Some wag came up with the idea of organising a protest about the lack of swearing on the BBC today. The thing is, I don't want to complain about the lack of swearing on Desert Island Discs; I want to complain about the lack of swearing on Poetry, Please. There's no excuse for them not to broadcast a bit of Larkin on a Sunday afternoon:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

Larkin was the head librarian at Hull uni when my dad attended, and it's thanks to him that it was such a magnificent and well-stocked building when I attended myself. Thanks, Phil.

It's CARNIVAL TIME! YAY! Husky-Voiced Lust Object James Graham is ringmastering (no sniggering at the back there, you filthy perverts!) The Carnival on Modern Liberty.

He has many suggestions for things you can do to encourage people to think about Liberty, but one of them is to encourage five bloggers who normally don't go on about such things to do a post on what Liberty means to them. He suggests:

* Girl With A One Track Mind
* London Underground
* Neil Gaiman
* Bad Science
* New Humanist

I reckon GNeil is a bit of a cheat, given how much he's been blogging about the CBLDF recently, but... Anyway, I'll probably be doing something actionny at some point, but for right now? I can tag people in a meme, fur shizzle.

So consider yourselves tagged to blog about what Liberty means to you lonemagpie, Mitch Benn, caseytalk, j_rentoul, rhodri.

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Forbidden Planet sent me a sale brochure, and I am weak. HOWEVER! I only spent £7.50, and for that I got two Sarah Janes (plus ancillary figures - one for Small Person and one for the menagerie on top of the telly) and a Judge Death. Soon our telly will collapse from the weight of all the action figures... When young Sidney arrives, I shall take a picture.

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January the 19th would have been Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. Have a bit of Vinny P to celebrate:





There. That's a cheery thing, isn't it?

We're watching The Devil Rides Out tonight. There's nothing quite like seeing Jim Hacker being forced to perform magical rituals... >:D Good old Charles Gray.

Today is national poetry day, and this year's theme is Work. I therefore present a little excerpt from one of my favourite poems:

We tore the tarry rope to shreds
With blunt and bleeding nails;
We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors,
And cleaned the shining rails:
And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank,
And clattered with the pails.

We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones,
We turned the dusty drill:
We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns,
And sweated on the mill:
But in the heart of every man
Terror was lying still.

Any excuse for a bit of Ozzie. You can read the rest of The Ballad of Reading Gaol here. And I'm going to stop spamming y'all now. This is what happens when t'intarwebz get broken, see - I get loads of posts backed up and you get spammed...

A poem (yes, I know) about gender roles:

For Every Woman by Nancy R Smith

For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong;
There is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every woman who is tired of acting dumb;
There is a man who is burdened with the responsibility of ‘knowing everything’.

For every women who is tired of being called an ‘emotional female’;
There is a man who is denied the right to weep and be gentle.

For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes;
There is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove he is masculine.

For every woman who is tired of being a sex object;
There is a man who must worry about his potency.

For every woman who feels ‘tied down’ by her children;
There is a man who is denied the full pleasure of parenthood.

For every woman who is denied meaningful employment and equal pay;
There is a man who must bear the financial responsibility for another human being.

For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile;
There is a man who was not taught the satisfaction of cooking.

For every woman who takes a step towards her own liberation;
There is a man who finds that the way to freedom has been made a little easier.

Dedicated to my wife ;)

NB: any links which may have been in the original entry are no longer there. Sorry.

( Originally posted 11th November 2005 )