Danskcolin: Friday January 23rd 2026 "Have YOU got an unpleasant boss? And are YOU looking at ways to 'get even' ?"

Yes, Friends, have YOU got an unpleasant boss? Most of us have, haven't we, although Yours Truly and my wife Lois (a.k.a Mrs Yours Truly!) are honourable exceptions, having been retired for an incredible 20 years come March, although we could certainly tell you a thing or two about our ex-bosses back in the day!

It turns out, however, that it's pretty easy 'getting even' with these line-management-monsters, according to today's Onion News!

See? Simples! But kudos, that woman !!!!

car-driver Jennifer Crosswell (Doris Day) splashes mud over her

"jerk of a boss" Doug Southerton (Cary Grant), in this crazy

"AI" version of how the miniseries of Lassen's novel might look

However, reading the Onion story this morning, here in rain-affected Liphook, Hampshire, brings some much-needed cheer and a cocky smile" (!) to our rain-drenched lips to put it mildly!!!! Lois and I don't need to have mud splashed on our designer clothing today by any crazy sportscar-driving woman - we're muddy enough already, thank you very much!

There is as much mud around us, and over us (!), as we can take, not to mention puddles galore today, as we do our "30 minutes of squelching" (phrase copyright 70's punk idol Johnny Rotten - kudos, Johnny!) on Old Man Lowsleys' Farm, just outside town. And we eventually have to abandon the walk after less than half the number of steps we normally do - only 2000 today, instead of the usual 4000-5000, would you believe!

What madness!!!

flashback to this morning: Lois and me doing our daily walk

over Old Man Lowsley's Farm just outside town, here in Liphook, Hampshire

It soon becomes apparent that the local bird population doesn't like this awful weather either - we only "bag" a thrush and a couple of tits on my phone's shiny new "merlin" app.

By contrast, however, the local dogs (and their owners) are in "mud heaven", to put it mildly!!!! You can see one of them, with its owner, on the top right picture above, on the horizon, striding confidently past the farm's iconic oak-tree, if you don't believe me!!!!!

Lois and I are not really "dog people", although we've got nothing against them, to be fair. We've always been "cat people", and we brought our two daughters Alison and Sarah to be "cat people" too. However, it turned out that they both eventually married "dog men", so "mixed marriages" is what Lois and I call their respective crazy unions haha!

flashback to 2017: mine and Lois's last ever pet cat, Minx - awwwww!!!

We find out tonight, however, that we're not the UK's only "cat people", which is a surprise! Step forward comedians David Baddiel, Ricky Gervais, Josh Widdicombe and comedienne Lou Sanders, not to mention chat-show host Jonathan Ross. Kudos, guys !!!!

And it's all courtesy of Baddiel's new Channel 4 series "Cat Man", the second episode of which is airing tonight, which is nice!

As Baddiel says, there are plenty of programmes about dogs on TV, but very few centred on cats. And while many dogs indeed look impossibly beautiful, the thing about cats is that they all look adorable, even the "ugly" ones!!!

Wilfred, dubbed "the ugliest cat on the Internet 2022"

This is a fascinating series, and Lois and learn a lot about cats big and small from tonight's show, to put it mildly! Cats are a weird species, because they have these big relations, like tigers etc, that are, in most respects just like normal cats, only bigger - what kind of madness is that!!!

And who knew, for example, that although lions and tigers roar, and scare the living daylights out of you, other big cats, like cheetahs, have the same quiet little "miaow" that domestic house cats have? And just like domestic cats, the cheetahs will miaow at their human 'owners - zoo-keepers and such-like - when they're complaining that it's feeding time. It's interesting that cats, whether big or small, rarely miaow at other cats.

These cheetahs are convinced that it's "feeding-time" and they're very vocally letting their "humans" know about it, no question!

And the reason? The cheetah's physiology has a lot of similarities with that of domestic cats, and cheetahs don't have all the advantages of the real big boys, the lions and tigers.

And who knew, for example, that there was such a thing as a "toyger", basically a normal-size cat that's been bred to look like a tiger, albeit a miniature one?

Toygers are very much in demand for their idiosyncratic looks, and, tonight, presenter David Baddiel talks to a toyger-stud owner, who gives him the inside story about what it's like to be a "toyger tom" working in a "toyger stud":