tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post5002419735547245712..comments2023-10-30T06:21:18.757-04:00Comments on John Kelly's Voxford: Cambridge By Bus, or: "Why Does Spock Have a Beard?"John Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518490709206494331noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-27137448953792865372007-11-30T14:16:00.000-05:002007-11-30T14:16:00.000-05:00Soon we will start seeing heartbreaking ads in the...Soon we will start seeing heartbreaking ads in the paper, right next to those showing Third World kids with cleft palates in need of plastic surgery. There will be the photo of a sensibly, but fashionably, dressed man and woman (funky glasses, smart haircuts) and the headline: "Every minute, one more BBC producer loses his or her job. You can help. Or you can turn the page."John Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15518490709206494331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-41300651361949629382007-11-29T15:45:00.000-05:002007-11-29T15:45:00.000-05:00I thought the same thing, when I was on the Grand ...I thought the same thing, when I was on the Grand Bahama Island a few decades ago. In riding our rented scooters around the Island, my husband, who is dyslexic, and I decided that if you drive on the left, then you must go clockwise around the round about. WRONG. It was counter-clockwise around the round about there, just as it is here in the States, but keeping to your left, as you do. I Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-14005272325164426522007-11-28T09:48:00.000-05:002007-11-28T09:48:00.000-05:00Re Richard's comment maybe it's time to update the...Re Richard's comment maybe it's time to update the old joke of what do you say to an English graduate<BR/>"Big Mac and fries please"<BR/><BR/>And i say that as an English graduate and former BBC employee - feel my painGlenda Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18137603334622167609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-52096591393141845582007-11-28T04:08:00.000-05:002007-11-28T04:08:00.000-05:00Whoops. I DO know which way people drive in a Brit...Whoops. I DO know which way people drive in a British roundabout. I just don't know which way hands go around a clock. That might make a good subject for a BBC documentary: "The AntiClockwise Man."John Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15518490709206494331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-72924856788869775482007-11-27T17:19:00.000-05:002007-11-27T17:19:00.000-05:00No right-thinking BBC producer would take up a fel...No right-thinking BBC producer would take up a fellowship from Cambridge. People there have funny shaped heads, among other oddities. <BR/><BR/>I spent three years on that bus (they let me off at intervals), and sometimes Milton Keynes appears to me in scary dreams.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-89644776111560343652007-11-27T16:59:00.000-05:002007-11-27T16:59:00.000-05:00That's CLOCKWISE through the roundabout, sweethear...That's CLOCKWISE through the roundabout, sweetheart -- they drive on the left here. So the "counter-" vs. "anti-" clockwise discussion is moot. A bit like where the rooster lays his eggs.<BR/>YLWrpkellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16145609250838657232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-5539814226287335852007-11-27T16:40:00.000-05:002007-11-27T16:40:00.000-05:00[[The driver would whip the steering wheel to the ...[[The driver would whip the steering wheel to the left as he merged, then to the right as we moved counterclockwise through the roundabout.]]<BR/><BR/>That's <I>anticlockwise</I> in British, John. I point it out only because it makes me laugh. <BR/><BR/>I have made the journey to Oxford several times -- from DC. Haven't tried since moving to Cambridge, though -- precisely for the roundabout KT&JThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14085130743405620440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-39168197496403610642007-11-27T11:13:00.000-05:002007-11-27T11:13:00.000-05:00Oxford and Cambridge are a bit like Harvard and Ya...Oxford and Cambridge are a bit like Harvard and Yale (many early Harvard faculty came from Cambridge), and it is somehow appropriate that the route between them is roundabout. Still, Oxford graduates are on the faculty at Cambridge, and the other way around. In the collective consciousness they emerge as Oxbridge. The annual boat-race between them has its place in the national calendar.<BR/>In Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-40232126368679760752007-11-27T10:07:00.000-05:002007-11-27T10:07:00.000-05:00Your recitation of the bus trip from Oxford-Cambri...Your recitation of the bus trip from Oxford-Cambridge was funny and well written. Thanks for the smiles and chuckles. Had lunch with an American living in Oxford and asked her if she was reading your blog and she smiled and said "yes, daily".<BR/><BR/>John Kelly you are the best and reason for many smiles. <BR/><BR/>Now when are you taking me to lunch? hah SSally Moxleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03039442505214693727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-63075399359490660392007-11-27T07:30:00.000-05:002007-11-27T07:30:00.000-05:00The Beeb may have its problems but what struck fea...The Beeb may have its problems but what struck fear into my heart was the news that Murdoch plans to turn Skynews into a doppleganger of FoxNews, the institution which historians will look back on as the primary cause of the downfall of America. [OK, the Post's recent veer rightward will be footnoted..e.g.,their religion writer who left progressive Catholics (perhaps an oxymoron)speechless afterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-67683618074949766732007-11-27T07:16:00.000-05:002007-11-27T07:16:00.000-05:00Richard's right. Only this morning I was accosted...Richard's right. Only this morning I was accosted by a shabby, unshaven man shaking a tin cup at me and pleading "spare half a million quid for richly-costumed adaptation of a 18th Century novel please guv?". I dropped in my last hundred grand but I don't think it'll even cover Judi Dench's fee.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2862729565948191502.post-49552290067074295992007-11-27T04:41:00.000-05:002007-11-27T04:41:00.000-05:00I fear with the current round of cuts at the BBC, ...I fear with the current round of cuts at the BBC, there may be many more former BBC producers coming round to collect the trash. And some more picking bones from the trash. And some more lying in the trash. I forsee the whole country awash with unemployable BBC producers, former arts graduates every one, equipped only to work in large public sector organisations immune from the harsh winds of theAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com