August 31, 2004
Last night I watched The Trash Of The Titans, the 200th episode of The Simpsons.
Homer becomes Springfield’s Sanitation Commissioner but spends the entire year’s budget in just one month. To keep to budget, Homer allows other cities to ship their watse to Springfield, which he buries in an abandoned mine. It fills up and the waste bursts up all over Springfield…
U2 are special guests in this episode:
Bono: “Hold on! He’s talking about waste management… and that affects the whole damn planet.”
The Edge (under his breath): “Oh, boy, here we go.”
So, I wake up this morning to read that the UK government is doing the same thing. Nuclear waste from abroad is being buried in Cumbria, despite government promises that this would never happen.
D’oh.
August 28, 2004
I was going to write something earlier, but I like to include links to websites and Athens 2004 will not allow me to link to their website (see here). (By the way Sellotape do not allow links either - very odd.)
I enjoyed some of the coverage and I liked the choice offered by BBC Digital - but there were a few things that irked me:
1. The term ‘Team GB’ - irritating.
2. The use of ‘medal’ as a verb (as in ‘they have medalled at every championship this year’). I know some people say that any noun can be verbed, but again - irritating.
4. Colin Jackson - his general seating posture and facial expressions - irritating.
3. Commentators’ incessant talking - including the many ers and ums. You do not need to talk over every second of a race or an event. Compare with Channel 4’s cricket coverage - the commentators here are interesting and knowledgeable and allow ample time for the sport to tell its own story. But BBC Olympics commentators - irritating.
