Random thoughts from the north

Posted by Tania Kindersley.


Happy Independence Day, everyone. It is too hot to blog, but you know I hate leaving you with nothing, so here are a few random thoughts from the north.

Egregious headline of the week: ‘As Brown and Cameron outdo each other in bid to woo gay vote, who will help families?’
This is so vacuously stupid and wrong on so many levels that I do not have the time to go into it now. But the idea that you may either woo the gays or help the families is more moronic than Moron McMoron of the Clan Moron and all his children. What I want to know is where do the people who pit families and homosexuals against each other (big tendency to do this among the religious right in America too) think that gay people come from? Do they think they are specially made at the Gay Factory? Or that they are all orphans? Newsflash: they come from families too. As the marvellous Rachel Maddow on MSNBC loves to say on her show, politely but with heavy irony: it’s all right, the Gay is not contagious.


Mystery of the week:
Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation from her post as Governor of Alaska. For political junkies like me, there is nothing better than a big meaty gubernatorial question mark to take the mind off the tennis.

Hope of the week:
That mean columnists and bloggers will not start bitching about Andy Murray after he lost at Wimbledon to the formidable Andy Roddick. Murray is, in my book, an exceptional young man who is nice to his mum, sweet to his girlfriend, and adorable to his dog. He works amazingly hard, is roaringly talented and he will be back. His Scottishness should be celebrated, not used as an excuse for jingoistic prejudice.

Sight of the week:
The baby oyster catcher which is wobbling about on the grass behind my house. His parents make a diversionary flanking action about ten feet either side of his, calling loudly to take away the attention of any predators that should be lurking, which he, the size of my palm, takes the first steps on his voyage of discovery.

Food of the week:
Tomato soup, and chickpea mash with chilli and saffron, of which more later.

Best joke of the week:
Jeff Goldblum going on the Stephen Colbert Show after internet rumours that he was dead. Goldblum: ‘But I’m not dead, here I am.’ Colbert: ‘You are dead, Jeff, I read it on Twitter.’

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/220019/june-29-2009/jeff-goldblum-will-be-missed