Dear Reader,
I’m not allowed – none of us are – to use the Olympic Rings lest we demean the value to the corporates who have paid to peddle and promote their not always healthy products Olympics to our country. There is a delicious irony with Coke and McDonalds sponsoring ‘the greatest spectacle on earth’.
Fortunately, The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 et al cannot, I hope, stop me from tastefully laying out my breakfast of fried eggs and baked beans in the shape of the Olympic rings. A rasher of bacon, artfully laid out below the ‘rings’, can serve to symbolise The River Thames innit! – geddit?!!
I am not that interested in athletics or, for that matter, any of the sports in the Olympic games (but hope that those who are into the great art of couch potatoing enjoy the games – my caveat to offer protection: I would not want Boris The Buffoon popping out of my fridge to berate me for slagging orf t’games).
In a vain effort to get into the spirit of the games, I spent a happy half hour making my own Olympic Torch with newspaper and coloured wrapping paper. Unfortunately, the end result looked like a GIANT SPLIFF and I came to the view that if I yomped to the caff for my black coffee and newspapers this morning, carrying my giant spliff – this would likely attract the attention of overzealous bun eating PCSOs or ‘Community’ wardens charged by LOCOG with the important task of protecting the corporate sponsors and their tawdry rights and, in some cases, their tawdry products..
Fortunately, the British do not take kindly to ‘Jobsworths’ or officious behaviour. There have been a number of excellent stories in the press about over excited ‘community wardens’ and their high handed enforcement.
I particularly enjoyed Stuart Lee’s piece in the Observer this morning – an excellent read and well worth your time: How I was busted by the O—— Advertisement Enforcement Office – “It was only an innocent double entendre about rings of fire. But even multi-award-winning comics can fall foul of Olympic censors”
The G4S / private sector security fiasco rolls on and The Mail on Sunday reports: Minister’s daughter exposes Olympic safety scandal: Stewards made to fake NVQ qualifications and ‘trained’ in one hour at nightclub
Good to see that Adam Wagner of the UK Human Rights blog has apologised for the post on the outlawing of Dawkins in Mississippi.
Adam tweeted:
Outlawing Dawkins hoax wp.me/pJiO3-3PH 9 hours ago
All, apologies for the Richard Dawkins outlawed post – clearly a hoax. I have been offline today otherwise would have responded sooner.
I read the Rosalind English post analysing the Mississippi anti-Dworkin legislation on the UK Human Rights blog with mounting amusement. I simply assumed that Rosalind was being ‘straight faced’ and continuing with the hoax at first – but then remembered that the UK Human Rights blog is a serious blog and doesn’t do parody. Laughing in Purgatory – the website which covered the original story, may have been a clue? Anyway… good on ’em for having the grace to admit they were hoaxed. It was a very believable piece from Laughing in Purgatory and beautifully constructed.
Laughing in Purgatory reported: Mississippi Passes Anti-Richard Dawkins Legislation – a most amusing and very believable report.
RollonFriday has a great film of Dutch advocaats (?)
RollonFriday reports: “Just what are law firm marketing types smoking in the Netherlands? Just a week after RollOnFriday brought an astonishing recruitment video from top Amsterdam lawyers Deterink to a wider audience, another Dutch firm’s viral marketing video has been revealed.
Picture the scene: a bland courtroom in the Netherlands. Enter a host of grim-faced men and women in flowing black robes and white neckerchiefs. Why, it’s the lawyers of Wessel Tideman and Sassen. They line up, as if to pitch to a potential client. Will this be the usual litany of tedious statistics, deals done and so on? Absolutely not…”
Back later with a sensible Without Prejudice podcast on ‘Contempt of Court’ with David Allen Green.
Have a good one.. the sun has arrived. Phew wot a scorcha klaxons are available on sale – with no olympic ring marketing – from all good Poundlands
best, as always
Charon
Postscript: I am not prone to texting or otherwise troubling god – but this excellent article about the Bishop of Durham is a superb read. (My thanks to barrister James Vine of The Bung Blog – for alerting me to it.)
The Saturday interview: Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham
Bishop Welby of Durham – former oil executive, Libor scandal inquiry member and possible next archbishop of Canterbury – discusses corporate sin and the common good
AND..finally… I’m with Andrew Rawnsley on ‘The Olynkinks’…
This five-ring circus is only for those in love with white elephants
“I wish the best for our competitors, but it is a delusion that the Olympics will make us fitter, wealthier or happier”
I’ve not much interest in sport either, but I could just force myself to watch the beach ball… 😉
The organisers, sponsors and political cheerleaders for this tiresome non-event are plainly rattled as there seems to be a co-ordinated attempt to give the disobligingly unimpressed population their orders: YOU WILL ENJOY THIS! (OR IT WILL BE THE WORSE FOR YOU) Speaking purely for myself, these efforts haven’t worked. The prospect still leaves me cold.