Mar 31 Blimey! Anya's right! Sonoma County musician Doug Bowes will remember this Easter season as the one where he happened upon the Easter Bunny, and it attacked him. Bowes was walking near his home on Wednesday when the attack occurred. A small, gray jack rabbit bounded toward him from a nearby fence.
"I thought, 'Gosh, this is somebody's pet,' " Bowes said. He put his hand down in a friendly gesture and the bunny lunged and bit him.
Bowes began to walk home, nursing a sore hand with broken skin, but the rabbit followed him. A short time later, a nearby neighbor had to retreat up a hill after another aggressive jack rabbit forced her back.
[sacramento bee]
So what did she do apart from smiling, waving and looking like a granny? - Charlie Stayt, 5 News, not that the channel will admit it.
Running a completely different schedule.
| Scheduled | Actual |
|---|---|
| 06:00 As BBC News 23 | 06:00 As BBC Queen Mother's Dead 23 |
| 09:00 Animal Park | |
| 10:00 Risen Today | 10:00 Risen Today |
| 11:00 Urbi et Orbi | 11:00 Urbi et Orbi |
| 11:40 Countryfile | 11:40 Countryfile |
| 12:25 Keeping Up Appearances | 12:25 Ground Force |
| 13:15 Herbie Goes Bananas | 12:55 Herbie Goes Bananas |
| 14:45 Eastenders | 14:25 Eastenders |
| 16:35 News, Regional News | 16:15 Queen Mother I: 1900-1945 |
| 17:00 Songs Of Praise: Easter | |
| 17:40 That Was Life | 17:30 News, Regional News |
| 17:55 Songs Of Praise: Queen Mother | |
| 18:40 Antiques Roadshow | 18:40 Arthur: King of the Britons |
| 19:25 Arthur: King of the Britons | 19:40 Queen Mother II: 1945-2002 |
| 20:25 Blackadder Back and Forth | |
| 21:00 News | 21:00 News |
| 21:20 Rescue Me - drama | 21:20 Rescue Me |
| 22:20 Parkinson | 22:20 Parkinson |
| 23:20 Days of Thunder | 23:25 Days of Thunder |
| 01:05 Breach of Conduct - movie | 01:10 Breach of Conduct |
| 02:30 The Sky At Night | 02:35 The Sky At Night |
| 02:50 As BBC News 24 | 02:55 As BBC Queen Mother's Dead 24 |
Sad suit, mournful face, People's Granny - Tony Blair.
BBC2 cut a mid-afternoon athletics show - behind the scenes at yesterday's Balmoral road race - and screened a tribute.
ITV dropped the regional 30 minutes for a networked tribute.
C4 appeared to run as billed.
C5 dropped their 12 noon discussion programme, and inserted news bulletins between programmes in place of ad breaks. The practical upshot of this is that DARIA: IS IT FALL YET runs with just one internal break, not the three expected. Yay!
Have there been any further developments since, or is she still dead?
Radio 4 has an extended version of the regular SUNDAY show from 6 to 9, and PICK OF THE WEEK wasn't. There may have been changes to the published running order on Radio 3, while 6 Music and Radio 2 played "appropriate" music all day - 6 Music had Gideon Coe and Chris Robbins in on their days off.
Biggest surprise was Radio 1, which cut half a dozen records - and all station promos - from the top 40 show, including the #2 and two in the top 10. The show came out at 6:30, about 23 minutes before usual.
Capital Radio Group networked a Gary King breakfast show; GWR networked an anonymous show. East Midlands regional Century 106 seemed to be almost back to normal by 8:30, everyone else was sombre and serious. Bulletins every 30 minutes until the Network Chart at 4 - that was shorn of competitions and chit chat, but otherwise the normal show. Very similar to the show on Sept 16 last year.
"We understand the Queen Mother was in poor health." - Mary Nightingale, ITV "News".
Perhaps the most bizarre twist is the Government Approved Guide To Mourning. Let's have a riffle:
Mar 30 Into the city centre, to do a fair bit of shopping, including a new shirt for work. Just out of interest, stepped into a charity store to see if they had any decent clothes. Fifteen minutes later, walked out with two almost-new shirts for work, a T-shirt, and an almost unread copy of Fi Glover's I AM AN OIL TANKER. Hurrah!
Then pop into the music store to get rid of my last voucher: spend £50, get £15 back. The sale is on, and includes O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU soundtrack, and an 80s box set, the Afro-Celt Sound System, and someone called Andrew Hardin. Haven't a clue who he is, but the writing credits look interesting.
Back home, cut lawn, watch amazingly close Boat Race - Oxford comes from behind to win by a nose. Settle down to watch a good evening's telly, but two thirds of the way through AUNTIE'S SILLIEST BLOOMERS - during a skit about the Code Red worm that was just about to become a classic display of MS's incompetence, the telly goes black. Continuity announcer, picture of the coastline, off to the newsroom. This happens...
Frail 101 year old dies.
BBC1: BBC Queen Mother's Dead 24, until 21:30.
BBC2: Resumes normal service at 18:10, after losing the second half of STEPTOE AND SON. CASUALTY replaced HOUSE DETECTIVES AT LARGE at 20:10 on a free transfer from BBC1. The four episodes in three hours of 24 went ahead.
ITV: Interrupts a show about famous pets to cut to ITV Queen Mother's Dead. STARS IN THEIR EYES is the first show back, at 19:50, followed by a trip to the newsroom, then DENNIS NORDEN'S LAUGHTER FILE.
C4: Airs THE FALKLANDS: WHEN BRITAIN WENT TO WAR about 15 minutes late, with a full complement of commercials. A tribute programme replaces BECKETT ON FILM, with news replacing ROBBIE WILLIAMS at 21:00.
C5: Ends movie ROCKETMAN just short of half way through. Normal service resumes with CHARMED at the regular time.
"Lavinia Harley, you were The Queen Mother's Former Wardrobe Mistress" - Sky News
BBC Radio 1: Airs trippy trance music all evening.
BBC Radio 2 - 6, BBC Local Radio, BBC World Service: Simulcast of special programme from the PM studios. 5 Live Sport+ is off air. Coverage of Tottenham -v- Blackburn is interrupted and never resumes. Networks break around 8:30 - 4 and 5 stay together, with Julian Worriker and Nicky Campbell.
Virgin: Plays serious tracks by Robbie Williams all evening.
Classic: Plays serious tracks by sombre Germans all evening.
Talk Radio: Extended at 6:00, then returns to the scheduled football phone in around 6:10.
"The Queen mother's death is the greatest loss in the Queen's life" - Mary Nightingale, ITV.
BRMB, GWR network, Fosse Way (and I assume Fox): Radio Authority Approved Programming.
Saga West Midlands: Sombre violins.
Heart West Midlands: Slightly more jaunty violins.
Galaxy Birmingham: Similar to Radio 1.
"I shall miss that lovely smile of hers." - Dame Vera Lynn
Magic London: Sombre choral music.
Jazz FM London: Sombre jazz.
Kiss London: Similar to Radio 1.
XFM London: Plays serious tracks by U2.
"Oh, she were grand. She condescended to come down and meet us, she did" - Cockney Lady on all channels
Oneword: Regular programming - Sarah Greene reading PIPPI LONGSTOCKING.
Core: Regular pop 'n' prattle programming.
Life: Radio Authority Approved Programming.
Planet Rock: Rock on!
Smooth: Cancels the billed programme ("Something" by the Beatles becomes Barber's Adagio) but doesn't update radiotext computer.
Cube: Instrumentals from their archive.
The Arrow: Softer side of their usual output
Digital News Network, The Source for non-stop news in the West Midlands: Utterly silent.
Dr George Carey, you are Archbishop of Canterbury, but how come sunshine is coming through your windows at 7pm?
News 24: BBC Queen Mother's Dead 24
ITN News Channel: ITN Queen Mother's Dead Channel.
Sky News: Tabloid trash treatment
CNN: Ten minutes of discussion, then off to Tel Aviv where there's been yet another bomb, and someone with an American accent is talking.
CNBC Europe is simulcasting MSNBC, and follows a similar pattern to CNN.
Bloomberg: Recorded financial programmes.
TF5 Europe gives this as the lead story in their 19:05 CET bulletin.
"Er, erm, uh, ah, er" - Peter Sissons, most of the night.
Off air: QVC and Shop!, the home shopping channels. Also the Discovery nets: Animal Planet, Home & Leisure, Civilisation, Sci-Trek.
Warehouses full of memorial tat are being emptied as we speak.
Challenge TV, Eurosport, E4, Sky1, Play, UK* network, MTV network, EMAP network, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC Parliament, Cartoon, Boomerang, Trouble, Nick (JR), FoxKids, Travel, and I assume everything else.
[Above section modified from initial posts. First to add the channels off air, then to give further details of the return to normalcy.]
To summarise the above... pretty much what I'd expect from the TV. Blanket coverage on BBC1 and ITV, the "establishment" stations. BBC2 and C4 break the news, then return sharpish to normal programmes. C5 breaks the news, waits for the next appropriate junction (a full hour away) then normalcy returns. I'm amazed that PVC isn't trying to sell anything; less surprised that Shut! is off air - they were off for most of yesterday morning, and the channel's due to close at the end of next month anyway.
Much less pleased with the radio experience: simulcasting the same programme across five of the six national networks for (at least) two hours is an abuse of resources. Radio 3 listeners are entitled to hear classical music in tribute. Radios 2 and 6 Music might usefully play the soft side of their playlists. Instead, the same wittering and waffle right the way through.
Insta-conspiracy theory. This could be a clever ploy by Gary Flitcroft. He's the captain of Blackburn Rovers, a struggling permier league football side. He took a Sunday newspaper to court, arguing that if they published a kiss 'n' tell story about him and a couple of lap dancers, that would be an invasion of his privacy. The case was lost, the injunction expired at midnight last night, and was all over today's front pages. I've no doubt that it would have been the lead story in tomorrow's People, but for events.
Mar 29 It's the Friday before Easter, and that's a UK bank holiday. No work.
So, trip to go and queue in the supermarket. Thought about going up to the Lickey Hills and take some photos of the city, but there's no wind today, and there's been no rain for the best part of the week, so the photochemical smog will just give everything a nasty yellow tinge. Bloody car drivers.
Not the best day for watching CNN's WORLD SPORT, as it's interrupted during the first commercial break with news from Palestine. Try again with the mid-afternoon repeat, but that's interrupted at the same point with more news from Palestine.
Last night's TV: BUFFY was the one where the geeks try to use magic to get laid, but no one spots that this is the path that almost led to Willow's ruination. This episode is called Dead Things
, and will be repeated at 6pm Saturday. I predict, in an on-the-web-you-can't-tell-I-added-this-on-Sunday-way, that this will cause major embarrasment to the Wok. FRIENDS had the Ms Pacman game, Ross trying to go all across town and some mawkish guff about Joey and Rachel dating. Both good epis, as was the season 6 SIMPSONS in which Lisa does everything to make a decent tribute to her favourite jazz singer.
Mar 28 Some items that grabbed my attention...
News presenter turned DJ Jeremy "Jezza" Vine was discussing the problems associated with next door's cat. One contributor wondered what ecological niche is filled by felines, as all they do is eat and produce excement. "How do I get from that to this?" wondered the Viney one, spinning a Hot Chocolate disk. Evidently he's not tried the drink in the BBC canteen.
Indian scientists have found that they can stop baked beans from causing wind. All you've got to do is irradiate the beans, and the flatulence-causing agent becomes a thing of the past. The group's next research project will be in how to stop that annoying green glow that comes from eating irradiated beans.
A new stamp to mark the Norwegian Soccer Federation's 100th anniversary has forced the postal service to launch an international manhunt. The 1.3 million stamps have a picture of a soccer referee in action. But the Norwegian postal service has no idea whose likeness it is. The stamps were supposed to show Lars Johan Hammer, a 27-year-old referee who looks nothing like the man in the picture. "I was really looking forward to it and had alerted all my relations to the big event," Hammer was quoted as telling the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang. But the big event was a disappointment.
Employees at the Geneseo Wal-Mart store apparently felt that 50 cents was too high a price to pay after an elderly customer became stuck in a newspaper vending machine Wednesday evening in front of their store. Officials at Wal-Mart's corporate office in Arkansas say store employees were merely following company policy by not tampering with the machine.
The customer stopped at the local store around 5:30 Wednesday evening to pick up some prescriptions from the store pharmacy. While on her way into the store, a headline on the paper in the vending machine caught her attention. As she reached into the vending machine to grab her paper, the spring-loaded door slipped from under her elbow, which she was using to hold it open, and slammed shut, trapping the strings from the hood of her jacket in the now locked machine. She was unable to remove her coat to free herself because of a past surgery on her shoulder.
The normally busy entrance of the store was deserted at that moment in time. "I was stuck there for a while until some little gal came by and asked if everything was all right," she said. Like a Girl Scout out to do a good deed, the young woman went to the store's service desk expecting to find someone that could help. Instead she was informed that store has a strict policy against tampering with the machines. "When she came back she said that the woman there said that there wasn't anything that she could do since the machine wasn't theirs," the woman said.
"The store woman poked her head out the door and said that she was calling someone from The Dispatch to come and let me out," she said. "I told her I just wanted someone to come and put some quarters in the thing and that's when she told me that they weren't responsible for making refunds for the machine." Since the newspaper she had purchased before becoming trapped in the machine was still in her hands, the woman explained that a refund was the farthest thing from her mind.
Becoming angrier as each minute slipped by, she finally decided enough was enough. "When the woman from the store came back out to tell me that she hadn't been able to get anyone from The Dispatch on the phone yet, I told her that if she would just put some money in the machine I would pay her back as soon as I could get some change," the woman said.
After nearly 20 minutes of being trapped by the machine, the employee finally agreed to place two quarters in the machine freeing her strings from the door. "I was beginning to wonder if anyone was ever going to get me out of the thing." The woman's daughter later returned to the scene of her mother's predicament giving the store's rule-minded employee a five dollar bill in order that the next people who get more than just their attention caught by the newspaper headlines could be released in a more timely manner.
Sharon Weber, a public relations officer from Wal-Mart behemothic corporate HQ said that it was all a very unfortunate incident. An assistant manager at the Geneseo store declined to comment on the matter Thursday, saying she had not been notified of the incident.
Mar 26 Long and boring meeting about this and that. Most of the time is spent discussing the company cars that are provided to regional managers, to go out and sell their product in the field. Chancellor Brown has introduced a new tax regime that will penalise anyone who drives more than 12,000 miles (19,200 km) per year on business. It's to discourage the use of cars, and hence part of the overall strategy of the Department For The Promotion Of Public Transport And Prevention Of Car Use (minister: Stephen Byers). However, it prompts some contributors to come out with pearls like: We're all looking for a more environmentally sound car
. That would be like the long search for the less murderous shotgun. Cars wreck the environment. Cars are responsible for the west needing so much oil. Cars are responsible for Sadaam Hussein. Cars are responsible for funding terrorist organisations. When you put gas in your tank tonight, remember how you're helping to destabalise the geopolitical situation in the middle east. And how it's coming home to roost.
OK, so I'm a bit cranky. That's because I've been getting static shocks left right and centre today. Unpacking PCs that have rubbed about in their box for some weeks, and are just waiting to discharge onto me. Painfully.
USA TODAY reports: In the months after Sept 11, airport screeners confiscated record numbers of nail clippers and scissors. But nearly half the time, they failed to stop the guns, knives or simulated explosives carried past checkpoints by undercover investigators with the Transportation Department's inspector general. At screening checkpoints, guns passed through in 30% of tests, knives went unnoticed 70% of the time, and screeners failed to detect simulated explosives in 60% of tests. Investigators "were successful in boarding 58 aircraft" at 17 of the 32 airports tested. "In 158 tests, we got access to either the aircraft (58) or the tarmac (18) 48 percent of our tries."
A series of earthquakes in Northern Afghanistan. This is the second significant seismic activity in the area since the US dropped thermobaric bombs - cavebusters - a couple of months ago. Are these events linked? No one in the media is asking this interesting question.
Mar 25 The Internet Spring Clean project begins today. No-one mention that it's the middle of autumn in the Southern hemisphere and we might be OK. "Throw out the old junk, get rid of those files you haven't updated, store them on a disk instead of on the web!" urges the group behind the project. "The only thing this will do is make the internet better and relieve internet users around the world from viewing information that is out of date," it alleges.
But isn't half the fun of this whole web thing (only one aspect of the internet, and perhaps not its most important one, lest we forget) tracking down multiple sources, and only publishing something as fact if one can find an real citation? Or am I holding myself to too high standards?
For instance, I've come across a lot of claims that the first person ever to be called on the British version of THE PRICE IS RIGHT declined to "Come On Down." A lot of claims, but no hard evidence. No one has been able to attribute that to host Leslie Crowther, or producer William G Stewart, or anyone involved with the recording.
Back to work, and lots of setting up of computers for the annual gathering of senior staff and field reps. Why do they need so many computers? And how come they keep changing their minds? If I were in charge, I'd be setting a deadline of perhaps three weeks before the last working date, after which people couldn't request anything new. Then we could prioritise properly. Because everything has to be ready by 5:30 Thursday evening, it makes our jobs more difficult than it ought.