she sings and sighs as the shuttle flies

 OK, so most of the BBC Ross/Brand commentary is exceedingly boring. Stupid idea, and not funny. But how many of the people complaining would actually ever have been listening to the show? Essentially the whole storm seems to have been brewed up in order
a) for boring people to have something to whine about (see http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/ for the long history of this)
b) for the conservatives to undermine public broadcasting on the flimsiest of pretexts.
c) both

I was unimpressed to hear the chairman of the BBC trust complaining about programs on the beeb sailing close to the wind (in general) around 'young and impressionable' listeners, and declaring this must stop. Thinking about the level of (albeit clever) smut on radio 4 programs like ISIHAC, it's clear that the debate about censorship hasn't advanced much since the obscenity trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover, where the prosecuting QC asked the jury 'would you allow your wife or even your servants to read this book'. That is to say, no of course such material doesn't corrupt *me* but won't you *please* think of the children???

exactlyhalf 'Is Stephen Fry gay?'
dr_b 'come on, what was his most famous role?'
exactlyhalf 'Colonel Melchett?'




Judge, regarding a man who has murdered both his children by stabbing them

" For any man to kill his child is a ghastly, horrific crime. To kill two of your children, each in different ways vulnerable and under your trust, is almost unimaginable."

Now, maybe I am deeply twisted, but halfway through this, I was convinced he was going to say 'looks like carelessness'.

Also! Today we had bundles of crap flying around the ward, when the nurse co-ordinating told me that 'what I had said restored his sense of balance'. Huh? Turns out he overheard me taking a patient's history and saying 'So, apart from the cancer, the back pain, the high blood pressure, high cholesterol and constipation - do you have any other medical problems? No?' Apparently this sounded much like 'So, apart from wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Nothing!'

Just how I like my days: pythonesque.

ETA: OK, clearly I overestimated the well-knownness of Wilde

So in the last week I've lost count of the number of times someone has asked me to express chagrin that 'Team GB' (seriously?) has won more gold medals than Australia at the Olympics. Seriously. As though I ought to start gnashing my teeth in despair at this fact.

I've always been rather ashamed at the fact that, per head of population, Australia features quite highly in these tables, because, frankly, it suggests we spend far too much money to enable people to take part in elite competitions. It doesn't reflect the sporting prowess (or participation) of the average Australian, but does highlight a rather nasty aspect of our culture - that we care deeply about being the winner in zero sum games. To see the Brits now aspiring to that is depressing.

To have radio 4 natter on about how they have more medals than Australia for more than 10 minutes every morning is a bore, and undermines the high ground Britain had previously held (in being able to claim to have more important things to care about).

Next time the Daily Mail rails at NICE for 'trying to put a price on human life', http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1042447/MAIL-COMMENT-How-NHS-price-life.html
maybe they could ask how many cancer drugs could be funded with the £12 billion budget for 2012. And instead of bemoaning the use of public money to treat 'obesity and IVF',
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7561724.stm
maybe Terry Pratchett could hassle the cycling team to fund his Aricept.

There are things I freely admit This Country does far better than My Country. These include but are not limited to: spring, beer, architecture, meadows, summer evenings, rivers and river sports, pudding, water recycling and comedy.

There are however some things in which I think My Country could give This Country some lessons. I have previously listed coffee and brunch. To this I add beaches, voter enrollment, election night broadcasting and hospital communications systems. It would spark endless controversy if I added cricket[1] and tea[2], but they do rightly belong on this list.

Now I add exams. Honestly, this finals system is an effing travesty, which seems to in no useful way assess the intellectual achievements of very bright and hard working people. Those of you who are/have just/have previously suffered through it have much admiration from me. Can those of you now climbing the pole of academia not, like, fix it?


[1] Perhaps our teams could be more gracious, but we are still better at actually playing the game successfully, you know it's true ;)

[2] In My Country, this beverage does not come with a floaty layer of scum on top. I've been told this is at least partly due to Oxford water. I intend to investigate this further with the help of an antipodean friend currently holidaying up north.

ETA
OK, I make two qualifying concessions

1. Apparently English tea is only scummy if you live in a hard water area, and these do exist in Australia as well. (I knew mentioning tea would start a war!)

2. The abysmal exam system may be largely limited to Oxbridge. So that means it's only inflicted on a large number of the most academically inclined undergrads. Goody.

Well, actually, it was below freezing, and it became one of those times it is made apparent to me I am living in a different country (not in a transported bubble of normality as I sometimes think). It looked frosty outside, so I cleverly remembered to take a big bottle of warmish water on the 5 minute trek to where my car is parked. Poured said water over frosted windshield and windows. Said water turned into a (thicker) layer of ice.

I ended up resorting to running the engine and heater while defrosting the glass with my hands, which were (ever so slightly) above freezing, until I could actually see.

I can envisage I'm going to have to invest in some sort of squidgee-scraper thingummy.

OK, here I am, stuck on night shift and there are NO PATIENTS!

I bought some study (which I don't yet feel like doing), but no novel, so I'm thinking, now is a good time for fanfic recommendations.

(That I can safely read on a work computer ;)

...Is it really OK to use the word 'poorly' as an adjective?

I might, with the soundest of grammar say
That house is poorly constructed.
Considered on an hourly basis I may be poorly paid, but in some of those hours, I get to sleep!

But can I really and truly say:

His stomach has been poorly.

Poorly what? Poorly ventilated? Poorly exposed? It's an adverb, dammit! Yet for the past few nights, I have heard seemingly well educated people say sentences very similar to the above.

So how is it that this little adverb has come to be so sorely misued?