Only Fools and Horses

There's news this week the the long running and well loved UK TV show Only Fools and Horses may be adapted for the US.  Personally, I think this is an impossible task mostly because the show is so culture based and the two actors, David Jason  and Nic Lyndhurst, who play the lead characters Dell and Rodney work so well together.

Here's what the Independent said:

A pilot episode is said to be in the pipeline, written by Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley, writers and producers of the US hit series Happy Endings and Scrubs. The adaptation is sticking closely to the basic premise of the hit BBC 1 comedy, centring on "the misadventures of two streetwise brothers and their ageing grandfather as they concoct outrageous, morally questionable get-rich-quick schemes in a bid to become millionaires".
As most Britons can confirm, it's an accurate description of Derek and Rodney Trotter's hapless money-making antics. The question is whether a US audience will appreciate the nuances of this peculiarly British hit programme. That will depend on how skilfully the makers can adapt David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst's unique comic blend for an audience unlikely to have heard of Peckham.

And to give you a taste of what this show was about here is a clip:

The Economist on Euphemism

The economist has an amusing article on those things people say but what they really mean.
http://www.economist.com/node/21541767

"American euphemisms are in a class of their own, principally because they seem to involve words that few would find offensive to start with, replaced by phrases that are meaninglessly ambiguous: bathroom tissue for lavatory paper, dental appliances for false teeth, previously owned rather than used, wellness centres for hospitals, which conduct procedures not operations. As the late George Carlin, an American comedian, noted, people used to get old and die. Now they become first preelderly, then senior citizens and pass away in a terminal episode or (if doctors botch their treatment) after a therapeutic misadventure. These bespeak a national yearning for perfection, bodily and otherwise."

So You Want to Write a Novel: "I'm the talent."

On semi hiatus until January but I saw this via The Rejector:

Fake Reviews: Does Amazon have a sense of Humor?

Take a look at how numerous Amazon reviewers have taken the time to write reviews for a book that is either a test page (why Amazon would be doing that at this stage is questionable) or the metadata is someone's idea of a sick bibliographic joke. Since the record appears on other booksellers web pages it may be the latter. Anyway the reviews are funny and in case the page is removed here are images:

Truthiness a Casualty in Reality

According to a serious study undertaken by researchers at Ohio State both liberals and conservatives find Stephen Colbert funny. No harm in that. On the other hand conservatives don't know he's joking:

Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism.

See, that's what makes these people so dangerous.

Ticket to Surf

We all know about the USAir landing in the Hudson and we also know the pilot "Sully" signed a book deal (and good on him). Perhaps little known is where the news about his book deal is likely to show up - and remember this is a plane that took off and landed three minutes later in a river.

Cheapflights.

Chaney to Ghost Write Bush Decisions - Again?

It's in the HuffPo so it must be true. Or not. Link

But according to sources close to the former president, Mr. Cheney was his second choice to write the memoir after Mr. Bush was turned down by his first choice, author James Frey.

Mr. Bush, who reportedly "likes the way he makes things up," had asked Mr. Frey to pen the memoir under the title A Million Little Decision Points.

I actually think that kid from Brown might have done a better job with this.

Stop Making Sense: RISD Students Visit Random House

Apparently, RISD students have been all the rage at corporations ranging from The Gap to Bank of America and they recently visited Random House. This has to be fake, right? From The Brown Daily Herald.

Last month, a team of RISD students made a consulting trip to the headquarters of Random House, the venerable New York publishing house whose widely-publicized financial troubles earlier this year required company-wide layoffs. Random House CEO Markus Dohle extended a personal invitation to the students, who were paid a six-figure consulting fee and tasked with "re-energizing Random House's artistic mission by challenging our notions of creativity in business settings."

On their first day at Random House, the RISD team - who arrived in Manhattan on blue bicycles, wearing plaid pants and one-shouldered leotards - spent the morning examining the artwork in the offices of several Random House employees. Upon seeing a framed print of Thomas Kinkade's "The Christmas Cottage" hanging above the desk of senior editor Robert Littrell, RISD senior Megan Lafleur-Ramirez pronounced it "beyond tragic," and replaced the Kinkade print with "Awareness of Self and Non-Self Entities," a sculpture consisting of a bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos dipped in honey and tied to a Betamax player. RISD junior David Harrison spent the afternoon replacing many of the Dell computers in the office with cardboard signs reading "COMPUTER + COMP-YOU-TER = THE SIGNIFIED (???)" and sophomore Hannah Benton joined senior Rachel de Compt in the accounts division, where they spent several hours dropping long green threads onto pieces of canvas, attaching them to glass slides and putting the slides in a toaster. The project, de Compt said, was inspired by French surrealist Marcel Duchamp's "Trois Stoppages Etalon," and was meant to represent the plight of America's poor.

Do I label this "business strategy" or maybe comedy.

Kevin Roose has a book coming out: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University Amazon. (Hat tip Ron Hogan).

No 1 Detectives

I saw the poster in Times Square and she saw it in the subway. I thought, "Crap, we are going to have to get HBO". Casually, over dinner, I mention: "I'm thinking we might want to get HBO." She says, "Oh really, I think so to." I say "Why would you agree?" She says "You know why."

Oh, well at least there's Bill Maher.

Newscaster Bloopers

Katie Couric on Letterman last Monday night told a story about some mid west news station that reported on an impending snow storm. (It snowed in NYC last Monday so this was partially relevant). Katie explained that one evening the weatherman was warning of a heavy snow storm the next day. When the team returned the next day for the evening newscast the snow had not materialized, and in passing over to the weatherman for his report, the blond newscaster asked "So, Joe what happened to the 8 to 10 inches you promised me last night."

Which reminded me about a news story about a fast ball pitcher who it was said could throw a ball through a car wash so fast the ball wouldn't get wet. When they came back to the news desk one of them said "well, I guess he must have the cleanest balls in baseball".

I think in both cases they had to go to commercial. We'll be right back.

Stewart Eviscerates CNBC.

Remember when McCain bailed on Letterman and how Letterman milked that for weeks. This is better. A lot better. What I found interesting about this is that the audience was hardly laughing. There was a lot of unease as he went through the examples.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Republicans: The President Is Very Good

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - The Audacity of Nope

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Paul McCartney Appearance

Funny Political Videos
More Funny Videos

Crisis What Crisis

John Bird and John Fortune on the banking and subprime crisis broadcast a year ago.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g

Random Searches

A curious search string delivered someone to my site today:

"if you have a felony conviction can you travel to the UK"

The answer to that cannot be found on this blog. Nor can I offer any guidance.

Giles Coren on Editing

Spoiler alert: There is some very colorful language in the attached article written by food critic and writer Giles Coren. Giles has taken exception to what might appear to a disinterested party as a fairly minor editorial change to one of his recent restaurant reviews. As Mrs PND notes he is quite elegant in the manner in which he abuses the parties responsible. Giles and Gordon Ramsey are said to be good mates and it is clear after reading this where the common affection resides.

Consider yourself forewarned. There is no way anything like this would ever be published in a major US newspaper.

The Guardian.

JibJab: A Time For Some Campaignin'

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Those on RSS or email may need to return to the site to see this video. Click on the headline. Or visit jibjab.com

Call in Sick

From this mornings Chicago Sun Times.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Avoid emotional discussions about politics, religion, racial issues or even matters related to travel, foreign countries, publishing and education. These discussions will either go in circles or die on the vine. People are quick to take offense or assume that something is personal.

Shouldn't the and education be or education. Image people in publishing taking things personnally.

Book Launch 2.0

This is funny video about book promotion in the web 2.0 age. Sadly, the 1.0 world wasn't that great but it's only got worse.

Tip of the hat to Brantley

Dilbert Mashups

It is here. Your opportunity to match wits and funny bone with office humor superstar Scott Adams. Publisher's pay attention, because here is a perfect example of a content owner embracing their audience and letting them interact in a meaningful way with their product. I have noted that travel publishers, cookbook publishers and some others are experimenting with this idea and I hope we will see more of it. Register with Dilbert.com and have some fun with it.

That is my submission at the top of the screen shot.

BBC: A Whale of a Story

The BBC have chosen to cover the Japanese whaling fleet in the South Atlantic by sending a reporter named Jonah Fisher. Some wag suggested it must be a send up but sure enough I saw him on the news last night. I wonder what amount of ribbing he is getting from the crew.