Itisi

It is now time for public voting in the American Midol poetry competition, so pop over to Attila the Mom’s, read the entries (including mine) and cast your vote.

Ben McKnight (of Dreamers, Liars and Tellers of Tall Tales) is this weeks reviewer, and his chosen subject is Friday Night Lights, a television series about a high school American football team. This is not a programme we have in the UK, but having read Ben’s review I can see why he is a tad peeved, and you can share his disappointment by going here.

If you would like to join the Gasbags and perform a valuable public service by alerting your fellow bloggers to books, films and tv programmes they really should avoid, then go here.

Following the extension of congestion charging in London, it appears there are a number of people who are unhappy with the idea of paying a charge every time they visit their local newsagent. If you are one of these people, worry not, there is no need to pay, help is at hand in the form of my amazing new discovery.

Now, you need to pay attention because this idea is radical and quite complex. What you do is this: go out of your house and turn to face the direction in which you wish to travel. Now, swing one foot forward and place it on the ground, then do the same with the other. Repeat this sequence until you arrive at your destination. I know, it’s a novel concept, but since I discovered it I use it all the time and have found it to be extremely effective over short distances.

Some elderly people have sneered at my discovery, saying it isn’t new at all. They say it is called walking and has been around for ages. They claim it was all the rage in the past. I think not. I mean, walking? Have you ever heard anything so stupid? They did the same when I announced my amazing outdoor laundry drying system, and then stole it for themselves. So, I plan to patent my new discovery, I shall call it ‘alternating perambulation’. I had better be quick though, because some of these elderly people have already started using it, they say they were doing so all along, but I know they saw me and are just copying. Some have even gone as far as transporting several bags of shopping using alternating perambulation – now that’s just showing off.

Before I go – Tina posted this request in the comments for my Enid Blyton post. Can anyone identify this book:

This is a long shot but I am going to try anyway. As a child I remember reading a story about a Goblin or a pixie who had to visit the King on his way he fell and grazed his knees to cover up the tear in his breeches he stuck to leaves on his knees,, I never knew what happened in the end as someone had torn the pages of the old book. Can someone help please I am 36 years old and still want to find out the ending!!!!!

Technorati Tags: congestion+charging

Things are a little different this week. Due a nasty case of Bloggerus Posteaterus the scheduled reviewer, Nightmare has been unable to post his review himself. The wonderful Attila the Mom came valiantly to the rescue, and posted it on her own blog. So, head over there now to discover why Nightmare’s enjoyment of Tin Cup is spoilt by a glaring error at the end (I know nothing about golf and even I can see what he means) then drop into Nightmare’s blog to let him know you sympathise with his nasty case of the above mentioned disorder.

If you would like to join the Gasbags and perform a valuable public service by alerting your fellow bloggers to books, films and tv programmes they really should avoid, then go here.

One more thing, and it’s a subject I never thought I would blog about – since when did Britney Spears become evil incarnate? When I got up this morning, I turned one of the television news channels on and vaguely caught something about her shaving her head. ‘Surely not, she’s such a pretty girl’ I thought, but I was still on my first cup of coffee, so it didn’t really go much further than that. Just now, out of curiosity (thinking, ‘did I really hear that’) I checked and it’s true, she has. Later, I logged into Technorati and discovered a boat-load of people slagging her off. In fact, not just slagging her off, but saying such things as ‘her children should be taken away’ and ‘I hope she dies’.

I admit, I’m not a fan of Britney, and I take little notice of anything she does, but, I gather that she has been through a pretty difficult time in the last two or three years, and adding it all up, it seems she is going through some kind of breakdown. One point in the whole story is very telling. Apparently, she told a tattooist “I don’t want anyone touching me. I’m tired of everyone touching me.” If I was a 25 year old woman who had been objectified, and profited from, for more than a third of my life, I think I might feel the same.

I’m guessing all her critics and haters are perfect, and have never made any mistakes so feel entitled to wish misery and death on another human being. I’m also guessing that a degree of the anti-Britney feeling arises from fans who believed the perfect image she was bestowed with and who feel somewhat aggrieved now they have discovered she is as flawed as every other person on the planet.

ps: If you are planning to leave a comment (please do, I love comments) don’t go down the ‘but what about the children route’. Women become good mothers through a combination of experience and encouragement. Harassment and criticism play no part in the process.

Technorati Tags: sunday+trumpet, gasbag+roundtable, britney+spears

Has anyone else noticed that for the last 24 hours many people have been searching the internet using Googe?