April 2014 · DISCUSS. · Lists · The Six O'Clock News

The Six O’Clock News: Opinion Poll-ish

The news I was planning on doing doesn’t exist, unless Google’s eaten it (someone wrote to JK Rowling saying she wasn’t letting authors get published by publishing so many books?) so this was going to be a cop out until I remembered that slow news days happen in actual newsrooms too!

Do you guys remember when Harry was eavesdropping on the news in The Order of the Phoenix and there was an article about a waterskiing budgie?

Well, I want to know the most absurd news broadcast you’ve ever heard, discounting an April’s Fool. My current favourite is the author-yelling-at-Rowling one, if it’s real…but I also endorse anything that makes Have I Got News for You; the other week there was a mention of a cash machine placed about fifteen inches from the ground. Perfect for Richard Osman jokes, but it begs two questions:

  • Is something like that actually worth reporting on when there are things like human rights abuses occurring daily with relatively little media attention on them?
  • What, if you had the power, would you consider and broadcast as news?
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Government and Politics · Internet · The Ten O'Clock News · THE WORLD *head in hands* · Videos

The Ten O’Clock News: Smart Videos

I got distracted by writing and re-writing CVs (well just one: mine) and I meant to write about Really Intelligent Stuff. But, er, here are some Have I Got News for You clips instead. A glimpse into one of my favourite cynicism sources, shall we say…

August 2013 · Complaints · Holidays · Internet · Zakynthos

So Apparently ‘Kit Kat’ Isn’t One Word

I’m not sure if the stomach ache I have has been induced by the Kit Kat that was put in my milkshake earlier (who even puts a Kit Kat in a milkshake? You put in chocolate when someone orders a chocolate shake, and a Kit Kat if they order a Kit Kat shake) or if it’s because my recent email neglect has left me with forty-two messages to read, reply to and/or discard before I go on holiday this Friday.

I’m going to type really fast in case it’s the Kit Kat, because if it is then I need to cosy up to my bathroom, and if it’s the email thing then I also need to type really fast because my laptop is so overloaded with stuff that it can only stay on for a maximum of an hour and a half before something stops working. Over the past few weeks and months this has become an increasing problem so I’m going to ask for an external hard-drive for my birthday and stick everything on that. I’ve already used up two or three USBs siphoning off pictures and files that aren’t completely necessary to my computering existence, and I might delete Spotify because let’s face it, I can’t afford to stream its music any more than I can afford to buy the CDs I’m streaming – and God knows if I could then I wouldn’t be using a streaming service with a name that sounds like a ladies’ toiletry product.

Shh, little laptop. I know you have three userspaces and USBs full of extra gadgets because I have to type on a proper keyboard, and I know I’ve lost your left shift button but we’ve been through a lot together and damnit, I’m not upgrading you yet.

Anyway, I’m going on holiday on Friday, to the land of democracy and theatre, the Olympics and civilisation, kebabs and lesbians… Okay so I nicked the last bit out of an Have I Got News for You‘d piece on a Sun piece on “what the Greeks have done for us”, first published circa the recession. But I’m off to remember what it is to relax. Except my AS Level results come out while we’re there so I’ll be alternating sunbathing with nightmares about how I won’t ever finish my Politics or RS courses. (English is a done deal, as far as failure’s concerned, but even I couldn’t wrangle a career in writing with Language and Lit GCSEs, so if I can stick with it, I probably should. Then it’ll be just one more year until freedom monetary responsibility, the word’s shakiest career choice bar rock musicianship and the very real possibility of working in retail for the rest of my days.)

My stomach hurts again.

April 2103 · Magazines · Tim Minchin · Videos

Political/Musical Reflections

I’ve been trying to work out how to wax poetic on Margaret Thatcher without doing a cheap impersonation of the rest of the British media, so instead I’d like to encourage you to buy this fortnight’s edition of Private Eye. It’s a magazine which is definitely not like the rest of the British media – it’s funny, for one thing, and reports news for another. It’s also edited by Have I Got News for You‘s Ian Hislop (whose wife Victoria, incidentally, writes excellent novels) so if you’ve ever watched that show and laughed, you should be reading Private Eye regularly.

Just noticed that ‘Tim Minchin’ is a category on here. Kind of curious as to what Mrs Thatcher would have thought of this, assuming she was never a Tim fan: