RosieH

Robert Peston makes my *rse wink

No no no. I take issue here Minder - Camberwell's brilliant, so authentique - gangsters and mentals at every turn (DM, am I allowed to say "mentals"?)

AcedOut Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It's called an editorial. The magazine probably > offers one (disguised as a review) upon a decent > size advert being placed. This is nothing new. > The media world is so corrupt in this way, it's > unreal! Journalists will often write good review > upon receiving freebies. This happens in across > all sectors. > er, yeah if the product's worth writing about. journalists get shitloads of freebies whether they bother to write about them or not, and freesheets aside they're quite happy to say something's rubbish when it is. Even when you sleep with them to get a good review (smilie / winkie face)

Sean, that is because you are a man of impeccable sense. I am not. Annasfield, I've totally had crushes on forumites, but I'm not saying who on the offchance I do one day make it to forum drinks. I find that often the crush wears off smartish when they say something I consider incompatible with my delicate sensibilities. I take it from the posing of the question that you have had a crush or two yourself..?

Annasfield, think you must be too young to remember Jason from Battle of the Planets? He could transmute me any day. And is it really really wrong to fancy a cartoon without personality, who is in fact just a character in a video game? Step forward Ryu from Street Fighter (to be fair he did have a back story)

and bonus as I live on the top floor, but they bring your deliveries into your kitchen rather than leaving them on the doorstep - I really rate Ocado

ok, I take back the bless you. shan't lecture you now, but when women's and men's pay reaches anything approaching parity, or the percentage of rape cases that result in conviction reach double figures, or when a quarter of women don't suffer from domestic violence dying at a rate of two a week, then Tony my sweet, I shall join you in your beer swilling punctuation faces. meantime I say, poor ickle men got to buy moisturiser now because that bloke from Lost says so, aww, diddums (oh, do let me know when the protest gets "toooo much" - insert smiling punctuation face of your choice - can't quite bring myself to, hate the buggers)

david_carnell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You Safa's....constantly segregating your > paperclips! I get the special yonic ones from a little shop in stoke newington

yeah, patriarchal imperialism's rampant even in the stationery cupboard

Tony, bless you, this is merely redressing the balance for all the years the female form has been hostage to the male gaze both on and off screen.

Sorry, I wasn't terribly coherent, but James, I'm genuinely quite staggered by your response to *Bob*'s comment. Do you know what pikey means? I don't mean to be patronising, but I would suggest that the term is casually racist, in addition to which, much has been written on the subject of Chav as a term of abuse that gives smug middle classers an alternative to the racism of yesteryear. As someone so well informed on the discrimination that is pertinent to you, I would have expected a broader understanding.

James, come on really! Pikey? Chav? So casual bigoted abuse is acceptable as long as it's not based on genetics? Christ on a bike

Without a doubt. But what is the context? I really don't mean this, before anyone jumps down my throat, to excuse anything, or as a cover for my own rampant homophobia. But for instance, within the school system, how does homophobic bullying compare to any other kind? 75% is a startling and nasty figure, but what is the proportion of school children as a whole who encounter bullying for whatever reason. Just wondering how it compares. Clearly, I could (should?) go and read more about this.

To return to the original point, James do you have any examples of how the situations do compare? I think we can all agree that homophobia is a bad thing and that physical attacks, for whatever reason, are monstrous and insupportable. But I'd be interested to learn more about discrimination in its wider sense. I work in a very gay-friendly industry, so don't really come across homophobia in my day to day life, but wondered how far that discrimination extends in the work place for instance, or beyond.

James, This is without a doubt an emotive subject and one which is very close to your heart. I don't think though that accusing DaveR of homophobia does much to further your argument - if hysteria weren't itself such a very loaded term I would suggest your response smacks ever so slightly of it. As far as I can tell, he's just asking for more detail to back up what you're saying. So make your argument without resorting to name calling - it will be all the stronger... As for the papers and knife crime, don't take it personally. The papers aren't about balanced reporting. The papers are about selling more copies than their rivals. Right now teenagers with knives are the bogeyman. Think back to Madeleine McCann and it was kidnapping paedophiles. It often is paedophiles, and they'll be back. In the meantime stories such as the boy murdered in Liverpool, and all the children murdered by members of their own families, and women killed by abusive partners just don't make the front page. Not zeitgeist enough.

bugger, going to turkey, where I'm going to get sleazed on by young men. on the other hand, HURRAH, going to turkey, where I'm going to get sleazed on by young men.

I've been walking these streets so long that Canvey Island isn't quite enough for me...

hell yeah, no single person supplement (this is the killer - every hotel I'm looking at is adding about another ?200 as a punishment for going it alone)

i need a holiday, stat. (is that the word? I've been watching a lot of ER) having quit my job a couple of weeks ago, visited friends and family and generally watched too much daytime tv, I now need to go on holiday before the money runs out and I have to get a job (I've got two weeks max) I need a week in the sun on my own because all my friends are seemingly otherwise gainfully employed. I'm too tired for strenuous activity, but I don't want to end up in a resort where a nice couple invite me to dine with them because I'm Shirley Valentine in the corner (although a resort where I get it on with Tom Conti wouldn't go amiss) mostly I want to lie down, read books and eat nice food any suggestions?

The Vauxhall Tavern brightens my Monday mornings reminding me that there are people out there having fun and that we're not all slaves to The Man (although some of us may be slaves to A man - think it's not really that sort of place). Isn't it strange how the shaved head, ripped muscles, tight t-shirt look is popular with a certain sector of the gay scene as well as with certain of the uber-hetero brockley (bromley?) out of towners on LL of an evening? Reckon they'd fit right in Natasha.

Tony, seriously mate, I'm calling the rozzers. You just "happened" to be there for both murders? Is coming on here telling us about it actually part of some weird middle class gang initiation..?

-- moved topic --

ooh no, the cucumber taints. only lettuce, onion and cabbage and one of those there chillies and those chillies aren't raw, i don't think, they're pickled innit

yes yes yes: you see the crux of my dilemma was that I had partaken of a few aspalls. while being a delicious and intoxicating beverage leading one to favour the lamb shish as a form of essential evening nourishment, it does come in rather large volume, presenting those of the smaller bladder (and often of the female persuasion) with a conundrum. Go to kebab shop and risk pant-wetting for the sake of a tasty and nutritious (and be-chilli-sauced HB!) evening morsel, or go home, head to toilet, breathe sight of relief and order something from the regular home delivery services. pizza or curry were not what I had on my mind though. I didn't think it through before posting. in a flash, the answer came to me on the bus: plan c was that I went to the kebab shop, and there I made use of their facilities, thus ensuring that I was suitably sated and unhumiliated. hurrah for kebab and wine, and boo for cider-induced befuddlement

Just wondering...