Thursday June 27th 2024 "Being a football pundit - is it 'money for old rope' ????"

Some weeks it seems like there's an awful lot of violence in the world, doesn't it. 

I'm happy to report, however, that there have been some lights at the ends of some tunnels this week - did you see this "doozy" of a story from America's NFL (National Football League) [source: Onion News] ?

Heart-warming story, isn't it. And my long-suffering wife Lois and I fully expect this "feel-good" news from America to feature prominently in page 4's tiny "It wasn't all bad" section of her weekly news-digest magazine "The Week", when it "plops" through our letter-box tomorrow, that's for sure!

the tiny "it wasn't all bad" section of last week's

44-page copy of  Lois's news-digest magazine "The Week"

It's no secret that Lois and I don't "do" sports, and we're currently involved in "dodging" the sports-heavy schedules, both the Euros and the tennis, being advertised by the 3 main TV channels at the moment.

And we are being forced to try and dodge the sport much in the way that, in the US, a quarterback tries to "dodge" a waiting defender, before the now-inevitable "peace talks" between the two "warring" players (!).

yesterday's soccer-heavy and tennis-heavy schedules

for the three main channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV1

It's all a bit of a madness, when you think about it, isn't it. And don't you just hate it, when these soccer programme's so-called experts start pontificating, and pretending that soccer is "an exact science".

Luckily, early this morning while Lois is washing her hair prior to her appointment with her stylist, I happen to catch David Hepworth's "Streams of Consciousness" column's "take" on this subject in next week's Radio Times.

And Hepworth's column gives me plenty to talk to Lois about on the subject of 'football punditry' - see below! - both while I'm driving her to her appointment with Rachel, her hair-stylist, and also later, when we finish off the morning with another walk on the common.

Rachel, working on Lois's head [not shown]

Lois paying Rachel at the till - Rachel's "re-blonding" herself

at the moment and she's got her hair done up with strips

of what look like newspaper cuttings - what madness !!!!

I catch up with Lois (literally (!)) on our walk over

Poolbrook Common - well, she walks faster than me, but

I did have a hip replacement only two months ago haha!

But "What did David Hepworth say in his column about football punditry?", I hear you cry!

[Not me! - Ed]

Well, let's let the great man speak for himself, shall we?

I think that says it all, don't you? Kudos, David haha!!!!!

21:00 We wind down for bed with the first episode of an amusing new 4-part comedy drama, "Douglas is Cancelled", all about a "national treasure" news-presenter Douglas Bellowes (played by Downton Abbey Star Hugh Bonneville), who, according to tweets etc on social media, made a sexist joke (shock horror) at a friend's wedding the other day. Does this mean that Douglas is going to be "cancelled"?

Lots of wry laughs between Lois and me on the couch, as I periodically ask Lois "Have they told us what Douglas's sexist joke actually was, yet?", but this uncertainty - the uncertainty about what the actual sexist joke was -  is all part of the "arc" of this episode, the fact that nobody seems to know yet. News-presenter Douglas claims that he doesn't remember what he said, and as the end of the episode looms, the actual joke itself still hasn't been revealed in all the social media furore that's going on.

That's when the news programme's producer, Toby, hits on the idea of getting a joke-writer to come up with a sexist joke that's only very mildly sexist, one that Douglas can safely "admit to", and one which Douglas's "demographic" will be prepared to shrug their shoulders over, and say, "Well, that's nothing to get very upset about!", thus thwarting any efforts to have him "cancelled".

Toby, the news show's producer thinks he's talking to the joke-writer, but he's actually talking to his driver. He had assumed that the man's companion, a "person of colour", was the driver, and that the white man was the joke-writer - but it was actually the other way around.

Oops!

Yes, life can be a bit of a minefield today, can't it, particularly for middle-aged 'straight' white men, like Toby, the show's producer. Never mind, life today is, after all, just a learning process - call it 'a journey' if you like haha!

Poor Toby!!!!

But what a crazy world we live in!!!!

[Oh, just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!