Comments are closed.
Then again, there’s Norway
October 22nd, 2003
As I find most U.S. news reporting painful to endure, I tend to go to the
BBC website to get the scoop. And since I usually
don’t have time to read it all, I listen to the audio
programs.
Unfortunately for a while I couldn’t because of some conflict between Real Player and some other program or extension on my computer at work. But the BBC has a new web interface radio player that works splendidly.
Just in time too, for I got to hear President Bush reassure Indonesian Islamic leaders in Bali that the U.S. is not anti-Islamic, that the war against terrorism is not a war against Islam. Even better was the slight involuntary chuckle for BBC correspondent Rachel Harvey when reporting the surprised reaction of one of the Islamic leaders: “Did you know President Bush took detailed notes? I think this is a positive sign.”
I just love the BBC’s formal delivery and stellar word choice, doubly so when they break form.
But anyway, Norway. When I went the BBC’s front
page one of the factoids I gleaned, beyond the fact that some
yahoo went over Niagara Falls, was that Norway
has awarded a resident witch a business development grant so she can “
tell fortunes, teach magic tricks at corporate seminars, and offer potions and
creams to cure for problems ranging from sleeplessness to bad habits.”
3 Responses to “Then again, there’s Norway”
Aw, I feel bad for the Niagara Falls yahoo. According to his mum, who’s an Oregonian, he’s been suffering severe depression and has had a strange life-long fascination with the falls. He reckoned meeting his death going over them wouldn’t be a bad way to go. Sad, really. Fortunately he survived (no barrel or nothin’, too!) and maybe they can treat him. Of course, now he’s ten-to-fifteen grand in the hole, thanks to fines.
I , too, am sympathetic.
And understand the impulse to tackle th eNiagra Falls though I never would myself.
Here, yahoo is used in an affectionate sense.
Do not feed the yahoo. Do not pet the yahoo. Do not taunt, tease, tickle, ticket, traumatize, trouble, titillate, or toggle the yahoo. May spontaneously combust under extreme conditions of heat, cold or nausea. Treat with indifference or a warm, wet cloth.