It struck me as odd this morning that the British newspapers have decided not to publish photos of the naked Prince Harry in an LA hotel as he played strip billiards, especially as those photos are widely available on the net. We have reporters laying the blame at the door of the Leveson Inquiry and astounded by the censorship of the press with regard to photos can only be described as a royal cockup (pun intended). I'm not getting into the ins and outs (ha) of the Harry photos, primarily because I don't really care for all things royal and secondly I don't really see what the fuss is all about. Young man gets drunk and naked in a hotel room and fails to ensure that those he's naked with doesn't have a camera, woop de doo, non story. I'm not saying that the photos should or shouldn't be published, but it seems strange to see the British media pandering so obviously to Royal whim.
What this was contrasted with this morning is that the British media apparently have no problem with publishing photos of the late Tony Nicklinson as the undertakers took him away yesterday. This is the same press that when the news broke of Nicklinson's death yesterday were quick to speculate causes and if someone had indeed given him his wish of euthanasia.
For those of you who don't know Tony Nicklinson brought a case to the High Court last week asking for a right to die, and lost. He was left with locked in syndrome after suffering a stroke in 2005. What was once a vibrant, active and energetic man was left paralysed and speechless, able only to communicate through blinking his eyes. Nicklinson asked the court to grant immunity from prosecution for murder for a doctor who would give him a fatal dose of painkillers to end his life in Britain. Upon losing his case he accused the court of leaving him to a "dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable" life. Nicklinson went on hunger strike and refused medical treatment after the court's decision last week. He developed pneumonia over the weekend and died from the resulting complications. Nicklinson believed he had an undignified life and sought legal help to ensure that he did not have an undignified death.
Alas his fight was in vain. Nicklinson's family watched as he refused food and medical treatment. They accepted his death and were saddened yet relieved that their Dad and husband no longer had to suffer. And then along came the paparazzi. At a time when privacy is a necessity the press were in wait. Quick to cast aspersions on the manner of his death and like vultures quick to swoop in to get photos of his dead body. The press that refuses to show photos of the party prince have no problem with adding insult to injury to a man that only wanted to die in peace and without pain.
What does it say about the reader that their press thinks that photos of a young, naked prince in his prime aren't fit for public consumption but the body of a battered and broken man at his most vulnerable is?
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Annnnddddd.....we're back!
Thank-you
Okay I realise it's been almost a year since I started blogging again and I realise that I've been a particularly shite blogger. Mea culpa. Let's hope you can all let me off the hook because it has been a particularly trying year from February until recently and I'm only now getting myself back to normality. This is going to be a short piece because I am not normally prone to bouts of sentimentality but I would like to thank each and everyone one of you for being there for me over the past 6 or 7 months. Times of trouble are when your true friends really step up to the plate and I've been overwhelmed by the support I've been given, I could never thank you all enough.
Now resume being being jerks :)
Will have a new blog post up tomorrow and it'll be a really long one! And from here on blogging will be at least once a week.
Okay I realise it's been almost a year since I started blogging again and I realise that I've been a particularly shite blogger. Mea culpa. Let's hope you can all let me off the hook because it has been a particularly trying year from February until recently and I'm only now getting myself back to normality. This is going to be a short piece because I am not normally prone to bouts of sentimentality but I would like to thank each and everyone one of you for being there for me over the past 6 or 7 months. Times of trouble are when your true friends really step up to the plate and I've been overwhelmed by the support I've been given, I could never thank you all enough.
Now resume being being jerks :)
Will have a new blog post up tomorrow and it'll be a really long one! And from here on blogging will be at least once a week.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
The Fawlty Towers Dining Experience
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| Very Appetising |
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| "See - he higher!" |
Sybil at this point loses the rag and yells "Sit Down" at which point himself is without a chair.
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| My new husband |
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| I should add he did later attempt to fix the lady's hair with a fork! |
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| Basil: "Manuel, what in hell do you think you're doing?!!" |
"Ah a programmer, a logistical mind of reason. Alright everybody in the event of a fire: follow him!"
This culminates in Basil raising the alarm for the drill at which point himself has to leg it out of the room while the rest of us are unsure whether to follow or not. I don't have any photos of him as I was too busy laughing. And so ends the first half of the performance.
The second half is a run through of old favourites from the series with audience interaction. Among the final scenes Manuel looking for his 'Siberian hamster' emerges from under a table with a ladies knickers. In the heel of the hunt Basil winds up wearing the knickers on his head and the grand finale is the infamous goose-step across the room
The show was fantastic, the actors have all the mannerisms and intonations down to a T, and if you ever get the opportunity then go see it - but not with a very tall man who attracts attention.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
A tribute to Nana
Apologies again for the lax blogging. My Nana's sudden illness sent the whole family and I into a bit of turmoil.
I'm still finding it hard to believe that she's gone. Less than a year ago she was at my wedding and two days later was dancing around the floor at her 80th Birthday Party. She was a woman that was so full of life and so vibrant that it was difficult to see her suffer and in a way her death was a relief as had she lived she would have been ill and bedridden. That's something she most certainly would not have wanted.
Nana was unlike most other grandmothers. She refused to go grey and continued dying her hair until the very last. She wouldn't be seen outside the front door without her hair curled, her nails painted red, her make up on, dressed to the nines and wearing a "bit of bling". She could be told anything and not judge. Nothing fazed her - she took us and our problems are we were and helped as best she could.
She had a tough life, she endured domestic abuse, had seven children, survived a daughter's death, survived cancer, survived her husbands alzheimers and death and yet remained an eternal optimist.
She loved getting out of the house, going shopping or going to markets and she would do anything for a bargain. She loved to laugh and go on nights out, and it was often difficult to get her to go home after. She loved weekends away. She loved music, primarily country although she was partial to a bit of Dire Straits! She harangued DJ's on local radios to play songs she liked and was known on a first name basis everywhere she went. She was great fun - slagging was often fast and furious and she was never out done in a battle of wits. She was generous - if you so much as complimented a necklace it was yours there and then. And arguments over who would pay a bill almost resulted in Mrs. Doyle like fights. She collected nick-nacks particularly ones that made noise, her house was a menagerie of singing, dancing animals.
Nothing came above family. Children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - she loved them all among her last words were that she loved everyone equally. She was willing to do anything for family. Her walls were testament to that love. Every free wall space was adorned with family photos, and a mirror of Rod Stewart that she bought but no one wanted, she felt bad for him and so he took his place on the wall too :)
She was the grand matriarch of a huge family and she is and will be sorely missed.
I'm still finding it hard to believe that she's gone. Less than a year ago she was at my wedding and two days later was dancing around the floor at her 80th Birthday Party. She was a woman that was so full of life and so vibrant that it was difficult to see her suffer and in a way her death was a relief as had she lived she would have been ill and bedridden. That's something she most certainly would not have wanted.
Nana was unlike most other grandmothers. She refused to go grey and continued dying her hair until the very last. She wouldn't be seen outside the front door without her hair curled, her nails painted red, her make up on, dressed to the nines and wearing a "bit of bling". She could be told anything and not judge. Nothing fazed her - she took us and our problems are we were and helped as best she could.
She had a tough life, she endured domestic abuse, had seven children, survived a daughter's death, survived cancer, survived her husbands alzheimers and death and yet remained an eternal optimist.
She loved getting out of the house, going shopping or going to markets and she would do anything for a bargain. She loved to laugh and go on nights out, and it was often difficult to get her to go home after. She loved weekends away. She loved music, primarily country although she was partial to a bit of Dire Straits! She harangued DJ's on local radios to play songs she liked and was known on a first name basis everywhere she went. She was great fun - slagging was often fast and furious and she was never out done in a battle of wits. She was generous - if you so much as complimented a necklace it was yours there and then. And arguments over who would pay a bill almost resulted in Mrs. Doyle like fights. She collected nick-nacks particularly ones that made noise, her house was a menagerie of singing, dancing animals.
Nothing came above family. Children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - she loved them all among her last words were that she loved everyone equally. She was willing to do anything for family. Her walls were testament to that love. Every free wall space was adorned with family photos, and a mirror of Rod Stewart that she bought but no one wanted, she felt bad for him and so he took his place on the wall too :)
She was the grand matriarch of a huge family and she is and will be sorely missed.
Monday, 13 February 2012
The Ol' celebrity obituary
Yes, yes I know the blogging has been very lax these days so let's jump back in with a celebrity obituary. No, not that singer one Whitney what's her name, she's going to be lauded all over the place. In fact Sky News seem to have no other news apart from Whitney Houston's death this morning.
No let's have a look at David Kelly, poor David has had the unfortunate timing to pass away on the same weekend as Whitney so no one seems to have noticed.Granted David died at the grand old age of eighty two so it appears that his death isn't as tragic. However we have still lost a great actor and comic genius. And we have a lost a man who used his talents to the full rather than wasting them! One of the first times I saw Kelly on television was as the inept builder O'Reilly on Fawlty Towers
As a child (and now) I was always a fan of Fawlty Towers, to the delight of my Dad who had viewing partner and much to the chagrin of my mother who's not a huge fan of slapstick comedy - we outvoted her every time Fawlty came on! In fact Kelly himself once said "I've been 52-53 years on stage, and yet Fawlty Towers, those full 9 minutes, make me recognized anywhere in the world."
David Kelly managed to light up the screen regardless of what roll he played and regardless of whether that screen was big or small.Throughout the likes of Strumpet City, Fawlty Towers, Into The West, Waking Ned, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stardust he seemed to effortlessly fill his screen character’s with a lovable, empathetic charm – and that charm seemed to have stemmed from the fact he was a genuinely likeable man. Who can forget his Grandpa Joe dance of delight, or the naked motorbike ride in Waking Ned? For a man who's screen career has spanned so long it is slightly disappointing that's reduced to a paragraph in most newspapers today.
David Kelly has left behind a wonderful legacy. How proud his family must be of a man who has enriched our culture and our tradition of producing amazing actors and story tellers. He will be sadly missed. A great man has departed from us, but with so many entertaining moments left behind he will always be remembered.
No let's have a look at David Kelly, poor David has had the unfortunate timing to pass away on the same weekend as Whitney so no one seems to have noticed.Granted David died at the grand old age of eighty two so it appears that his death isn't as tragic. However we have still lost a great actor and comic genius. And we have a lost a man who used his talents to the full rather than wasting them! One of the first times I saw Kelly on television was as the inept builder O'Reilly on Fawlty Towers
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| Don't hire this man to build a wall! |
As a child (and now) I was always a fan of Fawlty Towers, to the delight of my Dad who had viewing partner and much to the chagrin of my mother who's not a huge fan of slapstick comedy - we outvoted her every time Fawlty came on! In fact Kelly himself once said "I've been 52-53 years on stage, and yet Fawlty Towers, those full 9 minutes, make me recognized anywhere in the world."
David Kelly managed to light up the screen regardless of what roll he played and regardless of whether that screen was big or small.Throughout the likes of Strumpet City, Fawlty Towers, Into The West, Waking Ned, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stardust he seemed to effortlessly fill his screen character’s with a lovable, empathetic charm – and that charm seemed to have stemmed from the fact he was a genuinely likeable man. Who can forget his Grandpa Joe dance of delight, or the naked motorbike ride in Waking Ned? For a man who's screen career has spanned so long it is slightly disappointing that's reduced to a paragraph in most newspapers today.
 |
| Any excuse for a picture of Johnny Depp |
David Kelly has left behind a wonderful legacy. How proud his family must be of a man who has enriched our culture and our tradition of producing amazing actors and story tellers. He will be sadly missed. A great man has departed from us, but with so many entertaining moments left behind he will always be remembered.
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| Would ye like a Rasher with that |
I'll leave the last words to him with his acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement award at the IFTA's a couple of years ago:
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Michael Noonan and Emigration
Our esteemed Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has stated that “It’s (emigration) not being driven by unemployment at home, it’s being driven by a desire to see another part of the world and live there.” Now pardon my language but I'm really riled up over this. Have you ever heard such bullshit in all your life? Unemployment is 14.5% leaving over 400,000 people (myself included) out of work in this country. And Michael Noonan thinks this has nothing to do with the increase in emigration. Really? If it was all just because of a different lifestyle how come emigration has only risen during the recession? How come people have to leave their partners and children behind? Is that for the lifestyle choice? How come people so desperately want to come home, if they did it for a lifestyle choice?
The hypocrisy of his statement also sickens me. His party tore Mary Coughlan asunder a couple of years ago when she said something similar.
Fine Gael have tried to project themselves as the antithesis of Fianna Fáil. That Fianna Fáil were out of touch with the real world. That Bertie and his cronies were squandering money (which they were). But judging by Noonan's comments Fine Gael haven't a clue what's going on either. It's easy to be on a six figure wage plus expenses and think that all the little people are having a grand old time of it down below. But are we really surprised by the man who, as minister for health, treated the victims of the Hep. C. scandal so cruelly and ruthlessly? Do we really expect that man to feel sorry for us, as we struggle with financial uncertainty? Do you honestly think he cares that you're missing your family and friends? Of course he doesn't because he has never had to worry about meeting his next mortgage payment. He has never had to toss and turn and wonder if he's ever going to get a bloody job. And he knows when his daughters are fed up abroad he can pay for them to return.
Let us eat cake, let our government eat humble pie!
The hypocrisy of his statement also sickens me. His party tore Mary Coughlan asunder a couple of years ago when she said something similar.
Fine Gael have tried to project themselves as the antithesis of Fianna Fáil. That Fianna Fáil were out of touch with the real world. That Bertie and his cronies were squandering money (which they were). But judging by Noonan's comments Fine Gael haven't a clue what's going on either. It's easy to be on a six figure wage plus expenses and think that all the little people are having a grand old time of it down below. But are we really surprised by the man who, as minister for health, treated the victims of the Hep. C. scandal so cruelly and ruthlessly? Do we really expect that man to feel sorry for us, as we struggle with financial uncertainty? Do you honestly think he cares that you're missing your family and friends? Of course he doesn't because he has never had to worry about meeting his next mortgage payment. He has never had to toss and turn and wonder if he's ever going to get a bloody job. And he knows when his daughters are fed up abroad he can pay for them to return.
Let us eat cake, let our government eat humble pie!
Monday, 9 January 2012
New Year and a cure for cancer - I think not!
Apologies on the delay in writing since Christmas, hopefully I still have some of my four readers left *wave*.
This http://www.sott.net/articles/show/228583-Scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice has been doing the rounds on facebook over the past week. With some of what I consider intelligent people all up in arms about how dichloroacetate (DCA) is apparently a new medical miracle providing a cure for cancer and no one taking notice because the monsters that are big pharma think it's too cheap to produce and would rather have you dying. Lots of comments thanking the powers that be on Facebook for getting this out there since mainstream media won't.
Two points - firstly don't trust anything you read on the internet or elsewhere without delving a little deeper, secondly definitely don't trust anything you read on Facebook for fuck's sake!
Anyway back to the DCA, if you follow the links from sott.net to the University of Alberta we find an entirely different story. Clinical trials in humans with cancer have not been conducted in the USA and are not yet final in Canada, emphasizing the need for caution in interpreting the preliminary results. Even the researchers themselves say that no conclusions can be made due to the small scale studies they ran, and also said that they didn't know if improvements in patients were due to DCA or other treatments the patients had been receiving. Following its initial publication, The New Scientist later editorialized, "The drug may yet live up to its promise as an anti-cancer agent – clinical trials are expected to start soon. It may even spawn an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs. For now, however, it remains experimental, never yet properly tested in a person with cancer. People who self-administer the drug are taking a very long shot and, unlikely as it may sound, could even make their health worse. It is clear that DCA is an intriguing drug, and may become part of the oncologist's tool belt but we also have to remember that cancer is a wily little bugger, there will probably never be a 'single' cure for cancer because cancer is a set of diseases that are so diverse that the cures will also have to be diverse.
As to the Big Pharma thing - do people honestly think that it's beneficial to a pharmaceutical to keep a 'cure' for cancer under wraps. Yes they are in it for the money, do we seriously think that any pharmaceutical company in a recession wouldn't see the benefit of being the first company to produce a cure?
Sott is just blowing this whole thing out of proportion in a badly worded and factually confused article that is currently winging it's way to a Facebook page near you.
This http://www.sott.net/articles/show/228583-Scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice has been doing the rounds on facebook over the past week. With some of what I consider intelligent people all up in arms about how dichloroacetate (DCA) is apparently a new medical miracle providing a cure for cancer and no one taking notice because the monsters that are big pharma think it's too cheap to produce and would rather have you dying. Lots of comments thanking the powers that be on Facebook for getting this out there since mainstream media won't.
Two points - firstly don't trust anything you read on the internet or elsewhere without delving a little deeper, secondly definitely don't trust anything you read on Facebook for fuck's sake!
Anyway back to the DCA, if you follow the links from sott.net to the University of Alberta we find an entirely different story. Clinical trials in humans with cancer have not been conducted in the USA and are not yet final in Canada, emphasizing the need for caution in interpreting the preliminary results. Even the researchers themselves say that no conclusions can be made due to the small scale studies they ran, and also said that they didn't know if improvements in patients were due to DCA or other treatments the patients had been receiving. Following its initial publication, The New Scientist later editorialized, "The drug may yet live up to its promise as an anti-cancer agent – clinical trials are expected to start soon. It may even spawn an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs. For now, however, it remains experimental, never yet properly tested in a person with cancer. People who self-administer the drug are taking a very long shot and, unlikely as it may sound, could even make their health worse. It is clear that DCA is an intriguing drug, and may become part of the oncologist's tool belt but we also have to remember that cancer is a wily little bugger, there will probably never be a 'single' cure for cancer because cancer is a set of diseases that are so diverse that the cures will also have to be diverse.
As to the Big Pharma thing - do people honestly think that it's beneficial to a pharmaceutical to keep a 'cure' for cancer under wraps. Yes they are in it for the money, do we seriously think that any pharmaceutical company in a recession wouldn't see the benefit of being the first company to produce a cure?
Sott is just blowing this whole thing out of proportion in a badly worded and factually confused article that is currently winging it's way to a Facebook page near you.
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