What could Materazzi have said to cause Zidane to react like that? It must have been a terrible insult to a French man. Something ancient and appalling. It could only have been one thing: “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries“.
So, world cup chart complete, life returning to normal for another four years.
Adam & Joe fans: subscribe immediately to Adam Buxton’s blog and compulsively download everything. Also don’t forget the Adam & Joe XFM podcast and the DVD.
A few weeks back we attempted to cycle a chunk of the South Downs Way, managing to do the 16-ish miles from our house to Falmer—which was a continuation for Jane and Jeremy of the route they started 3 years ago. You’d think once you got up onto the Downs it’s be relatively flat. But no…and to show it, here’s the elevation for the route we cycled:
Some of those climbs are impossible on a bike (well, for me). We need more practice on easier routes.
Which reminds me…back in September we were cycling an easier route along a different part of the downs and came across this vandalized structure along a small track:
It reads: “John Harvey ESQ.
of Ickwell Bury in the Country of Bedford
died suddenly on this spot
on the 20th Day of June 1819.
This plaque commemorates
the restoration of
Harvey’s cross on the 20 June 1999
made possible through funding
by the Harvey family to
perpetuate John Harvey’s memory
and preserve the something
of downland.”
Makes you wonder who the person was, especially given that Ickwell isn’t exactly close to Brighton (and the first rail line into Brighton wasn’t running until 1841). But unbelievably in this day and age, there’s very little information on the internet about it. Why commemorate the place where he died, far from home? Was he known to the area or a frequent visitor? Something as recent as the restoration in 1999 is not a simple google away, which is absurd.
Freakily, someone else was on the same spot one week before us and were equally baffled.
My first thoughts were that it’d be something to do with the local Harveys brewery, but I’m not sure that’s the case. I had to use a search engine other than google (gasp!) to find out anything. What I did find was some family tree information: “Mr Harvey was a deputy-lieut. for Bedfordshire, and served as its high-sheriff in 1795. At the period of the French Revolution he raised and supported, chiefly at his own expense, a troop of volunteers, called the Dismounted Bedfor[d]shire Horse Artillery.” Hmm…Just makes it more intriguing.
The cause of death is given as a fall from his horse, and his will is online.
My bank knows my email address and mobile phone number. It can send me emails, and it can text me — in fact it does both already. So when I go to a cash machine (ATM), why am I offered a printed receipt? Why not just SMS or email me the receipt? There’s no a security issue, because I’ve seen people leave those receipts in the machine or on the floor near the cash point.
If I’m going to be emailed a cash withdrawn receipt, why not attach something to the email I can drag and drop into my financial software. And if the banks could do it, why not the credit card companies for every transaction I make.
Not only would this be useful, we’d also save the 10 kerjillion megakilos of paper used every year by receipt printers.
You can’t expect to win against rock orcs, but I’d thought the German entry would do better than it did at Eurovision. There’s something exceptional about a German country music act. They got my vote.
I mainly read Private Eye for the cartoons, but the classified ads are a hotbed of creativity:
If you’re following The Happiness Formula on BBC 2 (Wednesdays, 7pm) you might be interested in the above book. The book covers what I’ve seen so far in the TV show, only in more detail.
Oh, the book write ups I do from time to time, are now available as an RSS feed.
If you’re having a party and wondering how much soft drink to get in, here’s a graph summarizing the proportions of consumption we saw at our little do the other day. It’s more-or-less in-line with the
moderately interesting Britvic soft drink report 2006 (PDF, which contains wonderful phrases such as: “Consumption occasions are the key to understanding and targeting consumers, to ultimately unlock category expansion”).
I think we could have shifted more volume of the J2O, and we definitely over-budgeted on lemonade-based drinks. Mineral water was popular.
Of course more beer was glugged than all soft drinks combined.
Last month we went to see Terry Garoghan‘s Brighton The Musical. I saw him perform Worthing, to the tune of Wild Thing, at the Crocodile Comedy club in the early 90s I suppose, but I didn’t realize it had grown it into a full-blown musical. Too many great songs to pick a favourite. I’d call the whole thing quite silly and wonderful, but others say it is “proper unpretentious, working-class humour at its best“. I should go and buy the CDs (which will make no sense to anyone who doesn’t know Brighton fairly well).
Thank you, who ever you are, the person who found our walkie-talkie on the mountain at Brekenridge and took it in to lost property. I’m sending good karma to you…..now.