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.
Connecticut bank robber gives a great face
MUG Shot of the week features the mug of Jerry Thompson. The 35-year-old smiled for the camera after being arrested for his alleged role in the robbery of a New London, Connecticut, bank. The bank is round the corner from police headquarters. Thompson was arrested in a local train station, his pockets stuffed with red dye-covered money.
Read the rest of this entry »
So, Whodini, what is a rap attack?
WHAT’S A Rap Attack. Mr Whodini? With their Magic’s Wand, Jalil Hutchins, Ecstasy (John Fletcher) and Grandmaster Dee (Drew Carter) will show you:
Posted: 27th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Music | Comment
CCTV catches naked man, locked out of room and dealing with unhelpful humans (video)
CCTV cameras have caught a toe-curlingly amusing moment when one unlucky pup found himself locked outside of him hotel room with no clothes on. That’s zero clothes. Naked as the day he was born. Not even a sock to his name.
And, worse still, this poor sod finds that he’s dealing with the most unhelpful creatures on the planet – humans.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
The sweetest CV in the world is printed on a Nestlé Crunch bar
INVENTIVE jobseeker, Nick Begley, was getting pretty hacked off with not finding a job, and so, he decided to get creative with his CV. No, he didn’t pretend he’d gone to university and invent a load of jobs he hadn’t done, but rather, turned his resume into something that no-one could ignore.
Chocolate.
Read the rest of this entry »
The sex abuse witch hunt: conflating Lord Rennard, Cardinal O’Brien and Operation Yewtree
SEX-abuse scandals are replacing kiss’n’tells as tabloid fodder. Sensation swirls about the LibDems’ former party chief executive Lord Rennard. Women say he acted “inappropriately. There is a claim that Rennard repeatedly “brushed a woman’s leg at dinner. Another says he propositioned her. She “” the offer to join him in his room.
At first, Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said he had no idea about any of it. The allegations made on Channel 4 News were news to him. By Sunday, however, Clegg’s memory told him that he had known about Rennard’s alleged “indirect and non-specific concerns” since 2008. Moreover, LibDem chief of staff Danny Alexander had had confronted Rennard over such matters.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
1966: Woody Allen boxes the Australian light heavyweight champion
IN 1966, Woody Allen fought a kangaroo at the Hippodrome. The Australian light heavyweight champion is in the brown shorts:
Posted: 27th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
The Pope Auditions: Father Guido Sarducci makes his pitch
THE Pope is resigning. Father Guido Sarducci, rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, makes his pitch for the top job in the Roman Catholic Church. He had plans to get the youth in, too. The Five Minute University is here to help:
Read the rest of this entry »
Southwark police fail to arrest immigrant black killer for rape: at least they’re not racist
JEAN Say, then 62, killed his daughter and son in 2011. He cut the throats of his children Regina, eight, and Rolls, ten, in their beds. He then called his estranged wife, Antoinette, then 44, and told her: “I have killed your children. Come and get the bodies.” He was jailed for at least 30 years.
Jean Say, originally from the Ivory Coast, is back in the news.
Read the rest of this entry »
Surrey school bans pupils from walking and cycling to class
THAT Olympics Legacy in action: Betchworth school, Surrey, has decided to ban children from cycling and walking to school. The North Downs Primary School says its Betchworth and Leigh bases will be “driving only” from September.
No Team GB golds for walking, but cycling is a sport the nation excels at.
Read the rest of this entry »
Crufts to feature disgusting mongrels
CRUFTS, like Hitler, always believed in pure breeds, showcasing the finest in incestuous hound relationships and making them scampered around before an audience that smelled of Brut, hairspray and wax-jackets. Judges in comfortable loafers would stand these poor inbreds on tables and poke around at their genitals to see if they were uniform enough.
That’s all about to change though as Crufts is going to feature mongrels and crossbreed dogs for the first time!
Read the rest of this entry »
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Jimmy Savile and blowing smoke up the Catholic Church
CARDINAL Keith O’Brien has resigned. Gay rights group Stonewall once called the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, “bigot of the year”.
He’s accused of sexual impropriety against four priests, three of them still serving. Nothing has been proven. The cardinal has denied the charges. Piers Paul Read says in the Times that “his resignation suggests that there may be some fire behind the smoke“.
Does it?
Cardinal O’Brien has tendered his resignation as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. Vatican policy advices that bishops retire at the age of 75. He’s 74.
Read the rest of this entry »
William Faulkner’s Post Office regination letter and dream of working in a brothel
IN 1987, the US Postal Service produced a stamp to honour William Faulkner. Before he was a man of letters, Faulkner was delivering letters. Between 1921 to 1924, he worked as the University of Mississippi’s postmaster. He didn’t enjoy it. This is, reportedly, his resignation letter:
October, 1924
As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.
This, sir, is my resignation.
(Signed by Faulkner)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Books, Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Jon Venables: those who tweeted his photo are charged with contempt of court
THIS was predictable. Anyone who tweeted photos allegedly of James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables are being charged with contempt of court. Bulger was two when 10-year-olds Venables and Robert Thompson killed him
Anyone who knows the case and who cares about justice should not have broadcast the pictures.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
ce.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 26th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
In 1959 Pose magazine let the pin-ups speak
YEARS before the Sun crested the “News in Briefs” Page 3 feature, US cupcake magazine Pose introduced its readers to the ladies’ speech bubbles.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, The Consumer | Comment
Daily Mail takes on Mumsnet and loses horribly
HOW media works: Zoe Brennan wants readers of Mumsnet to help her with a story:
I am writing a feature for The Daily Mail about the increase in the number of children being sent to A&E. Figures released earlier this week show an increasing number of youngsters are sent direct to hospital, because GPs are reluctant to treat children. Babies in particular. This means long waits, and inappropriate care. Has your child been sent to A&E with a common infection or minor injury by your GP or NHS Direct? Have you an opinion on this subject, as a parent?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
David Bowie’s 1967 letter to his first American fan
IN 1967, Sandra Dodd, a 14-year-old fan living in the USA wrote to David Bowie. Would Bowie be interested in endorsing her efforts to start a USA fanclub? The 20-year-old Bowie took the time to reply.
I hope one day to get to America. My manager tells me lots about it as he has been there many times with other acts he manages. I was watching an old film on TV the other night called “No Down Payment” a great film, but rather depressing if it is a true reflection of The American Way Of Life. However, shortly after that they showed a documentary about Robert Frost the American poet, filmed mainly at his home in Vermont, and that evened the score. I am sure that that is nearer the real America.
When David Bowie committed Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide live
12 obscure David Bowie gems today’s artists would kill for
<ahref=”http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/my-real-name-is-david-jones.html”>Letters of Note
Posted: 25th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Music | Comment
Man exposing himself was varnishing fence in Cumbria
WE at Anorak love an unexpected reason for an apparently sexualy-driven offence. Remember the poor sod who in a bid to salve his constipation got a bottle stuck up his anus? There was this vicar who fell backwards on to his kitchen table while hanging curtains and im paled himself on a raw potato. There was the woman who fell on a can of hairspray. This poor sod got a fence up his bum? Now meet Michael Clarke, 76, who tells Furness Magistrates’ Court having previously admitted a charge of indecent exposure.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Children burn as they cycle through fire (video)
The Vatican’s problem with Cardinal Keith O’Brien and gay priests
THE Vatican has yet to open as a gay nightspot in Old Compton Street. The Catholic Church is not yet undone by rumours of homosexuality in the Pope’s palace. The Vatican’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, maintains the line that such stories of gay sex amongst the prelates is salacious gossip and has nothing to do with Benedict XVI’s decision to resign:
We are indebted to Vatican Radio’s English translation, which makes the Father appear more than a little verbose:
There is no lack, in fact, of those who seek to profit from the moment of surprise and disorientation of the spiritually naive to sow confusion and to discredit the Church and its governance, making recourse to old tools, such as gossip, misinformation and sometimes slander, or exercising unacceptable pressures to condition the exercise of the voting duty on the part of one or another member of the College of Cardinals, who they consider to be objectionable for one reason or another.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 24th, February 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
The 10 best premium-rate phone lines of the 1980s
IN the 1980s, fans could get close to the stars on telephone chatlines. The messages were pre-recorded. But the billing was live.
The New Kid On The Block had a message for you:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 24th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Technology | Comment
Kurt Vonnegut’s advice for teachers at Iowa Writers’ Workshop
KURT Vonnegut wrote to Richard Gehman in 1967. He had advice to give.
“Mornings are for writing and so are most of the afternoons… The classes don’t matter much.”
Gehman was due to teach at University of Iowa’s famous Writer’s Workshop,where Vonnegut had been there from 1965 to 1967.
“Cancel classes whenever you damn please.”
Spotter: Slate
Posted: 24th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
And the winner of the most memorable Oscar speech of all time is…
LIGHTS, cameras… Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth… Yes, it’s Oscars time again, and that means Oscar speeches.
Rebecca Rolfe, of the Georgia Institute of Technology has been analyzing these excruciating exercises in emoting, and says that the average length of an acceptance speech was 44 seconds for men and 39 seconds for women in the 1960s. Now it is 1 minute and 57 seconds for men and 1 minute 56 seconds for women. Interestingly, 71 per cent of the tears have come since 1995.
Read the rest of this entry »
Heather Frost: The media erects a benefits bashing theme park in her garden
HEATHER Frost, the Sun’s “Benefits Queen”, is the mum-of-11 living in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Having told us that Frost and her brood – plus two grandchildren and lover – are moving from their curent temporary accommodation into a new six bedroom “mansion /palace” (which turns out to an average-sized home of 1,850 square feet), we were then told that she owns a horse (a cheap mobile raw burger owned by her daughter – not borrowed from the police). The Telegraph then chipped in by telling us that Frost “splashed out on a £1,000 on an exotic parrot”.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Pope, the butler and gay sex in the archbishop’s Verona home
WHY did the Pope resign? We know what he said. But other think they know different. It’s all about the gays. Maybe.
La Repubblica claims homosexual prelates living within the Vatican’s walls were being blackmailed (“influentiam”).
The claim is that the group me t for sex at a villa outside Rome, a sauna in a suburb of that city, a beauty parlour in the city and an archbishop’s pad in Verona. All the gory details are in a two-volume, 300-page report compiled by three heterosexual Cardinals.
Read the rest of this entry »
