Media darrhhliinggs

Peaches Geldof – who should form a salad with Apple Martin when she grows up (both of them grow up) - has done a Max Gogarty, and written one of the worst blogs in the world. And there are 112 million out there so that’s saying something.

Marina Hyde wrote a withering and quite brilliant rant (in the best possible sense) on Friday attacking the piece that is better to read first, before reading the blog itself afterwards.

Among the many comments, many of which are signed off with 'funny' user names, is one from someone called 'A A Gill' (about 10-15 comments down) and it does read as if it’s by A A Gill, so perhaps it really as him, which is an interesting thing if so. Either way, the comment from this person is also a very savage and incisive cutting down of such a vacuous, hollow and needless piece of writing.

Working through lunch

The BBC's Working Lunch had a little bit on blogging yesterday (video), and even had on blogger Annie Mole from London-Underground blog, one of my Netvibes favourites, so maybe you want to watch it? Who knows.

On the buses

The poor old bendy bus has had it rough in recent months. Indeed Boris Johnson based a lot of his campaigning on his desire to rid the city of London of this lumbering beast.

Now it finds itself once again caught in the cross-fire of a debate it probably didn’t ask to be in – the existence, or not, of God. Just a small one then. It all stems from the fact the British Humanist Association (BHA)are to run a series of ads on the buses rejecting the idea of God and telling people,"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." Which is fair enough.

But, of course religion will argue back, and Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice said: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large.” Which is a great comparison: a bus whose merits are disputed and the unbelieving of a mythical sky creature who controls our lives and whose system of practice has caused millions of needless deaths and numerous wars throughout history.

He continued, “People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it." Which is less great seeing as Mr Green is a rather odious man who is fond of preaching and telling people what to do.

It's the bus I feel for.

Did I mention?

I went to Felix Dennis’ ‘Did I mention the free wine?’ tour on Friday night, in which publishing magnate, and all-round raconteur, Felix Dennis read a selection of poetry from his new book and some from his old ones, and lured people to the reading by offering free wine and canapés. Good wine too, no cheap plonk here.

It was an interesting evening and Dennis is certainly an entertaining host, with his poetry very much performance poetry as he accentuates voices, and hops about the stage when the subject riles him – mainly politics – but always sticking to his meters – a point on which his hatred of Ezra Pound was clear to all.

He even made a sly reference to the infamous ‘I killed a man’ interview (worth a read) but no more than that. Unsurprisingly with free wine on offer the crowd was utterly raucous, shouting, talking, answering back – in some way it was like being in a physics lesson when you’re 16, all the morons sniggering, ‘oh right sir, how’d you figure that then?’ then sitting back to take in their acclaim. Except here the people were in the mid 40s, the ones near me at least, and it was all a bit pathetic really.

All in all though, it was a very interesting evening, and nice to see such a charismatic figure from the world of publishing and magazines.

Overstatement?

Football always gets too much coverage, or at least, too much serious coverage, and this is surely one of the best over-the-top examples, comparing Rio Ferdinand to Abraham Lincoln:

"The shock of the new, wise Rio comes across best in his new, wise face. Gone is the air of a man in a perpetual struggle to remember his own pin number. In its place is a mask of piercingly elemental forensic intelligence. It's tempting to compare wise Rio with a young Abraham Lincoln. This doesn't go far enough. What we've got here is the old Abraham Lincoln: furrowed, long-suffering, a vision of parched and forbidding integrity."

Quite.

Iran makes huge ostrich sandwich

Even The Onion couldn't top this.

The fucking hypocrisy of it all

Quentin Letts' recent, hateful, piece in the Daily Mail 'The 50 people who wrecked Britain' - or ruined on the third day (why they changed it who knows) - took exception with Stephen Marks at number 11, the owner of French Connection UK, or FCUK.

Letts riles, 'One of the most miserable, shaming, dog-dirt-nasty things about Britain today is the coarseness of language in public...children were confronted by the letters and presumed it must be all right to be suggestive and brassy and foul-mouthed.

Is bad language not often a precursor of other forms of anti-social and violent behaviour? If we do not protest about bad language, what hope have we of stopping thuggery and vandalism?

Thank God King Cnut never thought of going into the rag trade.'

Letts choosing there to shoehorn in a particularly bad and incredibly ‘foul-mouthed' and 'suggestive' pun, even though this is the very behaviour he claims has created the 'dog-dirt-nasty' Britain.

But wait! There's more!

As Private Eye have noted, the book of this utterly pointlessly endeavor, is entitled '50 people who buggered up Britain'. What's wrong with wrecked? Or ruined? I thought Letts was against such things, after all Marks' FCUK logo meant 'children [...] presumed it must be all right to be suggestive and brassy and foul-mouthed.'

I only raise these points because, as Letts himself says, 'If we do not protest about bad language, what hope have we of stopping thuggery and vandalism?' Too right, you won't catch me using coarse language.

It gets worse

So turns out DFS were actually just following the trend. Yes I know writing "oh isn't Christmas early this year!" isn't exactly original, but this is ludicrious. It's still British Summer Time and will be for another 10 days. Oh well, Merry Christmas one and all!

Sail of the century

This is a classic.

It's here

October 12, 10.48pm, DFS Sofa advert, and a Christmas song. Definitely a record.

News stories

Following up on the story below - pursuit of wealth leds Polish priest to protest against frugal nature of parisheners. Never mind that there's a global credit crunch on.

But if this negativity is getting you down how about this story from my university city of Cardiff. Neighbours find love online. It's a cracking story, and the final line is just such a bad/good pun.

Pass the collection plate

The Pope has criticised the pursuit of wealth, again. As you can see from the picture on the BBC site, added here, he still likes carrying round that big gold cross, and wearing a rather ornate hat and all those robes, and living in the Vatican City. Ah, such piety.

Next they'll be criticising short-selling before admitting they use it in their accumulation of wealth, or pursuit of wealth, if you will.

Oh, wait, what?

Art underground

Poems on the Underground is a great idea but I've often felt the poems chosen were a bit random and too often don't have any connection with London, or travelling, or things relating to the context in which they are placed.

This one though that I saw last night on't Northern Line is fantastic.