We had a good seminar over the pizza. The kids ordered The Truman Show and when we settled down to watch it, we opened the box to find they'd sent us The Wind That Shakes The Barley instead. Good for me and Ohna but not for the kids, so we decided to watch East is East instead. Just the thing for tonight. Not an absolutely great movie but loads of good acting and writing and directing.

One of the most obvious linguistic features is the use of 'bastard' in phrases like 'bastard hippie'. Once we'd established that describing doesn't make a word an adjective (you can describe people by saying 'bastards''), we noticed the word kept appearing in adjective position but also that no-one ever says 'bastarder' or 'bastardest'.

There's loads of good dialogue, but I think my second-favourite bit was when Tariq packed a suitcase and rushed out of the house:

Saleem: Where you goin?
Tariq: Nowhere
Saleem: Wait for me!
Meenah: Where you going?
Tariq: Nowhere
Meenah: I'll come with you

My absolute favourite moment was of course the flying fanny and the absolute best line was the 'fanny over your bastard head' one

B-)

Poor Kiloh didn't realise there was chocolate cake until she'd finished her pizza B-(

Has anybody coined a word yet for that moment when you're either shuffling or listening to shared music and just the right track comes on at just the right time? I reckon a key part of it is that it should be something you'd kind of forgotten. Something to do with serendipity, maybe?

It just happened to me with I'm So Bored With the USA bringing back memories of my first dramatic performance as Widow Twankey in the still fondly remembered (by people who were in it) 'Batman and Robin in Pantoland' where the Joker, the Riddler, Catwoman and the Penguin adapted it to 'We're So Bored With Pantomime!' And funnily enough, I had a phone call from Robin last night.

B-)

Some amazing stuff here

B-}

We'd been up for quite a while before Ohna looked out and noticed the snow. There's enough for a snowball or two but London's carbon-emitting activity always clears it up quite quickly.

No sign yet of major services failing to cope with this 'very rare' (= 'happens every year') and 'unexpected' (= 'they told us 10 days ago it was coming') occurrence. I did see a cyclist come a cropper as he slowed down for a junction, though. Just a minor skid. Nothing damaged.

B-}

I don't have time to blog today as I'm trying to finish my pile of marking.

I'm impressed by the way Hillary Clinton announced her presidential campaign yesterday. 'I'm in' is a great soundbite.

I'm less impressed with 'Let's chat' and the not quite so dynamic notion of a 'presidential exploratory committee'.

B-)

Luckily, Kiloh's foot is not broken, so we don't have to add this to the catalogue of guilt. When she was wee and broke her arm it took us 10 days to take her to the hospital, It took around the same amount of time for her foot, but luckily this one turned out not to be broken ater all.

B-)

Just received this from balderdash & piffle

Help them out if you were dogging before 1993 or anything.

B-)

. . . . . . . .

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know that the BBC2 show Balderdash & Piffle has recently launched a second Wordhunt. Together with the OED, we're appealing for the public's help in rewriting the dictionary entries for words such as 'loo', 'duh brain', 'identity theft' and 'hoodie'. We're looking for written evidence of the history and origins of 40 such words - the full list, and more information, can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/balderdash

I've also attached a full press release about the project.

Sorry if you're squeamish but I've been back to the physio this morning and finding out a bit more about the roots of my biomechanical failure. It seems I've got late pronation and a problem with my tibialis posterior which is leading to a bit of tendonopathy.

Meanwhile, yesterday's dentist visit revealed I'm at risk of 'cracked tooth syndrome' and the dreaded 'RCT' (root canal treatment).

B-}

I love this word. I just checked and Arsene Wenger used it twice in an interview about David Beckham. I'm not sophisticated enough to link straight to the video but the link is on this page:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm

Look under 'Beckham moves to LA Galaxy' and click on the Wenger video

B-)