…to the person who came here searching for “Emmerdale Farm audio samples”, and I’m sorry I didn’t have what you were looking for.
Fireworks
The best thing about November 5th, though (and there were a few good things about it this year), is that once it’s over, the next thing to happen is Cliffmas!
Celebrity autobiographies
Whenever I’m in a proper bookshop, which is almost never, I like to have a look at the latest bestsellers in the biography section, because of all the genres they have the best titles. To prove the point, here is a sample. First off, the straightforward plays on words:
- My Word is My Bond, by Roger Moore
- Clips from a Life, by Dennis Norden
- Stallone: A Rocky Life, by Frank Sanello
And the winner in this category, Between the Lines: My Story Uncut, by Jason Donovan
In a related category, we have food puns: Humble Pie, by Gordon Ramsay and Spilling the Beans, by Clarissa Dickson-Wright.
Then there are the titles which sound like plays on words, but which aren’t, quite:
- Soul on the Street by William Roache
- Just Biggins, by Christopher Biggins
The winner in this category, unless you can tell me where the play on words comes in, is One Flew Into The Cuckoo’s Egg, by Bill Oddie (perhaps that’s all you need to know).
And finally, the puns which make you wonder whether they started out as a joke which got out of hand:
- A Young Man’s Passage, by Julian Clary
- Cider With Roadies, by Stuart Maconie
The winner in this category as well as the overall winner is Peter Grant: The Man Who “Led Zeppelin”, by one Chris Welch. Congratulations, Chris.
(Phew)
I can’t find the full thing on YouTube, so here’s the BBC video of Obama’s acceptance speech. He’s really an extraordinary orator, and I look forward to more speeches, for the poetry as much as for the content. If you don’t want to watch the full 17 minutes – though it’s worth it – then skip forward and start watching at 13:05.
US election day
People keep telling me Obama will win it by a mile, but I can’t help worrying that it will all go wrong at the last minute.
Still, the man himself looks cheerful enough:
(Image via Wikipedia)
Theme tunes
I’m trying to think of as many TV shows as I can whose name can be sung along with the theme tune. So far I’ve got these:
The Sweeney
This Is Your Life
Emmerdale Farm (it only works if you include the “Farm”, and even then you have to fill it in with scat singing: Emmerdale Farm, do be do be Emmerdale Farm…)
You’ve Been Framed
There must be more, right?
Good grief
Heavens, quite literally, above.
Even the graphic makes me a bit dizzy.
Muji
Why has nobody told me about Muji? I went into House of Fraser at lunchtime looking for a tiny mirror to affix to my monitor at work so I can tell when somebody’s sneaking up behind me, and was directed to the Muji concession on the second floor. I’d never been into a Muji before so was unprepared for finding myself coveting every single item in there. It’s not that the things they sell are particularly remarkable (apart from one, which I can’t mention because I bought it for my sister and she might read this), but that all of them – cotton buds, bottle openers, oven gloves – are designed with a stunning eye for style and simplicity. I wanted one of everything, but I restricted myself to the mirror, the present and a glass which looked nearly the same as the one I broke washing up last week. But when I win the lottery I am going straight back to Muji and furnishing my house from it. Or even before I win the lottery, since it’s not very expensive at all. The mirror was £1.75. But I am taking account of the current financial situation and forcing myself not to make unnecessary purchases. Although I might have to go back there the next time I need a toothbrush: their toothbrushes are so beautiful they make me want to cry:
Good gods
I picked up Gods Behaving Badly at the weekend, in a haul which also included various complicated and improving books which I meant to start with. But I needed something to read in bed a couple of nights ago and GBB somehow made its way to the top of the pile. I didn’t love it to begin with. I thought it was – and really, this is something I should have been able to guess in advance – silly. But the further I get through it, the more I like it. It is silly, but it’s also charming and clever, and it has a proper story, which at first I thought it mightn’t. I can tell I’m gripped because I am sneaking little bits of reading time where I normally wouldn’t bother.
Don’t read any further if you consider that any information about the contents of a book constitutes a spoiler, but I am especially enchanted by the entrance to the underworld, which is reached via Angel tube station: you take the escalator all the way down and then keep going. What fun to take somewhere that’s well-known in real life and turn it into a fictional place that belongs to only you.
Glad All Over 