As things will probably be fairly quiet here for a day or two (sorry), here's an Open Thread....
I see Collins Dictionary has announced its ten words and phrases of the year, including 'snowflake generation', 'sharenting' and 'Trumpism'. 'Sharenting', if you were wondering, is defined as "the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children".
My favourite definition, however, is this one:
My favourite definition, however, is this one:
Brexit (ˈbrɛɡzɪt) n. Brexit.
How about trying to guess the words of 2017?
ReplyDeleteBreexit - an overlong Brexit.
Wordfoister - the annual season when dictionaries foist new words on an unsuspecting public as a form of cheap advertising.
Trumpface - The expression of amazed disgust affected by any left-liberal presented with something that offends their sensibilities. Actually I might have seen that somewhere as text already...
Garyjezza - a male person employed in the media who poses as a man of the people but when necessary espouses elite causes in order to protect their career.
Nothing to do with BBC bias, but worth about 4 minutes of your time anyway. Found via Norman Lebrecht's 'Slipped Disc' blog, Lux Aeterna set to 'Nimrod' from Elgar's Enigma Variations. If you don't like this, you're a Remainiac racist who values music based on the skin color of the composer and performers.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwdeqVmXlHk
Thanks for posting that. Really beautiful.
DeletePS: I had to click through and think for a moment before I got the Brexit joke. Excellent. Collins wins this year over the OED just for 'snowflake generation'.
ReplyDeleteThe current BBC Letters from America series - five writers commenting on the US presidential election - has an incredible anti Trump rant this morning by a guy called Thomas Chatterton Williams. Gee, it will take a lot to "balance" it.
ReplyDeleteI used to like Zoe Heller. She used to write a self-deprecating autobiographical column, in the Times, I think it was.
DeleteBut her Letter from America yesterday was little more than a reiteration of some of the anti-Trump ‘filleted’ soundbites we’re already tired of hearing. And a slightly patronising defence of the poor rust-belt voters that made the mistake of not voting for Hillary.
That's all they ever are. A US voice not of the Progressive Left is as rare as a Penny Red stamp.
DeleteIt doesn't look as if it's going to get better.
DeleteTomorrow it's Jill Lepore of The New Yorker, author of 'Donald Trump, the Great Embarrassment'.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/donald-trump-the-great-embarrassment
On Thursday it's Andrew Sullivan, who thinks Trump is a demagogue who could drag the US into "the abyss" of "violence and barbarism".
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/andrew-sullivan-trump-america-and-the-abyss.html
Only on Friday, with philosopher John Gray, is it likely that there'll be someone who doesn't absolutely loathe the election of Trump. He'll provide "the balance"!
Presumably it's this John Gray...
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gray_(philosopher)#Political_and_philosophical_thought
His conservatism has a strong green tinge which might be why he's been allowed on...can't imagine he will approve of Trump's hydrocarbophilia.
ON ANOTHER TACK:BBC West Midlands Documentary.
ReplyDeleteLast night, while viewers in the rest of the country were watching - or not - 'Fake Britain,' we in the West Midlands were offered, "The Hunt for Classroom Extremists," subtitled, "Examining the truth behind an alleged plot by by 'hardline' Muslims to seize control of British schools, asking what really happened and whether the authorities got it right." The programme is, of course, about the notorious 'Trojan Horse plot' to take over academies in East Birmingham. The programme is available on I-player and I would urge anyone who is able to access it to watch it.
You may feel, as I do, that the tone of the subtitle makes it abundantly clear which side the BBC is on and yet, if the intention is to discredit those who attempted to blow the whistle on the take-over, the documentary fails miserably. It fails because the honesty and integrity of the two teachers who were forced out of their jobs come shining through: the Head of Maths who loved his profession and, even now, cannot talk about events without being moved to tears, and the Sikh headmaster who was dismissed and is now reduced to working in a much lower-grade post. The words of the Head of the DfE inquiry and the Birmingham councillor also carry complete conviction.
Why was this documentary not shown nationally? I suspect that the answer is that the programme makers realized that their intention to lay the blame on anyone other than the extremists had failed miserably. What was shown nationwide, though, on BBC News was a grieving Muslim mother whose son was 'taken from her' when he was fighting for Daesh. Thanks to David Vance at 'Biased BBC,' we know that she was, in fact, one of the three B'ham governors forced from office in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal - coincidence or not?
Sisyphus
It's being shown on the News Channel on Saturday and Sunday (26th and 27th). Details here (scroll down to see the times): http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2532078/123025672/the-hunt-for-classroom-extremists
ReplyDelete