humour – Page 2 – don't confuse the narrator

food for thought

According to news on the BBC website, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition have issued a draft report saying that recommended daily calorie counts may have been wrong for the last 18 years.

I don’t know when we first started talking about calorie intake, but back when I was a child – long before the current figures were set – I’m pretty sure the daily allowances being discussed were far higher – around 5,000 for men and 3,500 for women. Since 1991, though, they’ve been down at 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men.
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ferreting around on the web

A friend happened to comment that the latest edition of the Radio Times had meerkats on the front cover.

This got me wondering why meerkats hadn’t been “invented” when I was in school – they’re like an internet meme that sprang fully-formed in the public consciousness just a few years ago – and I did a quick bit of on-line research.
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veranos de la villa

Reading the list of concerts planned for Madrid’s Veranos de la Villa (Summer in the City) celebrations this year is like stepping back in time.

I’m not that surprised by names like Burt Bacharach and Jerry Lee Lewis: I sort of expect those guys to go on for ever. But George Benson, Kool and the Gang, Jeff Beck, James Taylor…

In August, I’ll be attending the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick. There’s a ‘Retro Revival’ disco planned for the Tuesday night, and I’m pretty sure the music will overlap with what’s on in Madrid this summer.

Incidentally, for the Spanish readers among you, this ‘noticia’ about the Veranos logo might be amusing. (If your Spanish isn’t quite up to scratch, remember: don’t believe everything you read on the web.)

weighty matters

I saw this sign in a designer shop escaparate in Madrid and wonder whether it sounds as odd in Spanish as it does to an English speaker. I guess ‘puff’ is an imported word and they just think it means some kind of small stool.

For me ‘puff’ should be associated with something as delicate and formless as smoke or clouds.

Definitely not with a solid lump of marble.

panics and pandemics

Last week I received a writers’ newsletter with yet another warning of a new phishing scam. This scam asks for your bank details so tax owed to you can be paid in directly. One of the recipients responded saying that she didn’t see how people could still be fooled; hadn’t we had enough warnings?

Of course people will continue to be fooled by such things because they want to believe that they are going to get a windfall.

But why people fall for a story like this one about swine ‘flu and zombism, is a bit more complex. It’s a brilliantly done hoax, but there are any number of clues that let a careful reader identify it as just that: a hoax.
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