大象传媒

Funny Old Town

• Kate Feld
• 16 Mar 07, 04:02 PM

Sure, Manchester is a funny place in a lot of ways, but it鈥檚 also just funny; Everyone鈥檚 a comedian, and that famous Mancunian wit shines through nowhere better than online. So it should come as no surprise then that a group of Manchester Bloggers including and are contributing to a book showcasing the funniest writing from the British Blogosphere to raise money for comic relief.

'Shaggy Blog Stories- a collection of amusing tales from the UK Blogosphere' is out now. Jonathan from Crinklybee describes it thusly:
鈥淥ne hundred and one bite-sized treats from the cream of the blogosphere, including, in at number 34, one from these very pages. Which one? Well you will just have to buy the book to find out, won't you.鈥�

MB of has a different view, however. In a post titled, 鈥淒o Not Buy This Book,鈥� he writes -

鈥淚 know what you鈥檙e thinking 鈥淭his is just jealousy and bitterness because you鈥檙e not in the book鈥�. And you鈥檇 be right. I am upset and I am bitter. I am bitterer than the Manchester City supporting Berite Magoo the Bitter Blue. I am bitterer than 85% dark chocolate. I am bitterer than freshly squeezed lemon juice.鈥�

Hmm鈥� okay, that鈥檚 pretty funny. So how come he鈥檚 not in the book?

In other news, blogger is unhappy about plans to demolish the Art Deco-ish Odeon building on Oxford Street and replace it with a steel-and-glass office building. (newsblogger Aidan O'Rourke has also published a piece about it on his Eye on Manchester site, written by Michael Savage. It's .)

For Matt, this plan would be one steel-and-glass office building too far, as he wrote last month:

鈥漃ersonally, I'd love this building to remain. One of the things that Manchester is known for is it's wonderful architecture; and whilst there's currently a good mix of older and more modern styles - the bias is probably swinging a bit too far to the more modern style than the public care for. And what's more, it all seems a lame attempt to compete with London.鈥�

Sadly for Matt and other fans of the building who mounted a last-minute campaign to save it, the council officially approved the demolition plan this week.

Over in the suburbs, Mathematical blogger Craig Laughton of departed from his usual tales of academic life to do a spot of restaurant reviewing:

鈥淎nnie and I went to Yakisoba in Chorlton with some friends on Friday. It's a restaurant doing authentic-ish Japanese bento box meals. You get soup, pickles, prawn crackers, some fresh fruit and nuts in the box, and it comes with a choice of "main" and rice/noodles. The menu for the main dish is huge, in the end I narrowed my choices down to 17 and just plumped for garlic king prawns, but almost everything sounded great. Unusually large and varied selection for veggies too, and with a flask of hot sake to share it came to a tenner each! Amazing! No sushi, alas, but the food was delicious and we all had a great evening there.鈥�

Sounds yummy.