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.
Sex Shop thief caught red faced and red handed
“HE told me to let him out or he would stab me. I was with my girlfriend, in shock and a bit sleepy so I just thought it best to let him out. Then I saw he had two armfuls of gear on him. I told him I wasn’t opening the locked door unless he put it down. He dropped it at the door and then fled.”
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The simian negroid Irish depicted in English and American cartoons
ANGLO-Irish Relations have been strained for years. Ever since the Earl of Pembroke became involved in a local matter in Leinster in 1170, the English have played a role in Irish affairs. When John de Courcy seized control of Ulster 1177, the English became the self-styled civilising force. The Irish were the bestial savages. As these cartoons show, the Irish were portrayed as low-browed, wire-haired simians, More ape than man.
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Posted: 29th, March 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
1922: The Passing Show makes Brighter Newspapers with the caption ‘interchange’
IN the March 18, 1922 edition of The Passing Show, the British news magazine featured a caption swap:
“BRIGHTER NEWSPAPERS – How a little innocent pleasure could be provided by an interchange of ‘caption’ in our picture press”
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How not to throw a Molotov Cocktail (in photos)
SO. You thought throwing a Molotov cocktail was easy.
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Breaking News! Presenter reads out own marriage proposal!
WE’RE very cynical here at The Anorak, but sometimes, we can’t help but succumb to lovely, gooey, niceness and we crumple up, wailing tears of joy all over each other and blubbing about how nice things can be sometimes.
No. This isn’t setting you up for a fall where we share a video about someone getting their head cut open by rotary blades. This is genuinely lovely.
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New horsemeat scandal makes cannibals and dog-eaters of us all
THE horsemeat scandal was particularly troubling, not because we may have all eaten the incredible Mr Ed, but rather, it prompted so many awful jokes that we all wished we’d eaten something fatal instead.
However, horsemeat is the last of your worries after food experts analysed a random dish bought in London which contained ‘mystery meat’.
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Posted: 28th, March 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comments (4)
The best of the Passing Show: Bolshevism, Ireland, Japanese empire and German hurt satirised
THE Passing Show was a British magazine published in the early 1920s. One section was particularly adventurous. Called Culled From The World’s Press, Culled From Sources, Through Foreign Spectacles, Through American Spectacles or Other People’s News, the feature was a look at news-based cartoons in other organs. A round-up of the satire and the funny was an exercise in editorialised news aggregation.
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Posted: 28th, March 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
Woman groped by man fined for slapping him in the face
IS it right that the 23-year-old woman who slapped a man in the face after he goosed her backside has been convicted of assault? The 27-year-old who grabbed her backside walked away with no stain on his character.
Says the 23-year-old woman:
“This goes to show that it’s okay for guys to grab girls any way they want.”
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Man breaks into grocery story for out-of-hours trolley dash
TO Seattle’s SoDo neighbourhood, where a shopper doesn’t want to wait for the store to open. He doesn’t want to pay for his stuff, either.The shopaholic smashes his way into the Grocery Outlet on Fourth Avenue South. He races into the store. He grabs booze, clothes and chocolate. And all the while we’re screaming: “The salmon. Go for the salmon!”
Some people have no idea:
The internet’s big publishers move towards the paywall: Sun and Telegraph follow the Times
AFTER a flurry of free news, the Telegraph and Sun are going behind a paywall:
News International’s chief executive Mike Darcey said the free website was threatening the circulation and revenues of the tabloid, and will go behind a paywall in the second half of 2013 in a radical rethink about offering readers content free of charge. “This decision comes from a deep-seated belief that it is just untenable to have 2.4 million paying 40p for the Sun at the same time as a bunch of other people are getting it for free.”
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Roofing: taking photographs from the top of tall buildings
A FEW things make Old Mr Anorak go weak at the knees: Diana Dors, Camilla Parker-Bowles, bad oysters, a long walk and Liam Brady. But above all the thing that gets the knees turned to a jelly-like mess is heights. I agree. I was fine until I climbed the narrow, hot, stuffy path to the top of the Duomo in Florence. I’d scaled the Statue of Liberty’s arm, World Trade Centre and more. But Florence was the turning point. Coming from the darkness into the open, light space, I looked up and then I looked down. The world span. The ground swirled downwards, helter skelter-like. I wanted to jump. Why delay the inevitable? I was certain to fall. So. Jump. It reveals no secret to say that I didn’t. I am not writing this from a Petri dish in an Italian pavement research hospital. I got onto my hands and knees, and holding my friend’s leg inched around the gallery. I vowed never to go up something high again. Trips to Paris, Rio, Lisbon and Toronto and involved not going to see the view from the top.
So. I’m not going to be a Roofer’, like Vadim Mahorov and Vitaliy Yakhnenko, who climb tall buildings and take pictures from the top.
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Fiance of My Little Pony character leaves worrying and angry letter
THE level of some people’s love for My Little Pony is beyond parody. In fact, it is downright worrying. If you do a rudimentary search for ‘bronies’, you’ll find enough material to keep you awake for a whole decade.
One such character has got angry and believes himself to be the fiance of a character called ‘Twilight Sparkle’. Yes, you read that right.
Over at deviantART, where people showcase their artwork of any kind, a user called Kevinsano was creating pieces based on My Little Pony (worrying enough) and the ‘fiance’ took offence at the designs, accusing them of being too sexual in nature (even more worrying).
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Posted: 27th, March 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Vintage erotica: when Spick and Span sex sold central heating in 1960s Britain
IN the 1960s, young bucks got their copies of Spic and Span magazine. The women featured within were always keen to show their garters-adorned legs. The stockings were sheer and pulled high, No baggy knees. The attire was Spick and Span. But it wasn’t about the women. It was about the central heating. What a marvel! The ladies were merely the fleshy lagging to the stars of the show: radiators. Readers would look at the ice crystals on the inside of their wet window panes and dream of the day when they got the radiators and got the girls:
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The Man-Catcher: the car’s ultimate safety device
THE MAN-CATCHER never did catch on. The 1020s safety device “consists of three rollers attached to the radiator of the vehicle. Directly the rollers touch an obstacle, they automatically drop to the ground and push it away.” If the rollers push it away into the path of a tram or into a hole, so be it.
Spotter: Fulltable
Frankfurt Zoo prevents orangutan’s evolving
TO Frankfurt Zoo, where evolution is being stymied. Sirih, a 20-year-old orangutan, is now under guard. Christine Kurrle, the zoo spokeswoman, explains why:
“She’s not trying to break out, that is not her aim, she just messes with various things, including the fence, but also the water pipes and heating, and she causes damage. She uses branches and whatever else she can find as tools. So far she is the only one of the six who does this kind of thing but it is obviously not in our interest that the others learn how to manipulate the fence.”
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Lolipop men banned from high-fiving students
THE Melbourne council banned Bayside lollipop man Graham Sanderson, 60, from high-fiving students who successfully cross the road.
Sanderson was upset. A fellow lollipop man, billed only as Alan, tells us:
“I just feel I’ve got about 50 odd nationalities at my school and I reckon I’ve got 275 kids in the school and out of that 275 kids I reckon I’d have about 175 that speak English and the rest don’t. We have to gain their confidence to use the school crossing, if they don’t like us, they won’t.”
“That’s how I got by, by high-fiving. I’ve been doing it, high-fiving for nearly all the time I’ve been there. We’ve been told we’re not to do it, but I keep doing it anyway.”
Council spokesperson Fran Duiker reviewed the decision:
“Graham can continue to high five and greet the children in a friendly and appropriate manner every morning and afternoon. If you don’t want Graham to high five, please ask him not to high five your child.”
Even if the non-high-five leads to their detain doom beneath a car’s wheels.
But why not stick with the tried-and-tested thumbs up, or the smart salute?
Modern Britain described in 10 photos
IF you had to describe the state of Britain today in 10 words, what would you say? In 2007, citizens entered a contest to describe the country in five words or fewer? The pick of the bunch was ‘Dipso fatso bingo asbo Tesco’. How would that be illustrated? What ten pictures would show the world what GB is like to live in? These are our Top Ten – a guide to live in Blighty:
Posted: 27th, March 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (3)
How did dinosaurs have sex? With great difficulty
SOME refer to sex as ‘the beast with two backs’ and, if you think about dinosaurs humping, then the saying is quite literal. With horrible spines and spikes, getting off with a dinosaur seems nigh-on impossible, but they had to mate for fear of dying out.
So how did they do it? Barry White, chocolates and enough lube to drown a caveman?
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Meredith Kercher: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito murder convictions stand (but they’re not guilty)
AMANDA Knox always said she never murdered Meredith Kercher, the British student found with over 40 wounds to her body in the Perugia, Italy, flat the pair shared.
Kercher died in November 2007. Knox was jailed. Then acquitted. Now Italy’s top court has overturned her acquittal. Knox’s original conviction stands. But that does not mean she is guilty. It just means we go again.
This will be a battle between the Italian and US justice systems.
Knox lives in Seattle. The new trial will take place in her abscence in the Florence Court of Appeal.
If convicted, Knox might be extradited from the United States. Expect a huge fight.
Says Knox:
“No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity.”
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Gun debate. Bow and arrow defeats shotgun in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts
Police arrested Peters , charing him with discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, injury to real or personal property, carrying a firearm without a licence, disorderly conduct, unlawful possession of ammunition and carrying a loaded shotgun on a public way. He was held on $5,000 cash bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in Barnstable District Court.
Lucy Meadows, Jacintha Saldanha and the Daily Mail’s ‘culture of casual cruelty’
SOME say Lucy Meadows died as a result of what Richard Littlejohn said in his Daily Mail column. Littlejohn ‘monstered’ the teacher who had left the Lancashire school the male Nathan Upton and returned as the female Lucy Meadows.
Your view of the story may well rest on your view of the Mail and Littlejohn. But here’s what the Daily Mail said when Australian radio DJs pranked Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse in the hospital where pregnancy Duchess Kate was being treated for morning sickness. Saldanha, a parent (like Meadows) soon after putting through a bogus call to Kate’s rooms was found hanged.
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Man alerted to dog poo menace tripped and fell on wife
TODAY’S example of Nominative Determinism, the phenomenon whereby human beings’ lives are shaped by their names, features Lincolnshire couple Michael and Anna Webster. Each slipped and fell because of dog poo. They both fell while walking along Old School Mews in Spilsby.
He says:
“My wife pointed towards some you know what on the footpath, I turned to look where she was pointing, missed the step, tripped and fell on her, she broke her arm, I fractured my wrist and landed on my ribs. It was partially my fault that I had fallen over and it was very unfortunate that I landed on my wife but my attention had been diverted because of the dog mess.”
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Everyday Racism in books: Simple Edition by A Little Nigger
It tapped into a theme. Earlier, G.H. Thompson had illustrated Ten Little Nigger Boys, a book he followed up with work on Ten Little Nigger Girls. This was sexual equality racism. Although in the girls’ version the females start at 10 and disappear. The boys grow in number.
Now grab your golliwog and read on….
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Pupil was allowed to cut himself with razor blades at special school
TODAY’S lesson is self-harm. At Unsted Park School, Godalming, Surrey, the teachers, reportedly, have allowed a pupil with a history of self-harm controlled access to razor blades. Not to worry, though, because the blades were sterilised. Safety first, readers.
Principal Steve Dempsey and headteacher Laura Blair face allegations of unacceptable professional conduct.
What do we know of the school? It’s run by the Priory Group, the people most famous for their treatment of addictions. And:
Unsted Park School provides specialist education for boys and girls aged 7 to 19 with Asperger’s Syndrome, higher functioning autism and associated disorders. It is our aim to allow all our young people to thrive effectively within an ever demanding and complex society. Students have ambitions to live and work as self-reliant adults and we can help pupils to reach their goals with continued support, structure and guidance.
Unsted Park Sixth Form is specifically designed to allow young people aged 16 to 19 with Asperger’s Syndrome, higher functioning autism and associated learning difficulties to build a post 16 curriculum that is tailored to their individual needs and ambitions.
The focus of the whole school approach is in three core areas: education, independence and integration. Based on these core areas we provide individual, child-centred programmes which recognise individual abilities and strengths and help students to reach their full potential.
The school teaches:
Imaginative and flexible thinking
Nick Edmondson writes:
According to the controlled self-harm procedure, handed out to staff but aborted after just six days, the pupil would be escorted to a bathroom and allowed to carry out self-harm in a “safe and controlled manner”.
Teachers would wait outside the bathroom while the pupil was inside, checking on them every two minutes. The wounds would then be dressed and cleaned by staff.
Imaginative and flexible. You betcha.
But the policy didn’t last a week.
A Priory Group spokesman tells us:
“We are always willing to review cases with the Teaching Agency. This was a short-term, local procedure introduced by the headteacher and school principal who genuinely believed it was in the best interests of the pupil. However, they accept that the procedure should not have been implemented without further approvals having been obtained from key stakeholders and senior management prior to its introduction.”
Before we damn them all, a spokesperson from charity Selfharm.co.uk adds some background:
“The issue of controlled self-harm has proven to be effective in some areas, but only under the correct supervision. Self-harm is sometimes the safest option for a young person – if they’re using self-harm to make life a bit easier to manage (for example) then taking it away from them without replacing it with something else can actually bring on a desperate kind of depression that could make them slide from self-harm to having suicidal ideation.
“I’d rather someone be self-harming in a way they can manage as safely as possible than be left stranded with no way to cope and be thinking about more desperate measures.”
It’s a behaviour management strategy. It’s complicated.
One question, though: did the child’s parents agree to it?
Posted: 25th, March 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
