大象传媒

December the 6th

Comments

1. At 10:47 AM on 06 Dec 2006, Essex Bound wrote:

   Eddie, sorry for misspelling your name in my Window On Your World email.

   SB1? Not very likely...

2. At 11:05 AM on 06 Dec 2006, Susan Orty-Boyden wrote:

   Eddie,

   That's a lovely picture of Nadia. Is she gift-wrapping I wonder?

   My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills - like having babies - that come more naturally to women than to men. The girls will understand.

   That is why today I am presenting gift-wrapping tips for men

   * Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognises it, you can claim that it's myrrh?

   * The editors of a Woman's magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food colouring and liquid starch. I think they've had way to many Eggnogs!

   * If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper!

   Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning.

   The wife: "Why is there a Hefty paper bag under the tree?"
   You: "It's a gift! See? It has a bow!"

   In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it.

   The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.
   

3. At 11:22 AM on 06 Dec 2006, Stewart M wrote:

   Thanks for the tips susan (1). I can Wrap!! I am male! (or was when I last looked). So there! Should we Wrap. The kids woul dbe disappointed If we didnt. But its a hugh waste of resources!!. My paper recyling bin will be full on Boxing day! Making sure of course that I don't put in the glossy paper or anthing that's sticky etc etc or card or whatever other restrictions there are. Must re read the lable on the bin lid.

   Bah Humbug.

4. At 11:29 AM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

   I'm glad to see Miss Eweida has given up on wearing her cross.

5. At 11:38 AM on 06 Dec 2006, valery p wrote:

   Susan O-B, well said! and thanks for the first laugh of the morning.
   I rather suspect that Nadia's doing the opposite of gift-wrapping though?

6. At 11:42 AM on 06 Dec 2006, Gloria N. X. Chelsiss wrote:

   Cynical Susan (1)

   I see you are a disciple of St. Tom Lehrer whose Christmas credo contains:

   Relations, sparing no expense, 'll
   Send some useless old utensil,
   Or a matching pen and pencil.
   ("Just the thing I need, how nice!")

7. At 11:47 AM on 06 Dec 2006, silver-fox wrote:

   6th of December 1877,

   The world's first recording of the human voice is heard when the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison, recites 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' and plays it back.

8. At 12:09 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Phil Dawson wrote:

   Thanks for showing the picture of Nadia she will be thrilled.

   She does have a rival blog;
   - is it just me, or is there an uncanny resemblance between her days and those of the PM crew?

9. At 12:14 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Mark Intime wrote:

   Susan, I'll pass on those tips to my wife who gets me to wrap the politically correct festive presents each year.

10. At 12:30 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Dr Hackenbush wrote:

    Thanks for this picture.

    In other news, what are the creatures that can dislocate their jaws in order to ingest their prey? Someone is bound to jump in with my punchline if I don鈥檛 add it right away - I鈥檓 not talking about Chancellors of the Exchequer....

11. At 12:37 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Member of the Public wrote:

    Good afternoon Eddie,

    Those who regard Tony Blair's reign as the wasted years only have to look at the Prime Minister's recent keynote speech on education for evidence.
    This was the Labour leader at his emollient best as he outlined his vision for a schools system that can teach both "life skills" while also raising academic attainment.
    Few will dispute this sentiment. But, by actually making the speech now, in the twilight of his premiership, Mr Blair was effectively admitting that his government has actually under-achieved 10 years after he famously promised that education would be his number one priority.
    Mr Blair has, of course, presided over massive improvements in school facilities. It would be churlish to disregard this, even though some classrooms are still outdated and 500,000 primary school pupils are taught in classes of more than 30 which New Labour promised to eradicate.
    Yet, it was the Prime Minister's remarks about sixth-form students that were, perhaps, most pertinent to his years in office 鈥� and the fact that those in state schools will have a chance to study for the more demanding, and more wide-ranging, International Baccalaureate from 2010 instead of the traditional A-level syllabus.
    It was clearly Mr Blair's intention to appease those business and university leaders who believe that Labour has presided over a "dumbing down" of educational standards, in spite of the record exam results that are now routinely achieved.
    However, given that such concerns have existed for many years, the Prime Minister effectively admitted that he should have acted sooner, not least when the Tomlinson report first advocated such changes two years ago.
    Indeed, Mr Blair's prevarication is reflected by his second keynote announcement; namely, a massive expansion of his controversial city academy programme to help raise standards in inner-city schools.
    Yet, given that the Prime Minister again highlighted this area when he made his famous three-word promise on education, this again raises the issue why it has taken his government so long to act.
    It is a question that Mr Blair will no doubt be asking himself when he studies the porous nature of his domestic legacy, especially on the fabled subject of education.
    

12. At 01:15 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    A word to the wise,

    If you choose to burn your wrapping paper in the fireplace, don't do it on Christmas Day, after the fire has been burning brightly since early and the chimney is well heated unless you want to test the local fire brigade's response time.

    Alternatively have to hand a means of completely blocking off the front of the fireplace (I used a large sheet of cardboard, and it worked)

    from the wise after the fact ;-(

    
    ed

13. At 01:24 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Member of the Public wrote:

    Ian: currently at (4)?

    One question kept troubling me as I read of British Airways鈥� baffling decision to persecute a Christian worker because she wore a tiny cross to work 鈥� and that was simply why?

    The company presumably has some highly paid executives who can recognise a bit of common sense when they see it, and BA has spent billions trying to convince travellers that it is the 鈥渨orld鈥檚 favourite airline鈥� 鈥� so why risk its entire reputation for the sake of a Christian symbol no bigger than a five pence piece?

    Also Nadia Eweida, the woman at the centre of the storm, has worn her cross for seven years without a single complaint from either customers or BA management.

    Why in heaven鈥檚 name pick on her now?

    It puzzled me until, amongst the acres of damaging news stories for BA, I spotted what I think is the answer. Shortly before the row erupted Miss Eweida had been required to attend a session of 鈥渄iversity training鈥�.

    If you鈥檝e escaped the attentions of the 鈥渄iversity Gestapo鈥� so far, you should consider yourself incredibly lucky.

    Don鈥檛 be fooled by the patronising smile, nor the lip service paid to tolerance and acceptance 鈥� the gauleiters of the diversity movement are among the most vindictive and least tolerant people you could ever meet in the workplace.

    If you refuse to march in lockstep with their multi-cultural dogma - which decrees you must respect every other culture but revile your own - they will persecute you without pity.

    And that is precisely what happened when Miss Eweida politely suggested, after a diversity training session on bullying, that sometimes Christians were discriminated against too.

    How dare she! Her card was well and truly marked. On return to her duties her manager warned her 鈥渨e鈥檙e watching you鈥�. Within days she was suspended without pay and BA spectacularly pushed the self destruct button.

    In fact Miss Eweida probably knows more about discrimination than all BA鈥檚 diversity bullies put together. She may appear the archetypical Englishwoman, but her background is far more exotic 鈥� she is half Egyptian and a fluent Arabic speaker.

    As such she is no doubt aware that throughout the Muslim world Christians routinely face persecution and violence for simply following their faith.

    In Egypt a seething mob is seemingly constantly on hand to attack Christians over whatever imagined grievance is enraging the Muslim world this week.

    In Saudi Arabia, which has the cheek to lecture the West about tolerance of Muslim extremists, you can be thrown in jail for possessing a bible or praying in your own home.

    In the West Bank entire Christian villages have been forcibly depopulated by Muslim pogroms 鈥� without a peep of protest from so-called Palestinian supporters in the West.

    BA could do no better than disband its diversity department and instead ask Miss Eweida to deliver a few lectures on the true nature of tolerance.

    In fact why not sack every diversity trainer in the land 鈥� nothing would contribute more to workplace harmony and mutual understanding.
    

14. At 01:36 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    Finger on the pulse there Ian (4) not something I have heard yet? I think we are not in agreement, but hopefully we can disagree cordially, in the manner of others on this blog.

    We are a Christian country, regardless of our secularity; church and state are inextricably linked. Until/unless that alters, I would uphold the right of anyone to wear a cross, I would also maintain that a sign of faith something somebody wears, rather than a piece of jewellery.

    Freedom is, of course, limited even in a free society, but we do have freedoms which include freedom from religious persecution. Thus, anyone should be free to express their faith, whether it be with a cross or a veil. BA was looking at changing its regulations; I rather wish they had. I also rather suspect that suspicion of anti-Semitism would greet demands for the removal of a Star of David.

15. At 02:10 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Dr Hackenbush wrote:

    I have arrived with a message for Big Sister:

    The Radio 4 episodes of Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel that are (or were) available from the audio collection - and which I have, therefore - are as follows. This comprises the whole of the first season, but there were two more. See the link for more details. Do you have any of the others?

    The Stolen Rembrant
    The Theatre Company = Flywheel And Juliet
    Big Joe Crookley
    Foo Foo = Finding Foo Foo
    The Prize Fighter = One Round Gombatz
    The Election

16. At 02:28 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    Froggers,

    This must be today's 'serious' thread, so I have an idea how we can get our troops out of Iraq. It's simple, really, just privatise the enterprise.

    There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the US military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.

    
    ed
    

17. At 03:30 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Anne P. wrote:

    Stewart M. (3) I'm trying a new idea for wrapping this year since I discovered that my local council's recycling does not accept any gift wrapping paper for recycling. Everything will be wrapped in unbleached muslin tied with ribbon. Then my children will have to wash and reuse the muslin for something worthy. They're going to love me!

18. At 03:41 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Gloria N. X. Chelsiss wrote:

    (7)

    silver-fox wrote: 6th of December 1877,

    Wow, silver-fox. Posts are slow today but I think you hold the record.

19. At 04:08 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Aperitif wrote:

    Hello Rufus, that you ? (6, 9)...

    Silver-Fox, interesting info, thanks.

20. At 04:19 PM on 06 Dec 2006, silver-fox wrote:

    Testing, testing.

21. At 04:28 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    Last night the programme spent some time on an interesting item concerning the use of foetal cells as a possible cure for stroke patients. You reported the Company involved was Guildford based and that they were applying to the USA FDA for permission to run a trial on humans.

    The obvious question which you annoyingly made no reference to is why were they wishing to run the clinical trial in America rather than Britain?

22. At 04:31 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Mark Intime wrote:

    Anne (10) If you have any muslin left over, it's great for jam making. Anyone fancy a pot of muslin jam I made this year?

23. At 04:39 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Joe Palooka wrote:

    Mary had a little Lamb,
    She tied it to a pylon.
    10,000 volts went up it's arse,
    and turned it's wool to nylon.

24. At 05:10 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    Joe (15), that's really offensive.

    Not one but TWO unnecessary apostrophes!!!!

    (That was meant as a joke. Now you can see why I mostly recycle other people's.....)

25. At 05:11 PM on 06 Dec 2006, wrote:

    A solution to the problem of Iraq!

    Privatise the entire effort!
    

    
    There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the US military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.

    
    ed

26. At 05:31 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Rufus A Bairzarce wrote:

    Joe Palooka (16)

    Did that happen at 5 o'clock yesterday?
    If so, where's the photo?
    

27. At 05:38 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Rufus A Bairzarce wrote:

    Aperitif (14ish)

    I cannot tell a lie:
    I am not Mark Intime.

    Lots of kisses on the bottom.

    x x x x
    

28. At 12:07 AM on 07 Dec 2006, Dr Hackenbush wrote:

    (26) Excuse me?

29. At 01:19 AM on 07 Dec 2006, Rufus A Bairzarce wrote:

    Hi, Doc.,
    When I posted, this was at 16

    "At 04:39 PM on 06 Dec 2006, Joe Palooka wrote: Mary had a little Lamb,
    She tied it to a pylon.
    10,000 volts went up it's arse,
    and turned it's wool to nylon."

    Hence:
    "Joe Palooka (16)
    Did that happen at 5 o'clock yesterday?
    If so, where's the photo?"

    It seems the moderators have been having a really bad day leading to batches of delayed posts being interspersed amongst "newer"ones. Or, and this is my theory, they're operating on several servers that have got out of sync..

    Hope you didn't lose any sleep.
    

30. At 10:18 AM on 07 Dec 2006, Dr Hackenbush wrote:

    Rufus (c29) 路

    My (c28) 鈥楨xcuse me?鈥� was directed at your (c27) 鈥榢isses鈥�. At that time, my (c15) had still not appeared, so everything has now moved up. I repeat - Excuse me?

31. At 10:25 AM on 07 Dec 2006, wrote:

    Joe P (23);
    another couple, in similar vein.

    Mary had a little lamb
    her father shot it dead.
    Now it goes to school with her
    between two chunks of bread.

    
    Mary had a little lamb
    She called it Littel Ralph
    And now it's burning in a field
    Because of foot and mouth

    Si.

32. At 01:11 PM on 07 Dec 2006, Rufus A Bairzarce wrote:

    Dear Doctor,

    (Your 30-ish, my variable)

    I was alerting young Ms A that the "x"s in the last line of my post (currently 27) were to be regarded as amicable kisses, in the style of "I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter", rather than a casual resting of my elbow on the keyboard.

    Sadly, I seem to have had more success in engaging your attention than Ms A's.
    
    That is not to say that I do not treasure your every offering.
    Honest.
    

33. At 01:37 PM on 10 Dec 2006, Aperitif wrote:

    Rufus (and your many aliases) thank you for leaving kisses for me on your bottom. How do I collect them?