Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Offbeat’ Category

A posting I wrote on June 2nd about the government planning White Paper has now made it, two months later, to the top slot on the “Latest news” section of Loft Shop. It’s given me one hit so far!

You couldn’t make it up!

It was a delight to see a double bill of top Irish stand-ups at the Newbury Comedy Festival last night. First of all, one of my favourite comedians, Ed Byrne was hilarious. Then we were gloriously entertained by Ardal O’Hanlon.

The latter told the story of when his fictional character from Father Ted, Father Dougal Maguire, was 1000-1 with Paddy Power to be the next Pope after Pope John Paul II passed away.

Although Paddy Power probably saw the joke of this, the humorous nature of this punt did not seem to be picked up by the Washington Post, who reported the fact in all solemnity without apparently realising the fictional nature of Father Dougal Maguire:

…gamblers around the world can log onto paddypower.com, click on the Novelties section and put their money on Dionigi Tettamanzi, who is rating 11 to 4 odds in the race for the papacy. Or they can take their chances on Father Dougal Maguire of Craggy Island, Ireland, a long shot at 1,000 to 1.

Ardal mentioned that the Washington Post still survives on the internet, so of course this was a natch for me to look up on my return from Newbury’s Corn Exchange.

Millennium Dome in The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant, refers to the Conservatives as the “Conservatories”. So when I saw a link on LibDem blogs aggregated for “Conservatories in Ealing” I went to click on it assuming that I would read Fluffy Elephant’s latest comments on the antics of the Tories at the by-election.

However, it turned out to be a link to information about….well….erm….Conservatories in Ealing actually. Is there perhaps some fuzzy logic in Yell’s advertising software which picks up on themes and turns them into an appropriate link? It certainly seems very clever!

After coming up with “triplet” Trivial Pursuit questions about celebrities who wrote famous advertising slogans and ones who were jailed, I have another one on the go:

Name three Bishops’ children who are famous in the pop music business

So far I have come up with two:

Radio One DJ Tim Westwood is the son of the former Bishop of Peterborough.

Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon is the son of the former Bishop of Clogher. (The “ecclesiastical connections do not end there – Divine Comedy performed the theme tune for Channel Four’s Father Ted).

I am desperate for a third….sadly there probably isn’t one.

Balderdash and Piffle, BBC2′s word origins programme is going from strength to strength.

It never ceases to amaze me how we use phrases without even thinking for a second what they mean or how they originate.

Last night’s edition about people’s names, which have become well-used terms, was fascinating.

Gordon Bennett. He was a famous media magnate, sportsman, and playboy in the early 1900s.

Bloody Mary. Although this is usually thought to be named after Queen Mary I, there is a school of thought that it was named after a girl at the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago, where Fernand Petiot, the inventer of the cocktail had once worked.

Take the mickey. Thought to be connected to Mickey Bliss, whoever he was.

The programme didn’t feature Sam Hill….as in “What the Sam Hill is going on?” (A particular favourite of mine, by the way). The expression is thought to be connected to Colonel Samuel Hill of Connecticutt. It’s not clear why.

I think Scott Mills and Prince Charles should be put in touch with each other.

Prince Charles has just appointed an official harpist.

Scott Mills is looking for a harpist.

Job done! …or…..should that be: Love you!