Could 19 gold medals have been 20 if Dwain Chambers had been selected to compete in Beijing?
At the time of the ruling I wondered if the British Olympic Association (BOA) had made the right decision: Chambers had said sorry, expressed remorse, and then let his legs do the talking out on the track.
And they spoke volumes - he qualified fair and square and proved himself the fastest 100m sprinter the UK could pit against Usain Bolt.
I felt sorry for him - it seemed a big price to pay for a mistake back in 2003.
But what would it have mattered? Bolt would have beaten Chambers any day of the week and the BOA deserves credit for standing up to Chambers.
The only thing that could take the shine off what we saw in China is a drugs scandal.
Not that I'm suggesting Chambers isn't clean, quite the contrary, he'd be mad not to be after his high profile battle with the BOA.
The scandal would have been Chambers legal victory over the BOA, had he been allowed to run.
So soon after Max Moseley - another case in which the facts of the complainant's unsavoury behaviour were not disputed, but the letter of the law was used to reward a orgy-indulging married man - it is refreshing to see a judge make the right decision.
The "resort to court" culture that is now part of our national psyche is wrong and it's damaging.
Sometimes people make mistakes that they have to live with forever - there's no court appeal option for them because that's just the way it is - but a litigious society encourages us to forget that.
Dwain needs to grow up and accept he should give up the day job.
Team GB are better off with 19 honest medals than 20 hypocritical ones.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Ronson replies
So, I dropped Mr Ronson a quick email via his website suggesting Joyce McKinney as subject matter for his next documentary, and lo! A reply:
"I agree she would be fascinating! I'm in the process of seeing what I can do."
Do you think that entitles me to royalties?
(N.B. Ronson is a kind of cooler, edgier heir to Louis Theroux's brand of oddball investigative journalism. His book Them will give you the idea. And yes, I did consider asking for a job.)
"I agree she would be fascinating! I'm in the process of seeing what I can do."
Do you think that entitles me to royalties?
(N.B. Ronson is a kind of cooler, edgier heir to Louis Theroux's brand of oddball investigative journalism. His book Them will give you the idea. And yes, I did consider asking for a job.)
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Seal scandal!
Thanks must go to Captain Mac for his erudite analysis of Ms McKinney's behaviour:
Manacled mormons, prosthetic ponies, cloned canines - does all this mad chick's craziness have to involve alliteration?
If so then should we be looking out for bagged budgies, zapped zebras and indignant iguanas?
I think we should be told - get on it Laura!!
In response to this call to arms, I want to assure readers that I am, indeed, "on it" and currently following up a hot lead.
I can't reveal too much at this stage, but suffice it to say McKinney's movements cannot be accounted for during the West Kirby sandbank seal scaring scandal - a story brought to you by the Wirral News.
http://tinyurl.com/5mamfs
Another link that readers may find of interest, yes, it's prosthetics for ponies, a subsidiary company of Animal Rehab Centers of America: http://www.equineprosthetics.com/main.html
I am now awaiting with baited breath the announcement that one of my favourite Jewish journalists, Jon Ronson or Louis Theroux is making a documentary about McKinney. I have taken the liberty of suggesting this to Mr Ronson via email and will be sure to share his response.
Right, I think that's quite enough silliness for one night; only serious posts next week.
Manacled mormons, prosthetic ponies, cloned canines - does all this mad chick's craziness have to involve alliteration?
If so then should we be looking out for bagged budgies, zapped zebras and indignant iguanas?
I think we should be told - get on it Laura!!
In response to this call to arms, I want to assure readers that I am, indeed, "on it" and currently following up a hot lead.
I can't reveal too much at this stage, but suffice it to say McKinney's movements cannot be accounted for during the West Kirby sandbank seal scaring scandal - a story brought to you by the Wirral News.
http://tinyurl.com/5mamfs
Another link that readers may find of interest, yes, it's prosthetics for ponies, a subsidiary company of Animal Rehab Centers of America: http://www.equineprosthetics.com/main.html
I am now awaiting with baited breath the announcement that one of my favourite Jewish journalists, Jon Ronson or Louis Theroux is making a documentary about McKinney. I have taken the liberty of suggesting this to Mr Ronson via email and will be sure to share his response.
Right, I think that's quite enough silliness for one night; only serious posts next week.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
News just in
Hello McKinney watchers!
There has been a fresh twist in the ever bizarre tale of Joyce the "manacled Mormon kidnapper" McKinney.
Turns out it's not just Mormons that she's obsessed with, she's got a freaky thing for animals too.
First it was the South Korean puppy cloning, now it's - actually I'll let The Times, who have followed the story so faithfully, take over:
The “manacled Mormon” kidnapper who was exposed after cloning her pet pitbull terrier in South Korea is wanted on burglary charges involving a three-legged horse in the United States.
Joyce McKinney is accused of telling a 15-year-old boy to break into a house in Tennessee so that she could get money to buy a false leg for her beloved horse, her lawyer said.
Prosthethics for ponies - who knew it was so lucrative?
On other business, it has been brough to my attention that there is another possible explanation for the linguistic conundrum that is the phrase "to get caned".
Captain Mac said: "I think caned comes from when drinks like rum were brewed from fermented sugar cane."
I like it.
Meanwhile, the latest news on the future of Cains is that PWC are talking up their chances of finding a buyer "to take control within just a few days" according to the oft over-looked publication The Publican.
PWC said: “We are advertising for interested parties in the Financial Times at the end of the week and that should help us set a timescale for positive offers as early as the week beginning August 18."
Consider yourselves updated.
There has been a fresh twist in the ever bizarre tale of Joyce the "manacled Mormon kidnapper" McKinney.
Turns out it's not just Mormons that she's obsessed with, she's got a freaky thing for animals too.
First it was the South Korean puppy cloning, now it's - actually I'll let The Times, who have followed the story so faithfully, take over:
The “manacled Mormon” kidnapper who was exposed after cloning her pet pitbull terrier in South Korea is wanted on burglary charges involving a three-legged horse in the United States.
Joyce McKinney is accused of telling a 15-year-old boy to break into a house in Tennessee so that she could get money to buy a false leg for her beloved horse, her lawyer said.
Prosthethics for ponies - who knew it was so lucrative?
On other business, it has been brough to my attention that there is another possible explanation for the linguistic conundrum that is the phrase "to get caned".
Captain Mac said: "I think caned comes from when drinks like rum were brewed from fermented sugar cane."
I like it.
Meanwhile, the latest news on the future of Cains is that PWC are talking up their chances of finding a buyer "to take control within just a few days" according to the oft over-looked publication The Publican.
PWC said: “We are advertising for interested parties in the Financial Times at the end of the week and that should help us set a timescale for positive offers as early as the week beginning August 18."
Consider yourselves updated.
Friday, 15 August 2008
Friday fun
Maybe I'm going crazy, but I found this hilarious.
It is truly the fail blog of cakes, enjoy!
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
I'm off for a nice slice of Victoria sponge myself.
It is truly the fail blog of cakes, enjoy!
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
I'm off for a nice slice of Victoria sponge myself.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Boris Johnston, Kelvin MacKenzie, and now...
Tim Leunig.
The think tank academic who urged scousers to move South because Liverpool has lost its "raison d'etre" has found himself on the wrong end of the city's wrath.
Not since blundering Boris and The Sun's infamous Hillsborough splash has there been such an outcry directed at one man.
Leunig's half-baked ideas have been the subject of acres of coverage, with stirring double page spreads in the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.
Undeniably its been great fun to read, but should we be wasting our time on Leunig? By taking a swipe at the proudest city in the UK the LSE economist was always guaranteed to make the front pages.
Which has me wondering if our northern pride had been manipulated?
A friend at the Hull Daily Mail summed it up today when she said: "We fizz up like a bottle of pop when someone has a dig."
And we do. The fact is, far from harming his career this furore is going to make the Bill Gates look-a-like Leunig into a darling of academia.
You only have to look at Johnston and MacKenzie to see that they didn't suffer much for their ill-advised pot shots at scousers. Boris is now mayor of London and MacKenzie is a millionaire.
In a way it's a shame that Leunig went loopy and suggested mass migration as an alternative to making regeneration work, because there are questions to be asked about the received wisdom that "regeneration" is the saviour of our cities.
A week ago The TaxPayers’ Alliance came out with their own paper arguing that regional development agencies have cost the tax payer £15bn and have failed to deliver value for money, at the same time the National Audit Office are scrutinising the work of such quangos ready for a major report in 2009.
Now, there's something worth dedicating column inches to.
The think tank academic who urged scousers to move South because Liverpool has lost its "raison d'etre" has found himself on the wrong end of the city's wrath.
Not since blundering Boris and The Sun's infamous Hillsborough splash has there been such an outcry directed at one man.
Leunig's half-baked ideas have been the subject of acres of coverage, with stirring double page spreads in the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.
Undeniably its been great fun to read, but should we be wasting our time on Leunig? By taking a swipe at the proudest city in the UK the LSE economist was always guaranteed to make the front pages.
Which has me wondering if our northern pride had been manipulated?
A friend at the Hull Daily Mail summed it up today when she said: "We fizz up like a bottle of pop when someone has a dig."
And we do. The fact is, far from harming his career this furore is going to make the Bill Gates look-a-like Leunig into a darling of academia.
You only have to look at Johnston and MacKenzie to see that they didn't suffer much for their ill-advised pot shots at scousers. Boris is now mayor of London and MacKenzie is a millionaire.
In a way it's a shame that Leunig went loopy and suggested mass migration as an alternative to making regeneration work, because there are questions to be asked about the received wisdom that "regeneration" is the saviour of our cities.
A week ago The TaxPayers’ Alliance came out with their own paper arguing that regional development agencies have cost the tax payer £15bn and have failed to deliver value for money, at the same time the National Audit Office are scrutinising the work of such quangos ready for a major report in 2009.
Now, there's something worth dedicating column inches to.
Monday, 11 August 2008
Phrase and fable, caned and able
********* http://tinyurl.com/5kfwcz *********
Is the soundtrack to this post - there's a reason.
On the way home from work today I was thinking about a pint of beer.
Which is no unusual state of affairs, but this time I was pondering the etymology of the pint in question.
"Does," I wondered, "the verb 'to cane' (most common usage 'we were caned' or 'he's a caner') derive from Liverpool's very own 'Cains' beer?"
Caners are a breed of their own according to The Sun, and just like that other incomprehensible, monosyllabic, dribbling group - premiership footballers - they have their own league. See: http://tinyurl.com/66nnpj
Chugging through Birkdale and Sandhills I tried to get to the bottom of the question: To get caned do you need to be drinking Cains?
Because if that's the case we're all going to be sobering up very soon. Last week the tax man called time, RBS handed the beleaguered brewery over to the receivers and the long hangover began.
Now, there is another school of thought that argues the root of the verb is cocaine, or 'caine if you're really cool.
Which makes me wonder, has the government really thought this thing through? Do they want good sup-standing Cains drinkers to become coke fiends whose nostrils harbour half of Columbia just because there's a £4.2m financing shortfall?
How much did bankrolling Northern Rock cost?
Surely it's time for a private members bill in parliament calling for the nationalisation of Cains before we all end up in a worse state than Ms Winehouse because we've had to swap a nice pint for class A substance abuse in order to carry on getting caned?
Is the soundtrack to this post - there's a reason.
On the way home from work today I was thinking about a pint of beer.
Which is no unusual state of affairs, but this time I was pondering the etymology of the pint in question.
"Does," I wondered, "the verb 'to cane' (most common usage 'we were caned' or 'he's a caner') derive from Liverpool's very own 'Cains' beer?"
Caners are a breed of their own according to The Sun, and just like that other incomprehensible, monosyllabic, dribbling group - premiership footballers - they have their own league. See: http://tinyurl.com/66nnpj
Chugging through Birkdale and Sandhills I tried to get to the bottom of the question: To get caned do you need to be drinking Cains?
Because if that's the case we're all going to be sobering up very soon. Last week the tax man called time, RBS handed the beleaguered brewery over to the receivers and the long hangover began.
Now, there is another school of thought that argues the root of the verb is cocaine, or 'caine if you're really cool.
Which makes me wonder, has the government really thought this thing through? Do they want good sup-standing Cains drinkers to become coke fiends whose nostrils harbour half of Columbia just because there's a £4.2m financing shortfall?
How much did bankrolling Northern Rock cost?
Surely it's time for a private members bill in parliament calling for the nationalisation of Cains before we all end up in a worse state than Ms Winehouse because we've had to swap a nice pint for class A substance abuse in order to carry on getting caned?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
The Karma of Literature... BookCrossing.com