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See all posts for December2015

THE RESOLUTION IS CARRIED ………

  • December 31, 2015
  • Entertainment/Media/Arts Food & Drink Friends Politics Sport Travel/Nature Work
  • View all 4 Comments
Why...

When it comes New Year Resolutions do I have the backbone of a chocolate éclair? Without a shadow of a doubt the worst thing to give up for New Year is anything you enjoy. After spending a few days in a confined space with relatives and noisy kids, I just want to send them to a vivisectionist. I sooooo badly need a cigarette, chocolates, booze or drugs and have zero chance of giving up anything till my blood pressure drops below Defcon5. Maybe February? Shortest month of the year. However next year is leap year and winter might have woken up by then so I will need my creature comforts. Looks like Lent is the time I have a shot at stopping something. Of course if it’s religion I give up I might as well ignore Lent and indulge my way through March and April. I mean you have to have Easter with Chocolate and Spring would be meaningless if you can’t toast it with a chilled Bellini? May and June are times of weddings so not drinking and eating is just plain rude. July and August is holiday time, so unless I have managed a crash diet for a week before, I am not going on holiday to starve. Then it’s Fall. The time of mellow fruitfulness…. It’s shooting season and the sky is raining pheasants and partridge like so much plush toys from Hasbro. Next thing you know it’s Thanksgiving that rolls into Christmas season…so no time for giving up anything. AND THAT’S WHY RESOLUTIONS DON’T WORK.  So I will briefly turn my attention to the other quaint pastime of the New Year.  Talking balls…as in crystal. Here are my 16 predictions for 2016.  POLITICS 1) US Mitt Romney declares and chooses Rubio as Vice President goes on to win Republican Nomination, and then the Presidential election. 2) EUROPE Chancellor Merkel will lose a vote of no confidence and resign. 3) UK As with the No vote in the Scottish referendum, politicians will have badly underestimated the strength of anti EU feeling with a surge in the polls for a ‘No’ or exit vote. ‘Yes’ to stay in EU to squeak home by under 2%. 4) WORLDWIDE Instability breaks out in Saudi Arabia. Iran now seen along with Israel as the only stable market economy with a middle class. Despite huge domestic resistance from leaders, need for historic Israel/Iran meeting inevitable.  BUSINESS 5) WORLWIDE News Corp will attempt again to buy out other BSKYB shareholders. In either instance, it will then sell off their own shareholding to sovereign hedge fund. 6) US Companies who had bought power on long term contracts start to suffer badly due to drop in oil price. Oil at $35 per barrel continues to question value of fracking and halts much future exploration. However this fall in the barrel price of oil slowly starts to climb and is seen as the low point of fuel prices for the next 15 years. 7) MONEY Euro declines and gold rises; each by 15% and the world’s largest lottery is won because a child chose the numbers for the mother. SPORT 8) FORMULA ONE Will be bought by a group neither from Europe, Asia nor America. However following the BBC decision to drop it and sell to Channel 4 because of low ratings, the new owners will desperately need to reinvigorate a sport that currently is only useful as a cure to insomnia. 9) OLYMPICS Russia reinstated to take part in the Olympics, only for another country to be expelled. Politics and sport are just two sides of the same coin, especially if it’s an Olympic medal. 10) FOOTBALL FIFA elects President who effectively pardons all those currently involved with bribery allegations. As a result they lose a cornerstone commercial partner. MEDIA 11) US Number of broadcast free to air channels on cable drop by over 15%. Netflix eventually bought out by Google after long fight with Amazon. CNN will become a streamed only news service. 12) OSCARS Delayed broadcast due to security scare. Surprises; Best Picture Spotlight and Best Supporting Actor Sylvester Stallone for Creed. TECHNOLOGY 13) Graphine and its full potential is at last grasped by public and becomes the 2016 buzzword. FASHION 14) Group LMVH (Edun, DKNY, Louis Vuitton, Möet et Chandon, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Kenzo, Berluti, Loewe, Celine Dior) acquires Hermés. FOOD 15) Failed attempt at poisoning distribution plant of major soft drink supplier. Mad cow disease breaks out again in the UK. NATURE 16) Mount Paektu in North Korea-China erupts, for once taking worldwide media’s attention away from President Kim Jung Un’s own eruptions. Give me my score this time next year. Happy New Year to you all! If you have enjoyed the blog please pass on to friends and if you are just dipping in please subscribe! It’s free and you get a once a week notification.  If you use a tablet or phone click on the three black horizontal lines Ξ top right, and the form will appear. Just add any name you like and your email address. On line www.andanothething.com the form is on right, above subscribe. Put in a name and email….. Th-th-that’s all folks!

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

It's called Christmas, dummy!

  • December 24, 2015
  • Food & Drink Kids/Family/Relations Life
  • View all 3 Comments
Why...

Do a number of people apologise for the name Christmas? Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, Compliments of the Season, etc. are all wishy washy phrases meaning 'I’m embarrassed or made to feel guilty if I say Merry Christmas’. I don't expect Diwali, Hannukah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Parinirvana to change their name, so why does Christmas have to? What possible offense does the celebration of the birth of a leader of one type of organised religion cause? The birth of a religious leader is a common celebration in many other religions and they cause me no offense. I am not a deeply religious person but that does not mean I don't enjoy the Christmas holidays. However I at least acknowledge the derivation and honour it by giving the holiday its real name. I am equally happy if lots of people from other creeds choose this moment to celebrate Peace on Earth and exchange presents, give to charity and the homeless; just let’s be honest about it.

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

The Plug… A license to drain your money

  • December 10, 2015
  • Technology Work
  • View all 2 Comments
Why...

In a world where a standard Big Mac is available in more countries than I ever knew existed, do plugs and cables differ so much? Let's start with plugs in walls for electricity. Voltage used to be a problem but most electrical equipment can now happily suck down from 120 volts to 240....but the plug  at the end comes in more versions than does ‘why did the chicken cross the road’. Two pin, round pin, angled pin, three pin, bloody safety pin….. it's all nonsense. If we can't agree on world peace, you think some global organisation might at least standardise plug sockets? No, it can't happen overnight but yes it can gradually. The UK managed to change from round pin to square pin in the 1970s so don't tell me it cannot be done. Differing plugs are utterly inconvenient as I wander about with plug adaptors the size of Rubik's cubes every time I visit another country.

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

Art for Art’s Sake, ♫ but money for God’s Sake…

  • December 3, 2015
  • Entertainment/Media/Arts Finance/Law
  • View all 0 Comments
Why...

Do we have this idea that anything that’s old and rare has value? Artistic value comes from an object that has no other purpose in life but to give pleasure due to its own existence; paintings, jewellery, sculpture, books, music, photographs, etc. I am a petrol head so I would add that a few cars, whose real purpose was to move someone from A to B have transcended that initial raison d’être and the very shape of the car in itself has become a work of art. Pottery, china, silverware and furniture have also achieved this dualism and therefore have a ‘value’ over and above their original purpose. However as I watch various TV shows (Pawn Stars, Antique Roadshow, Cash in the Attic, etc.) I am amazed that people think that scarcity of once mundane objects means they have an artistic value. Well, sorry if you have a collection of tissue wrappers for apples, an unmade car model, or old chewing gum etc …they don’t. Rarity in itself has only a value if it has provenance (Elvis’ chewing gum, apple wrappers from the Titanic, Henry Ford’s own model of a Model T, etc.)! I grant you that there are people out there who want to collect old train tickets etc. but that’s a hobby. What they collect is not art.  I’m afraid I also feel the same way about stamps.

..and another thing (continue to read this post)

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