Boadicea's Chariot

Another excellent day for England – the moment of madness from Strauss aside, that is. You have to say that Australia look pretty woeful at the moment. England have scored 800+ runs for the loss of their last 3 wickets. Cook has scored more runs between dismissals than any other English cricketer. What’s the forecast for tomorrow – England 700 -odd by close of play and this match in the bag, or a traditional collapse early on and Australia into the driving seat for the first time. Might be an all-nighter for me tonight 🙂

80 members of the Niagara Chorus made a surprise appearance in the Food Court of the Seaway Mall in Welland. This choir, which requires an audition to join, is made up of people from across
the Niagara region; there are several members from Niagara-on-the-Lake.

I thought you might like to see the video of their performance.

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.
George Santayana

Goodnight everyone, sleep well.

A lady walks into Harrods. She looks around, spots a beautiful diamond bracelet and walks over to inspect it. As she bends over to look more closely, she unexpectedly farts.
Very embarrassed, she looks around nervously to see if anyone noticed her little woops and prays that a sales person was not anywhere near.
As she turns around, her worst nightmare materializes in the form of a salesman standing right behind her – Good looking as well!
Cool as a cucumber, he displays all of the qualities one would expect of a professional in a store like Harrods.
He politely greets the lady with, ‘Good day, Madam. How may we help you today?
Blushing and uncomfortable, but still hoping that the salesman somehow missed her little “incident”. she asks, ‘Sir, what is the price of this lovely bracelet?’
He answers,

“Madam – if you farted just looking at it – you’re going to shit yourself when I tell you the price!”

Keep on running – TSDG

It is fairly common now to see criticism of poor grammar in the media, and particularly in the BBC. I agree with those critics, but what irritates me, as someone who used to train managers in negotiating and interviewing skills, is the very low standard of interviewing one hears on the radio. I listen daily to The Today Programme and despair when I hear the interviews, or confrontations as many are more properly called.

Quite apart from the frequent, unnecessary interruptions, the style of questioning is entirely wrong. This morning, Justin (?) asked an interviewee ‘Does it depress you when….’ Has he not been told to avoid asking ‘leading’ questions? A leading question is one that indicates the answer the interviewer expects or seeks. It steers the interviewee, so making the answer worthless as an indication of their real opinion. Leading questions are now common on The Today Programme.

Equally worthless is the ‘piggyback’ form of questioning. With this form, the interviewer asks a question, but before the interviewee can reply, a rider, qualification or explanation is offered in the form of a second question which is slightly different from the first. This allows the interviewee an option: which to answer. On countless occasions I have heard politicians use the piggyback as a means of escaping the original question.

Please, BBC, train your interviewers to use ‘open’ questions, those that give no hint of the interviewer’s opinion or wish, but hang there, demanding a response in the interviewees own words. They are far more effective.

Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
Oliver Cromwell

Goodnight everyone, sleep well.

I don’t usually have difficulty with the English language, but I am at a loss to understand a word now. A report in the DT today mentions that David Beckham was ‘mulleted’. Does that mean that he wore spurs, had a fish in his mouth, or what?