This week’s (belated – blame the jetlag) whimsy is brought to you by the 70s nostalgia of the very first episode of The Magic Roundabout.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
NB: the weekly whimsy thread is a stoush-free zone
I was always worried when Zed says “time for bed’ but enjoyed it anyway even the Goodies send up was enjoyable. The simplistic style of the program was a joy to watch.
Together with Andy Pandy and Looby Lou’s show, one of my favourite programs from back then. I liked Zebedee and Dougal best
Anyone seen H.R. Puffinstuff recently!
Could I have some of what they had!
Not sure if this is funny, or just plain tragic.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322149/British-children-think-Spanish-Armada-dish-Sir-Walter-Raleigh-invented-bicycles.html
Andrew Bolt seems, strangely, to have avoided this story so far. Has he gone soft? Jes’ it must prove something.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/banned-the-muslim-girl-who-dacked-boy-after-one-hijab-crack-too-many/comments-e6frf7jo-1225940996768
what could Bolty say, Joe2? Is there a better example of multiculturalism at work than a muslim girl dacking an annoying boy?
I found an article in the Guardian yesterday about budgie breeders in the UK, along with a series of pictures, that is quite… amusing.
“what could Bolty say, Joe2?”
dunno, sg, but it makes it pretty hard when he’s not there to guide my reasonable and spontaneous indignation.
There is nothing whimsical about Andrew Bolt, and mentions tend to rapidly become stoush-bait. Enough.
Re the budgies. The ribbons are bigger than the birds!
I have a brief post on the budgies on my blog, Paul, because reading the article I noticed that a) budgie-fanciers are all white and middle-class, and seem to also be largely male, b) they’re very nerdy in their own way, c) the hobby is very small (about 3000 people apparently), d) it’s inherited.
This sounds a bit like the hobby I do, and the similarities are a bit disturbing…
Except gaming is safer. Budgies can bite.
(Liked your posts on HIV-AIDS, too.)
My ex-missus used to breed budgies, sg. Not in the same class as the ones in that article, but it was an interesting hobby, and they’re delightful creatures.
Thanks Paul, my world seems to be consumed with HIV-related info at the moment. Do budgies bite?
Sad and non-whimsical story: my brother once kept two budgies, and one morning when one of them wouldn’t sing, he threw it at the wall. I spent two days nursing it in my room until it died. My brother was 18 at the time. Maybe he could have made a living in budgie-fancier circles doing industrial espionage.
PB @ 4
Don’t laugh but last Saurday night watching the “Year in the Life of” royal program I was asked by my 18 year old whether the “monarch” they kept referring to was the guy standing in the doorway introducing people to HM!
Dunno about the budgies, but the Noisy Mynahs that scavenge the tables at the Cafe Enternet at Griffith’s Nathan Campus are experiencing an obesity epidemic.
BTW I’ve been to see Concrete Blonde and Pat Benatar (supported by the Bangles) on successive nights. Two nights of rock music at its best, and I do believe the women of my generation might be the grooviest that have ever lived.
Paul (#4),
I found it funny – particularly as the author of the piece had several of the incidental “facts” wrong. For example – Raleigh did not introduce either tobacco or the potato to England. Most of the more ridiculous answers were given by small percentages of children.
We’re groovy in every generation, though as a eighties teen, i’ll take the compliment!
bmitw @ 14,
Many years ago a friend of mine teaching German lit. at UNE swore black and blue that a first year student in one of his tutorials asked who Hitler was.
AR @ 17,
which error probably comes from believing everything they saw in Elizabeth: The Gol;den Age.
PB @ 19
Amazing. And in my case after making the correction I was asked what a monarch does. Reminds me of the quip from the Queen Mother advising her daughter not to overexert herself as she had to “reign all afternoon”.
But it is not just the lack of knowledge that is a concern. I was at a 21st recently where 60-70 people had said they were definitely going but 30 of those didn’t turn up. And this has been happening to friends of mine as well. A casualty perhaps of the instant communications age.
Paul, we talked about this before, didn’t we? Once again, all this reading of books is screwing with your head. Are you trying to tell me Elizabeth didn’t really wear that armour?
I always liked Dylan the rabit on Magic Roundabout the best.
Noggin the Nog anyone?
I have it on good authority that a bloke appearing in the Canberra Time Social Pages gave his name as Mike Litorus.
Paul,
You mean the scene with Dudley was not true? Next thing you will tell me is that Leicester’s Commonwealth was fiction.
[rends garments]
thanks Tigtog, the takkers loved it
I think the scene with the armour was true. Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett both wore it. So it must be.
Its been a long time since I’ve read up on Elizabethan England, but from my dim memories of it – I think it was a bio by A. L. Rowse, Elizabeth didn’t actually bed anyone.
Reading, btw, does rot the brain. I had to have a nap this afternoon and just before it I’d been reading on and off most of the day. QED.
This is kind of funny, the freedoms yankees owe slackers, prostitutes etc i don’t agree with all of it and am kind of interested in what Paul Burns thinks of it.
Yes Mindy @23. Mike was at the ACT Bachelor of the Year event which was covered in yesterday’s Canberra Times. I had no trouble finding him.
Definitely whimsy, but with a tinge of sadness.
RIP Ari.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyXGblps64M
I think this song would be in my lifetime top 10.
The sooner Australia relieves the mother country of its Sopwith Camels, the more solid our national defence will become. Clarke and Dawe did the business again tonight.
These blokes could take the biscuit out of a cookie jar.
Perhaps a little German rock and roll.
dylab agh @ 27,
The link don’t open.
And, how’s this for serendipity – Elizabeth: The Golden Age was on Prime 2 last night.
Helen@ 29…didn’t know she’d passed. Best band, saw them supporting the Clash, they were dynamite and the Clash had to work real hard after ‘em.
Sorry Paul lets try this
dylan agh.
There was certainly a red light district in Boston in the middle of a military camp, at a place named rather colourfully, Mount Whoredom. From the slender evidence available, its use extended beyond to military to white males who had the cash.
I haven’t come across any references to black/white interacial sex so far in my reading but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. If it did occur it would most likely to have occurred in British-occupied New York.
I doubt very much that there would be inter-racial sex between blacks and whites in the southern states, not necessarily because of any moral stance, but because throughout the War of Independence there was in the South a fear of slave revolt, notably in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina. White women appear toi have been just as harsh towards blacks as white men, though again, the evidence I’ve seen is fragmentary.
e Native Americans. The Akenabi were encouraged by Bostonians to chuck brown-eyes at the British Navy, but the Indian presence in the East was relatively small.
The biggest problems everywhere were drunkenness and gambling in both the British and Continental armies.
Thats all I can tell you at the moment.
Forgive my backtracking, I’ve had a broadband outage for most of the day!
Ah, but Glenda only wore a cuirass over a riding habit, while Cate wore the full sardine tin. The Glenda version seems closer to what is attested about the Tilbury speech, for my money.
@dylan agh
You’re most welcome. mr tog reminds me that the narrator is Eric Thompson (Emma’s dad) and that he refused to read any translations of the original French voice-overs, and provided his own storylines. Hmm.
“”broad band outrage…”?
yeah, I get that with my computer all the time, especially when they spam me, also rong button push and lose what I was writing..
dylan agh @ 35,
I was not talking about master slave relationships in my previous comment, but consensual or professional sexual relations. Should have made that clearer. We should transfer the rest of this conversation to Saturday Salon if its meant to continue.
Paul i didn’t expect that many words tho the piece produced nearly that many chuckles for me.
cheers
his own scripts huh, well the one above is a lot more fun than the modern version. tho a few lines like “no wonder it was privatised” and “what this roundabout needs is an advertising campaign” might liven it up.
tigtog @ 37,
Undoubtedly. As much as I enjoy the Elizabeth movies I’ve always thought they were extremely free in their use of dramatic locence. Not that I’m complaining.
“Film is film and history is history
and never the twain shall meet.”
And the award for the most revolting but funny thought of the year goes to Holden Back(who should have)for this comment at Pure Poison….