Tasblog- Digressions of a Hyphenate

Toxic Builder Syndrome

TBC

The Great British Dessert Riots

Friday night dinner. Time for communality, conviviality and commensality. That's what working with adverts for dreams does to you, anyway.
Instead, the temptation of the M&S desserts (featured, temptingly, left) proved an incitement to unpleasantness amongst the E-T kids.
Let this be a warning to you all....

Science of Compliance

Hi all

Been reading the Derren Brown tome (so-called because it was given to-me)on the occasion of My Not Quite You-Know-What birthday on NYE.

Given that the E-Ts are generally huge Derrenophilists (Brownites being associated with political factionalism, I believe) it is the latest in our trans-media consumption plan of the goateed-one.

Not only have N, J and I seen DB live (twice, since you ask: it may have been more but I don't recall;) but we are avid viewers of the shows and specials. Add to this a budding magician (Z) with whom I have already indulged in a profound conversation (or nine) about heuristics and belief, and we're all set for a glorious odyssey of the mind.

Hopefully this thread Science of Compliance is something I'll return to; either in the forthcoming Admap Conference (March 29th) or elsewhere.

Negative Trajectories No. 1

Another Celebrity Dog Dies

...or should that be Celebrity's Dog dies?

This should probably be filed under Assorted Grumpiness but why the sudden fixation on asinine canine reportage? First George Clooney's dog gets an obituary that would have fitted a Soviet president. Now a Cornish chef gives a eulogy that seems to have been penned by Earl Spencer.

"Stein said that Chalky had always been the family dog who was loved by his children, and was healthy right up until the last six months of his life", according to the Beeb online. So the family had a popular dog that lived until it stopped living.

It's also reported that he tried to bite the Prince of Wales (Chalky not Rick).

I put that down as a missed opportunity.

More puzzling is the way that everyone takes leave of their senses at these times of intense pet-induced depression.

"It's a source of puzzlement to me that he never knew how famous he was," Mr Stein said.

No puzzle, Rick. he just didn't have the neo-cortex.

(Tas is the owner of 2 cats and is not remotely surprised that they do not subscribe to this blog)

But How Could They Tell?

One in five Home Office statistics are unreliable, says department head

From today's Guardian.

Reminds me of Dorothy Parker's response to President Coolidge's death

Editors

Big fan of the Editors: here's All Sparks....

Clear Blue

Clear Blue:arguably the most extraordinary line of dialogue in a TV commercial in years.

My Epitaph

The tombstone erected by Robin Cook's wife and his two sons and placed in Edinburgh received much coverage. The noble declaration contained thereon was:

"I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war."

In slightly less morbid fashion, it got me thinking about my own epitaph. Having discounted Spike Milligan's "I told them I was ill", I felt my options were two-fold. What the kids would have printed (assuming they were interested), and how I would probably sum up my life in 3 words.

Laptop Sub-Variant Purchase History I

COMING SOON TOO

"Prestige" and Prestige

The film, the word and Advertising-COMING SOON....

TS Eliot and Big Brother

"Humankind cannot bear very much reality". Thus spake poet, novelist and notorious anagram T S Eliot.

Me neither.