This blog
was never intended to replace the emailed newsletter, but since, patently, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ cannot manage to send emailed newsletters, it's going to have to - for now at least. Thanks if you took the trouble to send an email alerting us to when yours arrived. Midnight was quite popular.
People are very good-natured about it, but we really should be doing it properly or not at all. So for now - until someone with letters after their name assures me it's going to work - we won't bother. I apologise.
The programme tonight will touch once again on the hanging of Saddam. Tony Blair's spokesman has just said something about it - but not what some people wanted to hear. We've our eye on the young Brit who's about to successfully sail the Atlantic on his own. Nils Blythe is heading to a Little Chef (when did you last eat in one?) and we'll talk about pantomimes. Why not? We appear in one every night.
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Oh Eddie I'm pantomimed out.
Re Little Chef, Sunday 3rd December eraly evening. Kids had Sausage and Chips, I had something else! I think it was a toasted Ciabatta. SO had a baked potato. Perfectly acceptable fry up type motorway grub for the kids. Healthy(ish) alternative for the grown ups. Weather was awful and the wind kept blowing the doors open.
If I had not had a large lunch I would have had a fry up special. :-)
Dear Eddie,
Sorry for you that the technology keeps letting you down. It isn't your fault, but it must make you really mad.
We do understand. And now, about that packet of biscuits, how about sharing them around with the guys up there?
We'll enjoy hearing from you, however it arrives.
Big Sis
P.S. to Jonnie: You sure are. Sri Lanka beckons.
Eddie how on earth do you know that he's going to be successful before the event?
Can't you get anyone to come and explain how Prince Naseem has been stripped of his MBE for a driving offence whereas Archer J (who has been convicted of much worse) is still a Lord. Quite a lot of froggers are keenly interested in that question, and I suspect that interest is reflected across non-frogging listeners.
Eddie,
It is the Age of Inclusion, after all, so perhaps to avoid the exclusivity of using the internet, you should really be sending out a proper Royal Snail newsletter, or perhaps ringing round all subscribers.
It's only right, you know.
Yours Aye,
ed
I fully endorse AA, and would like to add Thatcher M to the list of those whose titles need to be reassessed.
Ah, the Little Chef. When I was a teenager, my widowed working mother would sometimes take us all off to the nearest one as a treat - and it was. I still sometimes have a hankering for the cherry pancakes.
Unfortunately, my last brush with the chain was on the A1 where the service was unfriendly and the food pretty poor. Shame. Oh no it isn't. Oh yes, it is.
Re Little Chef.
This has never been a favourite haunt due to uninspired decor and overpriced dishes. I think the latter has been a particular problem for others, too, even though LC seem to have been trying to target folk with special deals over the past couple of years.
Possibly the chain needs to have a major rethink, if it does survive. There are plenty of people out there who would like to have a family friendly place to stop and take refreshments, but supermarkets, McD's, M&S and others are now providing alternatives which are attractive on the basis of price and choice.
Perhaps LC should try to join forces with another brand, say M&S, and inject something new into their product, as well perhaps as providing an outlet for staples (milk, bread, newspapers, etc.) which travellers need to pick up on their way to their destinations. And, of course, provide internet access. The combination of all that should provide a good, regular flow of custom to help keep prices down.
Just a thought.
admin annie;
you're really obsessed with seeing Lord Archhole stripped, aren't you! Perhaps you should seek professional counselling for your problem? Or lie down in a darkened room for a while?
Every time I see a conjunction between that *Ahem* 'noble' mans name and 'stripped' the name of Monica Coghlan comes to mind. Why would that be? And what an unsavoury image it brings to mind.
*Shivers*
Si.
Until I got my new computer, and Broadband in particular, I was only ever going to be an irregular frogger. The newsletter was my only way to engage with the programme.
Therefore, if there's anyone out there in the same position ... including perhaps lurkers who don't normally say much on the blog ... here is my soon-to-be-regretted offer to you:
Contact me via the website attached to my name on this message, and I'll copy & forward the day's new blog to you as an email.
You can either email the band (which depends on the webmeister to forward the email out to me) or leave a message on the Guestbook (and remember to fill in the 'your email address' field so I can contact you).
This system has already worked successfully twice - once to collect ideas resulting in Jonnie's unofficial PM website, and currently to enable me to circulate jokes by email.
Fifi :o)
Eddie and colleagues,
I'll add another vote for questioning why the more dishonourably one behaves, the less likely one is to lose one's honour.
But we all know the answer, don't we? Just like Benn the Younger last night on Channel 4 (please pardon expletive). We just want them to come out and admit it.
Yours Aye,
ed
Will al Toady get an Amerikan honour for Services Rendered, I wonder? There is an older meaning for Congress, after all....
I know someone, the respected editor of a very good magazine, who boasts she has eaten in every Little Chef in Britain.
Eddie, I can introduce her to Nils if he likes.
Personally, I think it's overpriced plastic food and the service ranges from delightful to surly depending on the venue.
Fifi
Ed (8);
I'm surprised at you! Bleagh already has a gong from the USA, the Congressional Gold Medal awarded in 2003, which he has yet to collect (I think ?).
N.B. for those not in the know; awarded by the Congress, as suggested by the name, not by the Prez. The equivalent he might bestow is the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
And I've always regarded you as well-read....
Si.
Ooooh!!
My (9) got edited!
Took out some of the best bits too!
Si.
:-{
Big Sister > The difference between Mrs T and the other two is they have both been convicted and jailed.
No one has even started committal proceedings against her for milk snatching.
I am strangely comforted by the presence of Litte Chefs, but never eat in them because it is such a depressing experience. Sad though it might be for everyone who works there, their time has passed, bring back the Golden Egg!
I have NOT been gaoled!
Gonzo - Not the Mrs, the son.
Gonzo - Not the Mrs, the son.
And I certainly wouldn't snatch milk. A G'n'T possibly but milk, never.
Si @ 9. I don't think mentioning something twice, which is all I have done, really amounts to an obsession does it?
If it does I must be obssessed with all sorts of things. And so must everyone else round here.
Si (13),
"And I've always regarded you as well-read...."
, would be better perhaps, though I'd accept 'erudite' if modesty didn't forbid.
And I do love a good thesaurus...
xx
ed
Yes, Mrs Trellis (17), I too became slightly confused by all the abbreviations here.
I went scurrying back up this thread (not a pretty sight at the best of times!) to find out what you hadn't 'yet' been convicted of!
Duhhhhh.
I put it down to the shock of having one of my postings moderated this morning on the beach.
Honestly, if you can't use Fifi Rhyming Slang to tell a troll to go away, what hope is there?
Fifi
I trust that the Thatcher we are discussing is the one who got a four-year suspended jail sentence and a £265,000 fine in South Africa after a plea-bargaining deal in which he admitted playing a role in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea.
Why he is allowed to carry the title he inherited from his father Sir Denis is beyond comprehension.
And dear old Archhole (extra points to whoever coined that name) completes the mockery of the whole honours system.
From the Guardian September 2003: Lord Falconer told peers that the government would introduce legislation to exclude the last of the hereditaries "when parliamentary time allows" and that the measure to force those convicted of an offence to give up their peerage would have "retrospective effect"
Well that’s alright then. No-one holding their breath I hope.
Now how about a rebranding exercise for Little Chefs. A reference in Smokey & the Bandit to Choke and Puke springs to mind at least an establishment of that name could not be sued under the trades description act!
Am I mistaken in believing that the law requires children aged 14 to be in school. Is there an exception for boat trips?
I bet I could get an MBE if my gran was dishing them out too.
Hello Eric; everyone.
How can you be so cruel. The only excitement in my life was the doubt over whether the Newsletter would arrive.
re.The driving test and the young mail driver.
Every car on the road will do a 100 mph. Why?
surely the manufacturers have a responsability
here somewhere.!!
The old adage certainly applies here,
give a beger a donkey, and he'll either flog it to death, or ride it to hell.
I like the sound of being an irrelgular blogger, Fifi (10). Other blogs have far too much symmetry as it is.
What do we want? Curves. When do we want them? Before the newsletter arrives.
Never much liked Pantos. Always found them a bit too much of an excuse to have adult humour over the heads of children. Even when I was younger and couldn't understand why my Dad was smirking and transfixed by the Principal Boy.
He has since given up smirking and without the use of patches.
Blunt lost his knighthood but only when it became public knowledge that he worked closely with Philby et al.
Oh Keth my Dear, and what a lovely little adage that is.
As me dear Sister Anne always says:
Gie a beggar a bed an he'll pey ye wi a loose.
admin annie (21);
Sorry about that. My (9) got moderated and pruned by some sensitive soul, which kind of deprived it of any semi-humourous content and made it look like a post from a right old misery.
Oh, O.K. Point taken...
Helena (24) {love that name};
Yup, that's the one. The same one who was (to the dismay of many) rescued from the Sahara when he contrived to get lost down there a while ago.
He carries the title because a baronetcy (which is what the dear old soak was given by his wife) is hereditary. Not bad for a life spent on the golf course or knocking back a snifter with his mate 'Dear Bill', a.k.a. Lord Deedes. Allegedly, according to the Eye.
The reason touted around for it at the time was that Dennis had been an enormously successful businessman, holding down board positions in many decent-sized companies. So how did he get so many directorships? His wife was PM. No-brainer. It was widely believed that the real reason was to make sure that their beloved son could have an honour which he wasn't entitled to. Or as compensation for having his entire retirement messed-up by his wife becoming PM.
And it was indeed the same Private Eye who coined the nickname you refer to.
Si.
Yoo-Hoo, everybody.
The DOCTOR IS BACK!!
Hi Doc H., how's it going? Been anywhere pleasant?
Si.
My computer is broke - I am transmitting to you from the place I go to ‘earn’ my money...
Sorry about your deceased computer, Dr H, but so very glad to see you back here - we were all worried about you. (Well, I know I was.) Madmary had the lurgy and none of us knew what to do (so we prescribed alcohol - seemed to do the trick).
Hope your Xmas was merry and New Year likewise.
Doc,
Has it been playing too much late night poker?
No! You can't do away with the newsletter, it brought a bit of welcome light relief into my inbox - and as it comes to my office e-mail I had the pleasant task of reading through about half a dozen this morning.
As for Little Chefs - they are certainly not what they once were - but then I guess the same could be said about most things.
How symptomatic of modern morality it is that there seems to be more indignation about the jeering of Saddam than the hanging of him.
John Crellin
West Yorkshire
Hi Dr H. How are the recordings going? And are you okay yourself?
Big Shyster (but only for Dr. H)
Mrs T (20) - is that G&T and gin and Trellis? yum
I've got a question about the young lad who sailed across the Atlantic....
HOW DOES HE GET THE BOAT BACK TO THE UK?!? Won't he have to sail all the way back again?!?!?
When I was a child in Scotland we went to a new panto at the Glasgow Alhambra - "A Wish for Jamie" starred Kenneth McKellar and dispensed with the odd convention of having a female principal boy fall in love with a female principal girl (well I found it odd anyway).
Actually memory plays tricks and having just checked I find there was a principal boy - she just didn't get the girl!
Two more followed "A love for Jamie" and "The World of Jamie". They were hugely successful and made lots of money, so it just proves it can be done.
Oh, Eric, I got my PM newletter today! I was out so I don't know when; between 1330 and 1745 (yes, I missed 3/4 of PM as well, oh, woe)
(btw, yes, I am aware that 1330 was 10 years after the Declaration of Arbroath and 1745 was when Prince Charles Edward Stuart came to Scotland. An interesting interval)
OK Si, I'll believe your moderated post was funny and we know you're not really a misery. I don't know what's going on with the moderators/system today; I did a single post to this thread and got the 'too quick, you'll have to do it later' message!
Doc H - WELCOME BACK - we've been concerned, wondered if you'd taken yourself off never to return. Are you goignt o get a new machine with Vista on it?
Fearless (42) - my guess would be that they put the lad on a plane to get back to school in time, Dad sails his own boat back and they lay up the small one until they can fly out and sail it back together.
Sounds a bit like one of those logic puzzles where you have to get a fox, a chicken and a sack of corn across a river without any one of them getting eaten!
And how many airmiles does all that involve? All in support of sailing (using Nature's energy). And they say us Amerikans are ironically challenged!
A is worth a thousand words.
xx
ed
Are the Newsletter problems anything to do with numbers? Is it just too popular? And if so will we be rationed or cut up into bitesized chunks?
The brat's boat is coming back on a bigger boat in a container. The dadboat is being sold in Antigua.
Are any froggers a two boat family, or is it just me living a deprived lifestyle?
I always hated Panto's until I was in a couple. My first role was in Alladin at Hall Green Little Theatre a good few years ago. I played the Empress of China, and I scared all the little children to bits! I loved it!
Mary
Hasn't everyone got 2 boats Ian? Oh, I must be more careful when visiting others so as not to ask where their boat is...
One of the episodes which makes me realise my childhood did have its moments, is my dad as an ugly sister, he was fabulous, although Mr Levy was the real star every year!
I drove to big London town to see Ian Mckellen as Widow Twanky last year, which was fab, but I don't really like panto any more & wonder if it is for children really. I do like the tradition though, & hate the modernisation of pantos, they are brilliant narratives already & even somone as sharp as Mark Ravenhill didn't make his panto cutting edge!
I have vague recollections of going to pantos as a family when I was a little Fred. I think I even was one of the kids you got invited on tage one year. Still, it's all just a distant haze. Except, of course, for the Paul Merton take on pantos he did one year in a show from the Palladium. If you've ever seen it, you'll know the one I mean!
This year I took my son (8) to a panto (Aladdin with Keith Harris) and also to the Chichester Theater to see the youth performance of Peter Pan. Have to say that he much preferred the Peter Pan than the panto. Whilst the panto was typical panto fayre, he loved the play and was really animated when we came out. Strangely, the panto was the more expensive despite the fact that the play was by far the better production. I think that what spoilt the panto was the insistence of the "star" to do his speciality act whereas the play was a company performance and therefore more engaging for it.
Ed I. (47) -
I think I'd almost applaud the airmiles on this occasion simply because someone has actually allowed a child to do something risky.
Well as far as Panto goes I can only repeat my previous rave from a few weeks ago about the York Theatre Royal production. We've seen it now (Cinderella - not that the theoretical title has any bearing on the plot) & it was even funnier than last year. I just don't know how they do it. Not a soap star to be seen, just proper actors, a company who have worked together for years with the same excellent director & sets & costumes that make your jaw drop. Literally. None of that "It's behind you " rubbish, & just a brief sing song at the end, but a show with cracking pace, brilliant script, & enough ad-libs from the Dame to fill several PM programmes. Definitely our sort of humour!
Re reading this, they should be paying me, not the other way round!
Anne P - I remember those Pantos, except I saw them in the King's Theatre in Edinburgh! I so wanted to be a pantomime boy when I grew up...... ahh happy days.
Hi Doc H, you've been missed.
If it's any consolation Eddie, whatever lurgy the newsletter came down with last year has now definitely spread to the Thinking Allowed one. It started to behave erratically a few weeks ago, came twice one week and then tonight it rushed in some time during your prog, and well after it's own show. Will Laurie give up too, because his was totally dependable for months....
So, Eddie, I see you managed to get 3 days into the new year before feeling the need to apologise, this time for the newsletter not arriving. You should know by now, we love it when things don't work properly. What are we supposed to moan about if you remove the cause for complaint? Hmmmm? Have you thought of that ? Honestly, talk about inconsiderate. This blog is like a barnful of battery hens, we'll be pecking each other to death if you take away the distraction of the newsletter arrival time. I really think you should apologise. Oh no, hang on, isn't that where we started?
Ooh, Mrs. T.! I'm all excited! Chichester Theatre is in my neck of the woods, too.
Will we bump into each other near the Cross one day?
Just let me know what colour will be your twinset and I'll look out for you.
Hey Valerie P, I bet we won't hear Laurie apologising! When mine did arrive this week, 2 came along at once, mind, I would forgive Laurie anything really.
With all this talk of panto, I was wondering what ever happened to that Govt agency set up a few years ago to maintain standards? It was set up when they were setting up other agencies such as Offwat and Offcom but they never seem to do anything. If memory serves me correctly, they were called Offpants.
H.
Humph (60)
You are somewhat behind the times. Offpants was subsumed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. John Prescott had hands-on control.
Humph (60 & Helena (61);
Ably assisted by Lord Pantsdown from the LibDems and too many Tories to name them all, but featuring Cecil Parkinson and Tim Yeo.
Si.
Annasee, you have a point. If all was smooth-running, we'd have nowt about which to complain.
Welcome back, Dr. Hackenbush.
My abiding memory of pantomime is this: Our grandmother used to take us annually. On one occasion I acquired an orange ice lolly during the interval. I've always had trouble with very cold fodder. The lights went out at the end of the interval so I couldn't see to finish the ice lolly. I put it back into the wrapper, then placed it in my pocket 'for later'. As I type this, I am laughing rather more than I did when I came out of the theatre.
Of course, whilst we're hovering around the topic;
It's worth reminding everyone that the only trouble with political jokes is that they get elected.....
Si.
Thanks, people.
Big Shyster - they’re still underway.
My first panto was at the Kings, Edinburgh. Denny Willis and Helen MacArthur, neither of which I'd heard of before.
I was completely flummoxed by the show, and can't remember much about it (might have been Aladdin...) but the audience participation bit after the interval was my first experience in the spotlight.
Denny Willis came down into the stalls, and asked me for a chocolate out of the box on my lap. He did some funny thing, sticking it on the end of his finger and then complaining he'd got a soft one!
With hindsight, were those more innocent times or was that a joke aimed at adults...?
Anyway, at the end of the show my mother claims that Helen MacArthur made a point of throwing one of the bags of jelly tots (other nasty sweets are available) to ME.
I never, ever, could bring myself to eat them. They sat on the mantlepiece for months, till I suspect an exasperated parent may have 'disappeared' them for me.
And look at me now, eh!
Fi ;o)
Dr. H:
I'm in the same boat, but hope to have them all done by early next week. Does that suit you?
"The same boat" (68)? Are Big Sister and Dr H attempting to be the first froggers to cross the atlantic?
Ian (69): in which case will the boat be moored on the Beach?
I once saw Stanley Baxter at the Kings in Auld Reeky. It was BRILL! (and the kids liked it as well)
xx
ed
ian - LOL!
Hadn't you heard? Dr H and I (Big Sis) are indeed engaged in rowing through the (sound)waves of hysterical radio in an effort to reach our destination, namely the Soundings of Groucho.
We may be gone a long time.
The lack of a newsletter I could cope with (just) but no blog today....?! Are you having a laugh or just in the Huff, Eddie? Will all be revealed on the ice at 5:00?
Eerily quiet.
No newsletter ... okay, we were warned.
No blog today either.
And the prog is due in 20 minutes!!!
They may have to make it without us for once....
Fifi
Perhaps he's on the ice already, Gillian, and his computer's frozen...
I think he's still alive. Heard him trailing today's prog
Well, it's taken an hour for my no 75 to appear, so maybe Eddie's blog will pop up at about 5.59
If you want letters after names, I am officially Adam Naylor FISPN
May have to link to for this.
Got my Fellowship for hosting the site. The bloke who runs it is mad. Mad, I tell you!
Saddam and Blair
The reason Mr Blair delays, his Saddam announcement is because he's clever but not intelligent, obviously he's going to condemn the procedure since no one would say they were in favour. He will qualify it by saying that he isnt in favour of the death penalty, but is entirely a matter for the sovereign state of Iraq, and Saddam lik Hitler , Mugabe and Castro are wicked.
The condition of being clever but unintelligent ia symptomatic of the three pillars of the Establishment, Politics, Law and journalism all part of the fraternity that pretends to oppose each other, but only with cynism wit or style,allways with in boundaries and never with the gloves off.
I wiil give you a couple of examples of stupidity which was never challenged at the time by polititions lawyers or the media.
"45 minutes to launch missiles" this is just patent scientific nonsence.any engineer would refute it
"evidence of WMD sites" why is it that after we have been told over decades that the U,S. surveillence could read a car number plate from 5o miles , no journalist ar the time challenged this
the reason is you are all busy discussing clever scoring points off one another.
I will ask the Government one question, can they name six items of legistation since 1977 that has been an unqualified stone bonking success,
And Eddie I would ask you to ask the following questions when you next interview the following..
Tony Blair How many children under ten have been killed in Iraq since the war.(he will say there are no figures avalable, ask him for a conservative estimatr)
Margaret Becket When will payments to farmers be sorted, (not her responsibiliy )
Bill Dixon