They Used to Read the Papers

September 23, 2009

paper chase

Blade has yet to read Harold Evans’ latest book, My Paper Chase, but he notes that reviewers tend to agree with Donald Trelford in lavishing much praise on the former Sunday Times editor’s memoir and yet also seeing it as a valediction for a dying industry.

Blade would be the first to lament the death of newspapers, but as an inveterate QPR fan and sometime denizen of Times newspapers he finds solace in They Used to Play on Grass. Co-written by Terry Venables in the early Seventies when he was a player with QPR, the book’s title anticipates a new football order of plastic pitches and artificiality. The latter may, for those who bemoan the “prawn sandwich” contingent, have come to pass, but QPR’s pioneering plastic pitch, installed in 1982, died without a whimper just a few years later.

They used to read the papers in print – and, for now, they still do.

 

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Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.

An excellent ad if ever there was one

January 25, 2012
legovader

We seem to be visually led this week but sometimes words proliferate far too much and letting an image do the talking is no bad thing. That’s another way of saying that ACCESS Agency’s work with Lego is absolutely top drawer.