Category: General

Emmy award prediction

Politics is not my usual fare though I have enjoyed Sky Atlantic’s, in association with HBO, TV series The Newsroom (one episode from the first season still to be shown in the UK).

Created by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame, the show deals with the behind the scenes and on-screen actions at a cable news broadcaster. Based around real news events such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden or the explicit text messages of Anthony Weiner, the episodes have enthralled me.

While some of the acting falls on occasion the dialogue in the programme is first rate; it’s quick, it’s quirky, dynamic, funny, it sounds real. The headliner is Jeff Daniels who plays the anchor of the news station. Dumb and Dumber is one of my favourite films and in it Jeff plays it for laughs with a brilliant performance. Here, his acting is outstanding and shows his versatility as he plays it grumpy with sardonic quips along the way. When asked why he won’t do interviews for the tabloids, he says “They use too many exclamation marks. When I say “I like the news” they print “I like the news!”

Jeff is my prediction for Emmy glory as best actor.

Continue reading “Emmy award prediction”

Another grand day out!

In a previous post, I blogged about the Grand Day Out Mrs FEEG and I had at the Olympic Athletics.

Yesterday, we went to the Olympic Park again, this time to some of the Paralympics Swimming Competition heats at the Aquatics Centre. All through the day, the weather was really good, although Mrs FEEG did embarrass me somewhat by using her collapsible umbrella as a parasol when the sun got really hot!
Continue reading “Another grand day out!”

One rung after another

Christmas. A suggestion was put forward by one of the gang to have a fancy dress party for our Christmas do. This was given a lot of consideration. The impulsive mood was in the air and the motion was almost passed. Saner minds took over and the costumed ball was binned.

My son’s football team had a fancy dress party last year. The novelty effect made it a success though no one wanted a repeat performance. I have only ever been at one myself (I was a snowman, pretty boring I know). It was that long ago it was a party held by one of my old football teams.

If we did have a dressing-up gig this Christmas I would have made a big effort and went for something special. I would have disguised myself as a window cleaner. The outlay on this costume would be minimal: A couple of chamois’s, a bucket, a sponge, one of those wipe the suds down the window thingy’s and we‘re away. Now I know what you’re thinking. This is a boring outfit. You’re forgetting one thing. Continue reading “One rung after another”

On this day a little more than 35 years ago.

Well, actually, not this exact day, but nearly, (I couldn’t resist the title,)  the UK Chart Number One was Anne Shelton and Bing Crosby singing ‘Galway Bay’…and the number one song was based on the sales of sheet music.

What was the number one song on your day of birth?

Find out here.

As easy as I, II, III

When watching an old TV show or film sometimes curiosity comes upon you to know what year the vehicle was made. Crystal clear if an easy to understand (c) 2003 flashes up on the screen. Not so simple if it’s in heathen Roman Numerals.

MMIII is crystal clear too. It gets rocky (Sly gave us I through V then he dropped the numbers with Rocky Balboa) when MCMLXXXVIII is displayed. Now you all can work out what MCMLXXXVIII is as it is prominently on display here. Trouble occurs when the Roman clock face year is shown for a split second then you’d have to be Superman (Christopher Reeve made IV of these) to decode the legion length letters (LLL is better than CL, don’t you think?). It gives me a hangover (II of these so far) when the year zips by and I’m left in the dark.

It brings it all back!

I was popping out to get a paper this morning, when I saw my near neighbour lining up her eldest daughter on the front porch in her new secondary school uniform, ready for a first day photo. Her daughter had a somewhat pained look on her face, probably not because she did not want to go to the new school, which a very good one, but because she realised that, in years to come, that photo will come back to haunt her!

I remember my parents doing much the same thing on my first day at grammar school. I looked ridiculous, because the first form uniform (or year 9 or whatever it is now) included a stupid school cap and SHORT TROUSERS, and by then I was already 5′ 7″ and built like the prop forward I rapidly became! I managed to put on as stupid an expression as my parents would let me get away with, but that photo is still the source of much family amusement.

“Oh, poor kid!!”, I thought 🙂

Hmm, what was I saying about mechanical advantage?

He, (Pistorious) was, plainly, furious at the defeat. In a post-race interview he indicated that Oliveira, who prevailed in a time of 21.45 seconds, had the advantage of having longer prosthetic legs. Indeed, he held profound reservations about some of his fellow competitors, pointing out that Oliveira and American Blake Leeper had lengthened their prostheses in pursuit of an advantage.

“We’re not racing a fair race here,” he said immediately after the race. “The regulations say that you can make yourself unbelievably high.”

Linky thing.

Please note that, unlike some of the usual dippy comments on the article, I have nothing to say about the man, whom I admire as much as any of the other athletes taking part in the games, especially the marathon and distance runners – and the blind five-a-siders.