Thursday, June 22, 2006

Hell in a hand basket

I read yesterday that Craig Charles has been suspended from his BBC radio show and his ITV Coronation Street part, after allegations of drug taking. Pictures apparently appeared in the Daily Mirror showing him smoking crack cocaine. If this is true, then I'm more than a little dissapointed. Craig Charles has been something of a hero to me. He is a very talented poet with an admirable anti establishment style. He was once married to Kathy Tyson, the "tall, thin, black tart" from the film Mona Lisa. He also presented Robot Wars and starred in Red Dwarf, which has to be the best sit-com of all time. I saw him live once. His radio show is good too. I used to listen on the internet sometimes when I was in Asia.

The libertarian in me believes that he has a perfect right to use crack cocaine if he chooses. Everyone has the right to screw their life up any way they want in my view. It's not that I am against people using drugs, though I do think drug abuse is anti social, it's the fact that Craig Charles is allegedly using drugs. And not just drugs, crack cocaine of all things. I could have overlooked almost any other substance, put it down to rock-and-roll lifestyle, but crack is something only really self destructive people get into.

It's selfish to expect more of people just because they happen to be on one's hero list. Why should I expect Craig Charles to behave responsibly for my sake when he doesn't even know I exist? The trick is to choose heros carefully I suppose. Maybe my supposition that the pictures are genuine is wrong. Maybe it's all a Daily Mirror scam. I hope so.

***

I got a comment yesterday about Ginny being a Horcrux. Mrz.rwjc says that Voldemorte would need to trust Ginny if he made her a Horcrux. Well he would if she became a horcrux willingly, but what if she doesn't know she's a horcrux? This is my point you see. Some time during book seven Harry is going to realise that Ginny is a horcrux and that the only way to defeat Voldemorte is to kill Ginny. Ginny doesn't even know. I did think that Harry himself might have been a horcrux, but then why would Voldemorte try and kill him in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix if that was the case? OK, I'm becomming obsessive now, I realise this.

And mrz.rwjc, I will go and have a look at your diary later and maybe leave a note, but I can't do it now because I'm at work, typing this in notepad, and I'm not supposed to browse recreational sites.

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The Oxford English Dictionary people have compiled a list of the top hundred most commonly used nouns, and the top ten are:

1 Time
2 Person
3 Year
4 Way
5 Day
6 Thing
7 Man
8 World
9 Life
10 Hand

I've used "time" a couple of times on this page already. I don't think I used "person", or "year" though. I have used "way" at least twice, and "life" and "thing" once each, but I don't think I have used any of the others. That's 4 out of the top ten in five paragraphs. I would never have guessed that "time" would be the most common noun. It seems that 90% of the top 100 are one-syllable words. The list was compiled using lots of different written data, including blogs.

***

Now here's an odd story for you. Three sisters from Inverness who bought insurance cover that pays out in the event of an immaculate conception, have had their cover withdrawn. The policy was supposed to cover the cost of bringing up Christ in the event of the second coming. Honestly, I'm not making this up. And so many questions occur to me here. For one thing, you'd think that God would provide for his next son (or daughter) and therefore negate the need for an insurance policy wouldn't you? And how exactly does one prove that one is carrying the next incarnation of the son of God? Why did these three women think that, out of 3 billion women on the planet, they would be chosen?

The really odd thing about this as far as I am concerned however, is the fact that the catholic church is not happy about it at all. Apparently the issuing of the policy was most offensive to them, which is why it was cancelled. But I can't see why the policy would offend the church. They apparently believe that an immaculate conception happened once, 2000 years ago, and they apparently also believe it will happen again. What's the problem here?

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