A ‘Bit’ Extreme?

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A 48-year-old musician living in Grand Rapids had been having trouble with his foot for some time and had put off seeking help until giving in to pressure from his wife, a nurse, and making a hospital appointment.

In the meantime, he had an evening on the whampo, came home drunk and passed out in bed. When he woke up, he discovered that his terrier dog, Kiko, had nibbled part of one of his toes off. His wife rushed him to hospital where doctors found a bone infection, an undiagnosed diabetic condition, and amputated the rest of the toe.

The man says that Kiko did him a favour in uncovering his condition but it was an extreme, if apparently painless, way of finding out!
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So Sad

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The saddest story of the day is the discovery of a reclusive Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, woman who appears to have died in bed some weeks ago, leaving her quadriplegic daughter unable to help herself and to later die.

The suffering of that poor woman, who was paralysed from the neck down, knowing that she could not help herself and was destined to starve to death, is both tragic and unimaginable.
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Where’s Mummy?

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Hot on the heels of the story that Tokyo’s oldest man turned out to have died thirty years ago (see my blog for 31 July) is news that Tokyo’s oldest woman is missing.

The lady concerned is said to be 113 years old though Japanese officials have found that she has, in fact, been missing for decades. Her daughter says that she hasn’t seen her mother since the 1980s.

The discovery, an unsolved one as yet, came to light when local officials started checking the elderly after they found the mummy of the person who was thought to have been Tokyo's oldest man.

One can only hope that this mummy is not a mummy also!
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A Disgrace

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The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was introduced in 2000 to give police and other bodies the power to carry out surveillance on those suspected of involvement in serious crime or terrorism. Since its introduction, there has been much anger that some local councils have used the powers for things quite unrelated to those the legislation was meant to cover.

Yesterday the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that a family put under surveillance by Poole Borough Council, who merely wanted to check that a family lived in a primary school catchment area, was unlawful.

The present government is reviewing the use of surveillance powers as part of its Counter Terror Review but, in the meantime, the Tribunal’s decision will send a warning to other councils who abuse the legislation.

Commenting on the Poole case, the Housing Minister was correct when he said, ‘Town halls are not the secret service or the police, but surveillance powers designed to tackle terror and the most serious crimes have been over-used and misused.’

Many of us feel that we are being over-watched and so any move to curb the sort of powers used by Poole Borough Council is to be heartily welcomed. That they even thought of using RIPA in this case is nothing less than a disgrace.
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I Wonder ...

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I was listening yesterday afternoon to one of my favourite pieces of music, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in G minor. It was being played by the virtuoso Daniel Chorzempa and, from watching a church organist as a youngster, I could visualise the dexterity and accuracy of hands and feet that this piece of music requires.

Born in Eisenach in Germany in 1685 and taught by various members of his family, Bach was an accomplished musician. At the age of fourteen he was awarded a choral scholarship to study at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg. His two years of study there gave him a grounding in a variety of musical forms and instruments, and it is possible that here he was also able to play the school’s organ.

At around the age of eighteen or so, Bach composed his famous toccata and it occurred to me that this piece, along with many other pieces of 18th century music, is still popular not only among fans of classical music but, in different formats, by others who do not even realise they are listening to classical music.

I have, for example, over a dozen different renderings of the toccata. They include Jacques Loussier’s laid-back piano version, Vanessa Mai’s vibrant violin one, Wendy Carlos’s atmospheric synthesised one, Myleene Klass’s pop version ... as well as others played by orchestras, brass bands, flute, guitar and a variety of other instruments.

The toccata has wound its way into popular culture. It opens, for example, the 1940 Disney film Fantasia, features in various pop/rock albums by bands such as Sky, Deep Purple and Megadeth. It appears in a number of movies to give atmosphere to dark scenes, and also in a number of video games that are so popular these days. And you sometimes hear part of it as an irritating mobile phone ring tone.

All these thoughts led me to another. And that was to wonder what Johann Sebastian Bach would have thought not only about the longevity and popularity of his compositions but of the great range of variations it spawned.

Alas, we will never know.
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Apply Immediately!

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There is outrage at the news that the former Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has applied for the job of Vice-Chairman of the BBC Trust less than four months after her political career ended in disgrace.

I can’t say I’m too bothered about her application, though I’ve noted that a spokesman for the Trust said there was ‘a certain degree of surprise’ when her CV arrived a couple of weeks ago. Whether or not that might give some clue as to her suitability for the job is for others to decide. No, what has exercised my brain is the ridiculous reward to the person being given the job.

Despite recent criticisms about the BBCs ‘extraordinary and outrageous waste’, this job pays an unbelievable £77,000 for just two-and-a-half day’s work a week. Plus, all the expenses the person can claim, of course. How in the present economic climate can it be possible to pay someone such a large amount for doing so little?

We should all apply!
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They Sell Big Knockers!

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I suppose that officialdom in its various forms is not renowned for its sense of humour, and this certainly applies to the Advertising Standards Agency which has banned a suggestive advertisement by a Welsh door and window company.

The offending advert features a topless woman whose breasts are discretely covered by a pair of large door knockers beneath the tag line ‘WE SELL BIG KNOCKERS ...’

One woman complained to the ASA with the result that the company was told their advertisement was degrading to women and had the potential to cause serious offence to some consumers. It, ‘bore no relevance to the products sold’, it sniffly said.

Most people would have seen the humour in the advertisement which, let’s face it, is fairly obvious and which, thanks to the intervention of the ASA, has given the company concerned a great deal of free advertising. Others, of course, may take a different view: one man’s joke is another man’s insult, I suppose.

On the other hand, if this type of officious notice is taken of what is clearly fairly harmless humour then the result is nothing less than censorship. Almost all the of the advertisements seen on television these days, for example, bear little relevance to the products being sold. Is the ASA to spend time and money looking at these? And what would become of all those hilariously saucy McGill postcards sold at seaside resorts?

Life can be pretty dull at times but, in my view, we do not need bodies such as the ASA to take official notice of something that is humorous, does no harm and about which only one person complained.

So the best of luck to Tricketts of Merthyr Tydfil and their big knockers!