Is it credible?

[aubrey]

I had a picture for this but it won't post, chiz.

BBC6 has apologised for playing Hendrix's Hey Joe straight after their first report about Oscar I'm-not-going-to-check-how-to-spell-his-name. Can you guess why?

(The BBC get very touchy about playing any record after some big bad event that might by a long stretch be seen as relating to the event in any way: it was for this reason that 10,000 Maniacs records were banned after I think it was Michael Ryan.)

[jonjel]

Feb 26, 2013 9:19:51 GMT aubrey said:

Feb 26, 2013 3:07:37 GMT marchesarosa said:

You're just miffed you didn't think it up, exco. I thought Cruelty was your middle name, anyway? Why not toddle off with your pal jean to whitewash your sepulchre AGAIN.

Come on - jokes of that kind were around from the moment the news broke; they seem to come by a kind of osmosis: I'll bet that Jonjel didn't think of the one he used - he just passed it on, like everyone (except one person) does.


The Telegraph even managed to do one accidentally - He had the world at his feet - which is what comes of not having a cliche detector and also not thinking about what you're writing. Shoddy, shoddy.

Quite so Aubrey, I did pass it on, and it was not intended as a snipe at the disabled. That is not my style. I did not, and do not consider that one to be in bad taste.

If anyone wants to get on a high horse then listen to what Billy Connolly has to say about Catholics, his argument being that he will give as good as he gets because the catholic church had criticised and vilified him for some of what he said.

I suppose some of the humourless ones will say that all the jokes about horse meat are in bad taste (no pun intended) because they snipe at horses.

[jean]

I'm not particularly bothered about the sniping at horses or even at Pistorius - it's the sniping at other board members that is so dispiriting.

And it does seem very unfair that this blameless bird should have become a byword not for anything it does itself, but for what people do to it:

[aubrey]

This one's got quite a bad reputation as well:

[jean]

Do you mean it's a coot, and it isn't even slightly bald?

[jean]

Or were you thinking of

[jonjel]

Feb 26, 2013 11:32:39 GMT jean said:

I'm not particularly bothered about the sniping at horses or even at Pistorius - it's the sniping at other board members that is so dispiriting.

And it does seem very unfair that this blameless bird should have become a byword not for anything it does itself, but for what people do to it:

A rather extreme example of pot and kettle methinks. Any active members left on WH Jean? I doubt it after all the name calling and pedantry that abounded there last time I looked.

And snipe has more than one meaning, as well you know.

[jean]

Feb 26, 2013 12:07:57 GMT jonjel said:

And snipe has more than one meaning, as well you know.

Of course it does, jonjel. That's the point.

But the meanings

To shoot or fire at (men, etc.), one at a time, usu. from cover and at long range; to pick off (a person) in this manner. Also fig. To assault with harsh sly criticism; to rebuke or censure sharply; to make a carping attack at (someone)

derive from the poor bird who is thus attacked not, as by rights they ought, from its attacker.

(Pedantry can be fun!)

Any active members left on WH Jean?

About as many as on here.

Though the individual posts tend to be much longer.

[aubrey]

I'd forgotten about bald as a coot.

How did that come about, though? The other - tortoise - meaning must have been from the sounds; but Bald as a doesn't seem to have anything going for it. Unless it's - no, it can't be. (I'm thinking of a possible joke, based on statues and old style paintings - that kind of thing. Yes, I know. I ought to be shot.)

[jean]

Feb 26, 2013 11:43:46 GMT aubrey said:

This one's got quite a bad reputation as well:

This one's reputation is probably even worse, and I can't think why nobody's posted an image of it yet:

[aqua]

For goodness sake!

There are shags and there are shags.

All of a muchness.

(Cormorant, tho, wow!)

[jean]

The common cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag.
The reason you will see, no doubt,
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.