What IS this?: May 2006

Poor Guy

Bless the BBC. They charge every TV set owner in the UK a mere £130 a year for the marvelous privilege of watching their two commercial-free chanels. (Fortunatlely, there is a small discount if you are legally blind, or watching telly in black and white. Phew!)

Unfortunately for them, they still commit cock-ups like this. This bloke, a Guy Goma from a country whose national language is not English, trots up to the station for a basic job interview and ends up being grilled on live television within minutes. Misstaken for some financial authority, he bravely soldiered through until the slot was over. His facial expression throughout was priceless.

What YOU lookin' at?

Muppet: (noun) A foolish or stupid person, a general idiot; as in 'Locked yourself out again? You're such a muppet.' Also: muppet-behaviour, muppet-move etc.

On my softball team, at least we get to choose what kind of Muppet we are. I, for example, am one of the old grouchies spewing tart wisdom. (The guy with the monobrow, not the excessive nosehair.)

U gonna hit that?

It was a nice try, however foolish. Responding to overwhelming demand, a London outfit has finally erected the first batting cages in the UK. Quite thrilled was I. There really isn't a care in the world that can't be taken care of by a few swift swings with a 30 oz bat.
Unfortunately, "putt-putt" doesn't begin to describe the dinkyness of these machines. Possibly they are ok for cricket practice (ie, the ball bounces half-way between the batter and the pitcher) but this is frankly unsubstanciated. I did try standing about 10 feet away from the ball machine to hit some stuff out of the air but given the rain-slick conditions and the prospect of being hit in the back by some other batter this effort was short-lived.
Oh well, at least the publicity photo is pretty.