to add extra answers to the choices available: Which of the following is most likely to make you switch off Radio 4? the sound of John Humphrys’ […]
Read MoreAs I admitted yesterday, I’ve taken part in Talk Toshiba‘s blogger outreach programme. I thoroughly approve of this sort of thing. Not only does it make bloggers feel even more important than we already think we are, but it allows us to play with shiny things for free. (It’s also a boon to those with […]
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