Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Madeleine McCann: Kidnapper Dead, No Burglars And Amaral’s New Book
MADELEINE MCANN: Did you know that the man who kidnapped the child is dead? Well, so they say in one Portuguese tabloid. What says the British Press?
Daily Mirror:
Maddie suspect ‘died in crash four years ago'”
Top use of inverted commas, there. He was a suspect. Fact. But he only might have died.
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Posted: 31st, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment
Watch David Bowie’s Cracked Actor: The Queasy Lure Of Fame
IN 1974, David Bowie was at a low ebb. The 1975 BBC film Cracked Actor recorded the singer on his 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour. The then 27-year-old Alan Yentob’s Omnibus film showed Bowie in the raw. In 1987, Bowie would say of the BBC film:
“I was so blocked … so stoned … It’s quite a casualty case, isn’t it. I’m amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely.”
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
Rebekah Brooks Phone Hacking Trial In Photos
THE Phone Hacking Trial: Day 1:
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are both accused of conspiracy to intercept communications in the course of their transmission. They allegedly conspired with former News of the World (NotW) head of news Ian Edmondson, 44, from Raynes Park, south west London, the tabloid’s ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, from Woodford Green, Essex, and others to illegally access voicemails between October 3 2000 and August 9 2006.
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Flashback: Little Lord Franklin Delano Roosevelt And Budgy Ride His Pet Donkey In A Short Skirt
FLASHBACK 1884: Future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 2, perches on a pet donkey with his dog Budgy.
Before The Trumpet:
At five months, Franklin was put into short skirts, “as he liked to kick and feel free to move about.” He had cut two teeth by the end of his first summer, but his mother worried that he was “rather too thin, not as fat as a baby ought to be”; he would, in fact, remain remarkably slender until middle age. By November he was trying “to imitate Budgy [Mr. James’s white spitz] and the cats and manages to say a semblance of papa and mama.” That same autumn he was taken to his first adult party on a nearby estate. “Baby wanted to dance,” Sara wrote. “I could hardly hold him.” In May of 1883, Franklin walked unaided for the first time and “was quite proud of his accomplishment.”
Franklin had the bad luck to have been born at the height of the fever of sentimentality kindled in American mothers’ hearts by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel Little Lord Fauntleroy. In emulation of its precious hero, Franklin’s mother kept him in dresses and long curls until he was nearly six. Then she dressed him in Scottish kilts and highland caps, and finally reluctantly permitted him to wear.
Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
How To Spot Despotism Using The Respect And Power Scales
HOW can you spot despotism? Is your community near to despotism. Where does it figure on the Respect Scale and the Power Scale?
The films was created in 1946.
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October 30: On This Day Father Jerzy Popieluszko Is Found Murdered By Poland’s Secret Police
ON This Day: October 30: Jerzy Popieluszko was found. He’d been murdered.
Photo above: Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa appears on the stage of a Warsaw theater in 1980 under a large solidarity banner. Date: 01/01/1980.
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Death By Tractor
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news.
Madeleine McCann ‘kidnapper’ was ‘hotel worker who snatched her after being sacked then DIED in tractor accident’
Why is kidnapper in inverted commas?
Portuguese police are believed to have identified the 40-year-old former Ocean Club employee following tests on his mobile phone, local media reported
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment
In 1976 Margaret Hamilton Terrified The Children Of Sesame Street
HEY, kids, ready to be scared? Sesame Street thought so. On February 10, 1976 , the Children’s Television Workshop aired episode #847. The special guest star was Margaret Hamilton, who reprised her role as The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West.
She’s been on the magic box earlier, telling the kids tuned into Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to show the viewers that she was not a real witch just a normal woman.
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment
Footballers Forever Associated With Certain Items Of Food
FOOTBALLERS Forever Associated With Certain Items Of Food
“Mark Bosnich was a terrible professional,” claims Sir Alex Ferguson in his autobiography, which was launched in a small room above a Salford pub last week, to mass indifference.
“We played down at Wimbledon and Bosnich was tucking into everything: sandwiches, soups, steaks. He was going through the menu. I told him, ‘For Christ’s sake, Mark, we’ve got the weight off you. Why are you tucking into all that stuff?’ We arrived back in Manchester, and Mark was on mobile phone to a Chinese restaurant to order a takeaway.”
And with these words, Mark ‘Sniffer’ Bosnich achieves membership of the exclusive Footballers Forever Associated With Certain Items Of Food Club.
There could even have been another, had Fergie revealed the identity of the culprit to blame for ‘Pizzagate’, when a row between himself and Arsene Wenger in 2004 culminated in carb carnage. “The next thing I knew, I had pizza all over me,” recalls the red-faced recently-retired ruler of Old Trafford. He says he did not see who threw it, but that Cesc Fabregas has been suggested to him. And that’s good enough for us, so Cesc is hereby inducted, along with his missile of choice.
Arsene Wenger remained typically inscrutable this week: “I don’t know about food throwing. I did not see if something was thrown – you’ll have to ask someone else, because I don’t know.”
When Cesc arrives, he will find another Arsenal old boy awaiting him…
Chips
In 1986, ‘Champagne’ Charlie was arrested outside the Confusion Bar in Ibiza, for an unusual twist on the usual footballers’ fracas. Scottish holidaymaker Lori McElroy alleged that Nicholas stole a chip from her, and then broke her jaw in the ensuing argument. Nicholas was found guilty but continued to deny any wrongdoing.
Chips would haunt Charlie years later, when working as a pundit for Sky. Anchorman Jim White, presumably assuming his mic was switched off, referred to the Celtic fans’ chorus of The Fields of Athenrye with a reference to the Irish potato famine.
“Oh here we go again, the tottie famine,” said Jim.
“Aye, and they’re all eating chips while singing this,” replied Nicholas, to the displeasure of the Bhoys’ worldwide army of millions.
Roast dinner with all the trimmings
Terry Venables remembers breaking into the Chelsea team as a youngster and playing alongside the legendary Jimmy Greaves. Greavsie was only three years older than Terry, yet he was already a superstar, and would soon move to AC Milan. He lived near Venables, and would give him a lift to matches. The first time this happened, Jim explained that he usually stopped for lunch at a café, so they went in and Venables – already at the vanguard of modern practices – ordered steamed chicken. He was shocked to see Greaves polish off a massive plate of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, veg, and roast AND mashed potatoes. This he followed up with a large bowl of stodge and custard. “I always have this,” he said. Venables says Greaves proceeded to score a hatful of goals that afternoon. But then, he usually did.
Speaking of dinners, an honoury mention must also go to erstwhile Orient manager John ‘bring yer fu*king dinner’ Sitton, for his legendary televised half-time rant…
Lasagna
Tottenham Hotspurs’ Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe walk off dejected at the final whistle
Martin Jol’s Tottenham side of 2005-06 will be remembered for their valiant but ultimately unsuccessful assault on the final Champions League spot. To make it worse, it was arch-rivals West Ham who ruined their party by beating them 2-1 on the final day. And to put the tin lid on it, it was Arsenal who pipped them to fourth.
The defeat was blamed squarely upon a lasagna which had been served to the players at the London Marriott in West India Quay, where the players aere staying before the game. Ten players went down with a mystery illness, assumed to be food poisoning, although the hotel was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Pies
David Beckham, as reported here recently, is a lifelong pie and mash fan, and even went to the lengths of taking the Spurs players and backroom staff to lunch at a local emporium during his brief stint training at the north London club.
But when it comes to meat-filled be-crusted comestibles, one man is synonymous: chunky Mick Quinn, whose candid autobiography is rhetorically entitled Who Ate All The Pies?
The scouse goal-machine once picked up a pie that was thrown at him from the crowd and ate it, to the amusement of all. He has been known to repeat the story from time to time in the course of his broadcasting duties.
Mars Bars
Paul Gascoigne’s love of the ‘iconic’ chocolate brick was well known, and when he turned out for Spurs against his former club Newcastle United the Toon fans bombarded him with said confectionary. Whereupon Gazza ‘did a Quinny’ and chomped enthusiastically.
Testicles
Mention ‘testicles and football’ and the connection is obvious: Wimbledon FC – although this is nothing to do with Gazza’s bollocks…
…and everything to do with the defunct club’s owner Sam Hammam, who introduced the novel forfeit of eating sheep’s gonads as part of the ‘Crazy Gang’ disciplinary code.
Crisps
No contest…
Sandwiches
It would be easy to just post a picture of Roy Keane, who indirectly coined the phrase “prawn sandwich brigade” during a mini-rant about Manchester United’s gentrified supporters.
Yet Keano’s comments are trumped by events at Grimsby, where Town’s Ivano Bonetti was supposedly injured when manager Brian Laws threw chicken wings at him. The sandwich-based truth is slightly different.
Laws says that Bonetti hurled sandwiches – and a punch – at him, and that he merely retaliated in kind: “I’ve no idea where the chicken leg or wing part of the story came from! It almost put a bit of humour to it, but we felt it was best to leave things be and put things right later on. That incident gets brought up quite a lot and people laugh at it now – and I do as well – but at the time it wasn’t very funny or nice to be involved in. It was an incident which unfortunately spilled out into the press and all hell broke loose at the time.”
McDonald’s
The restaurant of choice for footballers seeking a pre-brawl snack, as patronised by Lee Bowyer (pictured here fighting with team-mate Kieran Dyer). Bowyer was convicted of affray at the Isle of Dogs branch…
And Joey Barton, back home in Liverpool…
Oranges
Charlton Athletic keeper Charlie Wright is fondly remembered for his tendency to wander behind his goal and chat with supporters. Legend has it that once, while accepting an orange from a fan, the opponents scored.
Salad cream
Step up, Dave Beasant. If you can, that is.
Beasant missed two months of the 1993-94 season after knocking over a jar of salad cream which fell onto his foot, causing serious injury. Some say it was mayonnaise, but unfashionable salad cream took the rap.
Bananas
Eternal spring chicken Gordon Strachan (pictured here with the world’s largest banana split) famously lives on a diet of the curvy peely fruit. “Gordon couldn’t spell banana when he was 20,” says former team-mate Alex McLeish “He ate pork pies then. But we had a teetotal right-back called Stuart Kennedy who brought in books about the diets of Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova. That’s when we started good eating habits.”
Unfortunately, the enduring image of footballers and bananas is less savoury. John Barnes was famously snapped back-heeling a banana thrown at him by the Goodison faithful in 1988.
“I don’t remember doing that,” he said later. “I mean the picture is there but bananas back then were common. The reason it all came to the fore is because I was playing for a high-profile club like Liverpool. For six years before, that happened every week, but because it was a small club it wasn’t highlighted. In terms of me being angry and wanting to fight people in the stands though, it never happened, I consider those people to be ignorant, so how could they affect any part of life or any part of my demeanour.”
Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comments (2)
Scottish Teacher Tells Class Hitler ‘Wasn’t All Bad’
KIDS want to leant about the future, men like Simon Cowell, Nigel Farage and Justin Bieber. They’re not interested in yesterday’s men, like Stalin, Pol Pot, Dave Lee Travis and Duran Duran.
But David McNally, a religious education supply teacher at Kilwinning Academy in Ayrshire, did’t get the memo. When he told the children “Hitler wasn’t all bad, he killed the Jews, the gays and disabled”, the kids remembered what he said and told their parents about this man called Hitler. Did they remember what else teachers told them at school that day? We’d wager not. The parents’ usual question “What did you do at school?” is met with a shrug, the word ‘stuff‘ or “nuffink much”.
Rather than thanking Mr McNally for enabling the children to better identify a bigot and keep them up-to-speed with Nazi sympathisers, some complained and Mr McNally has been tried and found unfit to teach.
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Giant Beach Ball and Fallen Wind Turbines Highlight Perils Of Global Waming In Devon and London
A GIANT beach ball “ being used to highlight the CO2 emissions a new £200 million development would cut back on” broke broke free and bounced about London’s Old Street as St Jude’s storm blew.
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North London Horror Stories: Hampstead Residents Can’t Find Organic Produce
“I HAVE already complained to the manager about the reduction in organic produce,” says Hampstead resident Jenny Anderson of the absence of organic stuff at her Tesco supermarket. “It used to be quite prominent, but I feel they have steadily been withdrawing the high-end organic and good quality foods over the last few months.
“Also the organic stuff they do sell is being hidden away so it’s really hard to find. It feels like they are hiding it away so no one will buy it, and then they can justify not selling it.”
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Posted: 29th, October 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Donkey Dogs With Big Ears Protect Sheep in Australia
“WHEN they unloaded the donkeys off the truck at six o’clock on a Saturday morning I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing?”‘ says animal ranger Mic McFarlane. “(But) they are amazing animals, they learn very quickly and respond very much like a dog. They’re remarkable animals, they’re super intelligent. They look like a horse with big ears but I’ve found it’s best to train them like they’re a dog with big ears. The thing is if they they don’t want to do it, they don’t do it.
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The Troubling Story Of Bijan Ebrahimi Killed by The State’s Wicked Whipers
BIJAN Ebrahimi was wrongly accused of assaulting children. The 44-year-old Iranian national was burnt to death in Bristol.
The Indy leads with the news:
The story is summed up:
On the few occasions the quiet and self-effacing Bijan Ebrahimi ventured outside his drab council maisonette on the outskirts of Bristol, it was to tend to his flower baskets. He did not work – he had a back problem and was registered disabled – so his focus was on his cat and his garden.
His interest in horticulture provided him with his greatest pleasure, but also played a significant role in his death. When Mr Ebrahimi saw local youths apparently vandalising his flowers, he took pictures of them. It was a decision that would lead to his being wrongly branded a paedophile by his neighbours. One was so incensed by his alleged crime that he beat Mr Ebrahimi unconscious, and, with the help of a friend, set him alight after dousing him with white spirit.
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Jimmy Savile: After 10 Months Of Waiting For His Trial David Smith Is Dead
WHAT do we make of the death of David Smith? He was Jimmy Savile’s chauffeur. Not his only one. Just one of them. Mr Smith’s other claim to fame is that his was the honour of being the first person charged with sexual offences as part of Operation Yewtree. He was arrested in December 2012.
But he never will get his trial. Back in July he pleased not guilty to two counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency on a child. Yesterday, he was due to appear at Southwark Crown Court. But he never left his home in Effingham Road, Lewisham.
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Posted: 29th, October 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
The British Kebab And Retail Awards (RIP Kadie Nurman)
THE British Kebab and Retail Awards hope to rival the Chicken Cottage Awards.
In memoriam:
KADIR Nurman has died in Berlin. Mr Nurman is regarded as the founded of the modern kebab, creating the booze soaker in West Berlin in 1972. Mr Nurman emigrated to Germany from Turkey in 1960, did not patent his invention.
RIP. (Rest in Pita.)
Posted: 28th, October 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Bournemouth University Students Warned About Misusing Henry Hoovers
BOURNEMOUTH University students living in Lyme Regis House are advised against using Henry Hoovers. Any evident of “misuse” will be frowned upon. And by misuse we mean picking up rubbish, ash and dust, which as any student knows, is the first stage of madness…
Posted: 28th, October 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Our Maddie, A ‘Friend Says’ And The Handymen
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at ‘Our Maddie’ in the news.
Witnesses to what?
Police set to interview former handy men who worked at Madeleine holiday club
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Posted: 28th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment
Hell House: Evangelical Christians Scare Children Into Following Jesus
HELL Houses will scare you kids into following the ways of Chris. They can also make you straight.
Brian Kirk told us:
“Part of salvation is being afraid of going to hell,” says the youth pastor at Trinity Church Assemblies of God in Cedar Hill, Texas. As depicted in the excellent documentary Hell House, each Halloween season Trinity Church hosts an alternative to the traditional haunted house. Instead of vampires and werewolves, guests are treated to scenes such as a young girl having an abortion, a gay man suffering from AIDS, a teen dying in an auto accident who failed to give his life to Christ. In each scenario, these presumed sinners are tormented by actors dressed as demons. The implication, none too subtle, is that each deserves both their suffering and their one-way ticket to damnation. The gay man, molested by his uncle as a child, chose to have sex and contract HIV. The teen girl chose to get drugged at a rave, raped, and become pregnant. The boy in the car wreck chose hell because he refused to listen to his parents’ religious teachings. The message of these hell houses is that the same fate awaits us all. But wait! There’s hope. These terror tours usually end with a glimpse of heaven and the opportunity to give one’s life to Jesus.
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Posted: 28th, October 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Dundee Bus Driver Refused To Pick Up School Children After Bad Premonition
DUNDEE’S clairvoyant bus driver decided not to pick up children at the bus stop. He drove past. He’d had a premonition that if he picked them up bad things would happen.
But he wasn’t thanked. His employer, National Express, sacked him.
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Posted: 28th, October 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Faces Of The Day: Dire Wolf Skulls Found In La Brea Tar Pits
FACES of the Day: Dire wolf skulls found in La Brea Tar Pits are on display at the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles. The museum celebrates a century of excavation at the La Brea Tar Pits, considered the richest and most diverse collection of Ice Age fossils.
