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The Glass Box for Thursday

Comments

1. At 06:01 PM on 27 Sep 2007, The Stainless Steel Cat wrote:

   A missed opportunity to tell us all to wrap up, Eddie...

2. At 06:51 PM on 27 Sep 2007, JimmyGiro wrote:

   So often we hear analysis of the American peoples voting habits based on the most trivial aspects of a candidates presentation.

   A simple stumble or a glitch during a public outing, makes the difference between having or not having control over the deadliest arsenal the world has ever known.

   To become POTUS all you have to do is stand still and smile... and have obscenely rich backers.

3. At 12:04 AM on 28 Sep 2007, RJD wrote:

   Only two posts on this and none since 6:51? Yeah, that's likely! And of course I'm malicious! I hope the ´óÏó´«Ã½ ain't spending a lot of money in supporting this blog!

4. At 08:57 AM on 28 Sep 2007, wrote:

   I think the glass box was empty yesterday as we were all letting the blog relax after the problems it's been having the last few days....

   Got to agree with you, JimmyGiro. I regularly read the online US news sources such as CNN, Fox, NY Daily Post, etc., and I see two things that I still can't get my mind around:
   
   Policies
   How little actual policy discussion and debate there is...
   Lobby Groups
   How certain lobby groups such as the NRA can influence the choice of candidates for an election
   Election Complexity
   Does it really take more than 18 months to decide who's going to be POTUS??
   
   

5. At 09:01 AM on 28 Sep 2007, witchiwoman wrote:

   Interesting piece on Rudi - I had expected that it would've helped his ratings but obviously not! Just goes to show that pollyanna thinking and politics don't go.

   Weather was great - did I detect a smile? I think the the weather centre may be redundant.

6. At 09:12 AM on 28 Sep 2007, Little Miss Poppy wrote:

   Cooooeeeeee Eddie lammy-pie,

   Do you know you are such an inspiration? Glad you had a visit to the beach yesterday for a paddle. I was watching yoooou! Hey, I loved you doing the weather forecast. Please, please do it again tonight you made my heart skip. Talking of making hearts skip......yesterday I popped into a well-known DIY store in response to their sale adverts.

   I didn't go looking for a bed but ended up bed browsing. A sales assistant approached and asked if I needed help. Never one to turn down an offer of help, I said yes and asked him to (honestly) explain the pros and cons of expensive vs cheap mattresses, beds etc.......he said to me with a straight face ' will the bed have normal usage, madam?' ......!!!!!

   Eddie - I couldn't believe my ears and looked at him expecting him to smile/laugh/admit to using such a cheeky one-liner to break the ice and so hopefully secure a sale having built up a little rapport!! BUT no!! No such thing. He was delivering the question with absolute seriousness.

   I didn't know how to answer his question - it reminded me of the 'Fawlty Towers' sketch where there are psycologists staying at the hotel and Basil thinks the afore-mentioned is asking him how often he has sex, when in fact he is actually enquiring as to the frequency of his holidays.....'how often do you manage it?' ...... I really did think the sales assistant was asking me how much activity the bed would have to tolerate!!!

   I evaded an answer and carried on with our conversation. It was only after about 10 minutes that I realised that he was asking whether it would be for a spare room (non-existent in my little abode) or for my room (ie usage each night).....PHEW!!!!! I am still blushing. At the time, I just wanted to come back at him with a Basil-ism.......'well, normal usage really....I mean, what would you say is normal???!!! ;0)

   Apologies for those of you who didn't see that 'Fawlty Towers'....

   Eddie.....yesterday's show was great. Why don't you have a bash at the 17:54 Shipping Forecast on LW sometime. Go on. : )

   Laters

   Little Miss Poppy
   xx
   

7. At 09:59 AM on 28 Sep 2007, Gillian wrote:

   Poor Rudi - what a ribbing he got just for showing his human side! My husband heard him speak in 2005 in Harrogate, and Rudi had to leave the stage suddenly. When he returned he explained that he'd had to go for a wee - something that needed to be dealt with urgently following prostate problems. Just as with the audience he was addressing yesterday, he was applauded for his actions.

8. At 11:43 AM on 28 Sep 2007, Millie O'Neare-Knott wrote:

   Hi Eddie,
   Must admit only come back to PM recently after a few years away and I realise what I've been missing - great show so i'm back for good! You've even made me make my very first blog entry! although still trying to find my way around abit!
   Loved the idea of sounds of summer

   Good to hear you diversifying with horizontal promotion and reading the weather last night.

   The Rudi phone call item - am I making myself seem even more foolish than I really am by not understanding - but I assumed it was a pre-arranged thing - I mean he wouldn't really have left his phone on would he? Guess having said that I ought to climb back under the woodwork. ( where does that saying come from?)

   please - can we also have martin shankleman on every night - his voice makes me go all of a quiver as he did when he used to be on with Johnnie Walker over on R2 ( am I allowed to say that on here??!!!)

   better do some work....
   look forward to 5pm tonight.
   

9. At 11:55 AM on 28 Sep 2007, Hugh the Hack wrote:

   This is belated reply to Seamus McNeill in the Glass Box about two weeks ago, just after the Petraeus apearance in Washington.

   You say I 'obviously found it difficult to report that there had been some improvement in Baghdad'.

   Unfair. In this report, and numerous others, I made it very clear that there have been fewer mass-slaughtering car and truck bombs in the city since the start of the Baghdad Security Plan and the 'surge'.

   And at least twice in this report I was heard sceptically enquiring, "Surely there has been SOME improvement?" or words to that effect.

   And in other reports and interviews I also made the point that perception tends to lag behind reality - the reality that life in parts of the Iraqi capital has improved to some extent, but they wonder how long it will last and therefore remain very wary.

   But I do think it is my duty not to view the situation in Iraq 'through rose-tinted spectacles', as one of the interviewees in this report described the General Petraeus testimony.

   I tend - sometimes to a fault - to seek out the positive. On several 'embeds' with the US and British forces, I have reported successful reconstruction work on schools, water-treatment plants and sewage systems, and the impressive transformation of the port at Um Qasr.

   But I cannot, and should not, turn a blind eye to the massive negatives (routine daily violence, electricity shortages, lengthy queues at petrol stations, abusive behaviour by some US troops and private security guards, and so on) which still blight the lives of the people of Baghdad.

10. At 12:28 PM on 28 Sep 2007, Chris Ghoti wrote:

    Millie @ 8, bravo! even though listening to the programme doesn't seem to be a requirement for blogging. :-)

    I *think* the climbing or crawling into and out of the woodwork comes from an old vaguely-jocular phrase that was used by people if they saw something strange or met really bad driving or something of that sort, and said "Oh, they're all coming/climbing/crawling out of the woodwork today!", meaning that the woodwork might be full of all sorts of strangeness that we don't usually see and some of it had escaped into Real Life. Things in the woodwork crawling out used to be used about nits and lice and fleas and the sort of insect one didn't want to have around. But it's got less nasty as the years have gone by.

    People use "under a rock" or "under my rock" instead of "back into the woodwork", too. So a sort of mildly self-deprecating phrase, I suppose. A bit like "I'll just get my coat" for "I think it might be time I left".

11. At 01:15 PM on 28 Sep 2007, Eloise Twisk (editor of Thurs PM) wrote:

    Thank goodness there were some entries in the glassbox in the end! we were getting worried. I think I agree the last item on the prog was the most interesting, and it was rather squashed. Maybe I should have given it a bit more space, especially as the clips of Guiliani talking to his wife were so funny -- as discussed in the real glassbox, it's all so easy to find this sort of stuff now thanks to the interweb. Not sure if we really know what happened to the weather centre last night but I agree Eddie should try the shipping forecast next .. Eloise

12. At 03:39 PM on 28 Sep 2007, Millie O'Neare-Knott wrote:

    To Chris at message 10.
    thanks for your info - yes must admit I'd always related it to nasty "bugs/insects ect". but having thought about it - i don't really think of myself and other PM listeners as "nasty bugs!!" so think I'll refrain from using again!
    

13. At 03:47 PM on 28 Sep 2007, wrote:

    Well rebutted, Hugh.

    I'm glad you're out there for us all. Do take care, and keep up the good work
    Salaam/Shalom
    ed

14. At 04:16 PM on 29 Sep 2007, wrote:

    Posted here, because I'm apparently barred from the beach! Seems I'm barred here too!

    Frances 502 (246),

    I couldn't get at the 'old' MSWord, but I fooled around with the XP version.

    When you have entered at least one line of text, and go to , it will offer you 'save as' because your document doesn't have a title yet. You have to enter a title, and then click 'OK' or , and your document will be saved under the title you provided. (The XP version offers the first few words of the document as a 'working title', and will save it as that.)

    Thereafter, if you go to only 'save as' is offered, but pressing ctrl-s (or ctrl-S) will save the document under its (already given) title.

    You can do a ctrl-s anytime, and with windoze Millenniun, I'd recommend doing it at least after every paragraph. It happens in the background, so you don't see any evidence, unless you watch the wee disc LED-light, but it happens.

    If Mum has been ctrl-s-ing every so often under a 'working title', she can then save the (or a) final copy with and entering whatever title she wants. This will leave the 'working title' copy as a backup. This can also be achieved with alt-f-a (hold down alt key and press f and then a) and providing a title when prompted.

    Hope this helps.

    xx
    ed

    It won't help if I'm not allowed to post comments!
    GGGGRRRRRRRRR!