BBC Food Newsletter:
Rick Stein joins the Saturday Kitchen on the 2nd January where he cooks fish pie with Antony Worral Thompson and a choice of three delicious dishes.
I wonder if Rick will be using the Antony Worral Thompson Juice Extractor.
Dilemma
BBC: The ethics of executing Saddam
How do opponents of the death penalty reconcile their beliefs with the need for Saddam Hussein to face justice in an Iraqi court?
How indeed.
One good reason for not executing Saddam: to demonstrate quite clearly that, as we all know, we are better than him.
Apologies for my momentary lapse in frivolity.
Knock-knock
email to the London Review of Books:
So, Leigh Hunt had a father named Isaac, did he? Pull the other one.
Yours,
Hugh Janus
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Work it out.
Celebrity
In one of the Liverpool Starbucks™ this afternoon, the chap in front of me was getting more attention than strictly necessary. I thought I recognised him from somewhere, but couldn't place the face—which I guessed meant that he must be a famous sportsman. I don't follow sport much.
"How did you get on in Superstars the other week?" asked the lad serving him. (Bingo!)
"I came third," came the reply.
So, back to the office and a quick search on the BBC website…
Ladies and gentlemen, your host has rubbed shoulders with none other than Olympic cycling gold and bronze medallist, Chris 'My Bike's Made Out of a Washing Machine' Boardman.
Mr Boardman might be a Superstar, but, as celebrity sightings go, he's hardly in the same league as Her Majesty or Philippa Forrester is he?
Separated at birth
I know what you're thinking: who does the new-look Saddam remind you of? Well, here's a clue…
See also: Another one bites the dust
Deadlocked
Apparently, it's the French who want to describe the situation as an impasse; the British prefer the word deadlocked, whereas the Germans insist on calling it die Pattsituation.
Postscript: The BBC has now renamed the above news item European summit ends in failure, which rather spoils my already weak joke.
Analyse this, you specious, Freudian quack-merchants…
Last night, I dreamt that ITN's Sir Trevor McDonald was presenting a news item about a remarkable new light aeroplane that had wings made from a duvet. The piece began with the aircraft perched on top of a large pile of boulders, from which it carefully descended in the style of a four-wheel drive car (its duvet flapping behind it). It then taxied off along the Australian desert with Sir Trevor at the controls. As the aircraft took off, banking sharply to the right, I couldn't help noticing that the wings were actually made from a quilt, not a duvet. Suddenly, the image cut to the plane's interior, and I saw that it was now being piloted by the late Douglas Adams. "It handles like a Cessna," he observed, as we headed off, following a long, straight road (complete with hump-back bridge), across the Irish Aran Islands.
…And then I woke up.
That's the second time I've dreamt about Australia this year. I can't tell you about the first time. I told Stense (who featured rather heavily in it), and she responded accordingly.
'BBC'
BBC: Frenzy builds for German 'cannibal' trial (02-Dec-03)
I do wish the BBC would stop over-using quotation marks to denote 'the implied questionable'. Check out their news site any time, day or night, and I think it's a fairly safe bet that you'll see at least one headline with quotation marks used in this way.
Regarding the headline quoted above, the German man in question admits killing another man and eating bits of him. There really is no need for the quotation marks: he's a cannibal.
You must be joking
Observer: The A-Z of laughter
Ahead of this week's British Comedy Awards, the Observer has decided to find out who really makes us laugh. With the help of a panel of expert judges, we present the 50 funniest people in Britain. From stand-up comedians to the backroom producers, from satirists to the kings of slapstick, this is a celebration of the very best of British humour.
Any such list that includes Rowan Atkinson and Jo Brand at the expense of Billy Connolly is clearly taking the piss.