Bits and Bobs
Been here in England for a full week and I’m having a lot of fun. And working hard.
Ok. Mostly working hard.
But sneaking in a little fun where I can.
It appears that England’s newspaper industry is still going strong, and every morning I can hardly wait to read the latest edition of the Independent, known as the i, and the local Newbury newspaper too.
I love the Brit sense of humor, and I also love the i’s ability to report every little bit of local news with both journalistic seriousness and humor. I’d read more US newspapers if they gave me a little chuckle now and again.
Here’s a few clips from just this last week.
The Fonz and Me. That’s right, the same day I arrived, The Fonz was in town. He was visiting a primary school and promoting reading. Go Fonz! I’m not kidding when I say this was front page news.
Civic pride.This story made me laugh out loud on the train. I actually startled the young businessman sitting next to me.
It seems the mayor of a fairly small town decided that when it came time to greet the Olympic torch, she wanted to really bring forward the pride of Louth to the world.
So she dressed up as a sausage.
Read the short clip, especially the last line.
Very descriptive.As an avowed linguaphile and word nerd, I love, love, love listening to the Brits speak and their colloquialisms.
This is just the end of an article complaining about HSBC Bank’s new piped in music and adverts.
In the last two columns are the phrases “cock-up” and “crap the music altogether” that I want to use.
A lot.
“Hey boss, it looks like my team cocked-up the invoices this month, can we just crap the May payments altogether?”
I’m gonna guess US HR is gonna say no to that.
Stop or I’ll say stop again. And finally, this is my favorite. I’ve shown this photo to everyone who will look at it and even the locals shake their heads.
Here’s how I understand the story: the town of Newbury wants to cut down on people drinking way too much then getting rambunctious, so to that end, local bartenders have all agreed not to serve people who are already drunk.
Great, fair enough.
The article goes on to say, “Newbury Pubwatch has also introduced the concept of a warning letter which is hand delivered when an individual has been involved in a drink-related incident.”
Um. A letter?
That’s gonna curtail the hooliganism. I’m sure if it.