Monthly Archive for July, 2007

Vinyl solution

The Official Colourbox World Cup ThemeI dug the old turntable out of the loft months ago and never had the time to dub off any of that precious vinyl… and when I did get round to it I discovered the stylus was missing. I didn’t want to shell out the best part of £100 on one of those USB turntables, so I sent £20 to the Diamond Stylus Company in Wales. A few days later a shiny new stylus arrived.

And I know why vinyl died out. It’s crap. It pops, hisses, clicks and is horribly prone to sibilance. But listening to ‘Glad it’s all over’ by Captain Sensible and ‘The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme’ for the first time in over twenty years put a big stupid grin on my face.

Time travel makes you queasy

Shaun the Sheep - Take AwayFurther to my pathetic joke “Is ITV 2+1 the same as ITV3?”… we were just watching ITV 2+1 and the announcer said “…and if you missed this programme, it’s just starting now on ITV 2+1″. You’re twisting my melon, man.

Anyway, I think ‘plus one’ channels should be banned from DTT / Freeview. That kind of profligacy with bandwidth is ok for you Sky types, but not us down here on Planet Perky.

The name game

When we had our first child we just couldn’t agree on his surname. I wanted him to have mine, my wife wanted him to have her’s. So we did that awful compromise and he became a double-barreled Booth-Farmer. I don’t like it, but it seemed the least-worst option.

We know one couple that changed both their names to a third name, but this seems frankly bonkers. But I do wonder what happens if Henry Booth-Farmer marries Sophie Rees-Harmer… will their first child be Maisie Booth-Farmer-Rees-Harmer?

I think I’ve found a solution. There’s a girl in Henry’s class with the surname Booth. He should marry her and - in a gesture of right-on feminist solidarity - ensure he and their children take her name.

Jon Ronson… going up

Who’d have thunk it? Guardian magazine columnist Jon Ronson, who normally winds me up every Saturday morning, has shot up in my estimation. Apparently he recently told mad shyster David Shayler to ‘fuck off’. On Radio 4.