The Winning Words of Football's Fabio Capello

There's been a lot in the news lately about the 'linguistic limitations', shall we say, of football manager, Fabio Capello.  He freely admits that his vocabulary, which he estimates at around 100 words and growing, is sufficient to do his job well; despite the fact that he has received a lot of criticism about his limited vocabulary.

It reminds me of the time my son was going off to play football against another local prep school team; at the age of five or six. The team had not had a good season. They'd all followed the ball up the pitch and down again, but very few goals had resulted. On this particular occasion, though, as they were setting off on the coach; the tall, commanding headmistress, waved them off with the following exhortation: 'Play well boys. And remember, WIN!' And guess what? They did.

My linguist friend has written in much more depth about this subject on her blog, which you can easily find by googling 'Virtual Linguist'.

Philosophy as applied to Celebrity - and jumping the queue for a taxi

The Times yesterday carried a report about the French 'Celebrity Philosopher', Bernard Henri-Levi. Apparently, he went straight to the front of a queue for taxis, leaving people in the queue outraged by his rude and selfish behaviour.

As Philosophy tends to be a subject where one questions everything, I'm asking myself why on earth the French put up with BHL? Just because he used to be a bit good-looking, they call him a 'Celebrity Philosopher'. However, a 'proper' celebrity would surely have their own a chauffeur-driven vehicle wouldn't they? And shouldn't a Philosopher be more like A.C. Grayling, for example? He seems to me to be the archetypal 'gentleman and scholar'. I can just imagine the soft-spoken, gentle-mannered Anthony, allowing everyone in the queue go first!

The Wonders of the Universe and a Good Night's Sleep

Last night, I chose 'Wonders of the Universe' presented by the ubiquitous Brian Cox, for my Sunday evening viewing. I saw the opening scene with him standing on a snow-capped mountain; and then slept soundly for the next hour. When I went to bed, though, I couldn't sleep for ages. Why does this happen? Does anybody know?
I'd be very surprised if they do - even Brian 'Clever Clogs' Cox. It's probably just one of those wonders of the stupid universe that will need a few more million light years to yield an answer!

Should images of Japan's flag be used to generate donations to the disaster appeal?

As well as many acres of newsprint being written about the disaster in Japan, we have seen that it is in every other part of the media. Some very clever people have been producing eye-catching graphic images to encourage people to donate to the disaster appeal.You can see some of them here.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/japan-creative-response

Some of them have provoked quite a bit of debate because they have been described as 'inappropriate' or 'tasteless' in their use of the Japanese flag. Perhaps, like the news reports in other parts of the media, they are doing their job too well. Like all other areas of human activity, the quality and sentiments vary; but what is consistent is the desire to keep the subject uppermost in the minds of the public; so that people are more likely to help in some way.

In my own small way, this is why I am writing this.

'The Good of Japan' (continued)

My Japanese friend Akemi sent me the link to this Japanese-style commercial www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=K-Rs6YEZAt8 after I'd written yesterday's blog post. She said it 'cheered her up' amidst all the terrible news from Japan. It cheered me up too. I wanted to write about all the good and noble things of  Japanese society - ancient traditions, beauty of nature, noble Samurai spirit. And then this beer commercial came along and it says it all. It's got cherry blossom, Geisha girls, Sumo wrestlers, Samurai warriors, dragons, temples, calligraphy, waterfalls and those brilliant Japanese drummers. It's all here. Enjoy.

Lifting a finger to write about 'The Good of Japan'

For the past few days I have felt unable to post a blog. For one thing, I broke my little finger recently; and typing has been a one-handed affair. At first I thought I would just let it drop; but then I thought that anyone who has followed my blog posts from the beginning deserves an explanation. If there is such a person 'out there' please let me know as, at the moment, I don't know if I am simply 'wittering' into cyberspace. I say 'wittering' because I'm not on 'Twitter' at the moment (which I was quite scathing about in my previous post). However, it may come to that: I've succumbed to Facebook, LinkedIn and now Blogger, so who knows?

But what has all this got to do with Japan? (you may be asking). Well it's this: I started writing this blog to comment about things in the Media which I find noteworthy, strange, amusing or whatever. And, of course, Japan comes into the 'whatever'  category at the moment. Anywhere one looks, it's there. It has touched me emotionally, as it has many people. It has stopped me in my tracks as there is so much in the Media; and it's all so overwhelming. It can all scare the 'living daylights' out of you. Certainly stifle any creativity you may have.

So, on the advice of those who say, 'practice an attitude of gratitude' I say 'How lucky I am to have only broken my little finger'. It is painful and an inconvenient nuisance but apart from that, life is mostly going on as normal. I hope it will be very soon for our fellow human beings in Japan.

I also want to say 'thank you' that my friend Makiko, from Hiroshima, and her family are all safe. My Japanese friend Akemi, who lives in the UK also tells me that her family and friends are safe; and I see from Facebook that other Japanese friends and acquaintances are safe. Good things. Maybe not much in the scheme of things - but good. Ultimately, I believe human beings are born to be good and are born to create.

Talking of creativity, Akemi (or 'Koshu', as she is known in the calligraphy world) teaches beautiful brush lettering. You can look at some of her work here:  http://koshujapaneseart.co.uk   I used to take calligraphy lessons with Akemi; and I'll probably take some more - when my finger is better.

'The Internet makes Twits of us all'........

The headline for this blog post comes from the sign-off line in my blog of 23rd February, when I touched on the growing practice of Lawyers 'tweeting' about their cases from outside the courtroom. I'd heard about this on Radio 4's 'Law in Action', which was largely concerned with the Julian Assange case in that programme. Nothing new in that, you might say. After all, 'Tweeting' or 'Twittering' has been an accepted part of the news media for a while now. In fact, the Independent Newspaper prints a selection of daily Tweets, under the headline 'We follow them so you don't have to'. This itself is possibly implying that Tweeting is either an onerous activity; or one that Independent readers might not be choosing to do themselves, for other reasons (can't or won't is not implied).
What is more cause for concern is the growing practice of 'flogging' (i.e. 'fake blogging'), which my friend, who blogs as 'The Virtual Linguist' wrote about on 7th March. Link here  It describes the practice, which has now been identified and 'outlawed' in the US and is under review in this country. Examples have been highlighted in various news media, such as that of Liz Hurley, who is always (allegedly) tweeting about a certain brand of cosmetics, whilst carefully omitting the fact that she is paid to be the 'official face' of the company. The free online dictionary gives 'to market or sell aggressively' as the definition for 'flogging' and that is my own understanding of the original meaning of the word.From what I read, it seems that many companies are actively exploiting this aspect of the social media when they recruit young people to work for them. I guess it used to be called 'Public Relations' - a respectable occupation for reasonably intelligent, but primarily well-connected young people just out of college or finishing school. Substitute 'finishing school' for 'gap year' and you have almost the entire population of under 30's occupied in Social Marketing or Flogging.

Barbie for the Facebook Generation......

I ended my last blogpost by wondering what had happened to Barbie's boyfriend Ken. My friend who blogs as 'Virtual Linguist' said she'd heard that Barbie and Ken had split up several years ago. That made me curious enough to look it up on Wikipedia and, sure enough (my friend is much better with the research than I am), it says they split up in 2004. HOWEVER, in 2006,there were reports that they were hoping to get back together again after Ken got a makeover. In fact, I was amazed at what I found, looking through the masses of factual information about Barbie and her 'on-off boyfriend' as Ken is often described. Alternative lifestyles, lawsuits, it's all there. In fact, talking of lawsuits, I hereby retract what I said about Barbie being a 'blonde bitch' in my last post. Barbie has big money and power behind those fluttering false eyelashes and anyone who even hints that she might be some kind of trailer-trash slut better look out!

Barbie up against the wall in China

It seems that Mattel, makers of the ubiquitous Barbie doll, have decided to close their Shanghai outlet. See the full story here: Barbie store in China: Barbie closes shop in China - latimes.com
Apparently, it's not just to do with the doll's 'puke-making' pink dresses and 'sick-making' strawberry-blonde hair; but also the reluctance of Chinese women to embrace childish brands like 'Hello Kitty', which have gone down so well in Japan.
Whilst we should all applaud Western attempts to make cultural inroads into Asian markets, particularly those of China, surely that blonde bitch can't be said to be one of the highest points of Western Civilisation. I'm only left wondering if Barbie's boyfriend Ken has fared any better.

'Asian Gracefully' shows the sadness of care homes everywhere (Channel 4 , March 4)

If 'Asian Gracefully' was meant to be some kind of extended advert for this kind of care home, I don't know who it was intended to convince. Ten minutes into the programme, I was feeling just as sorry for these inmates as I do for my own mother, who lives in a very well-run care home in South Wales. They did seem to make more effort with the food, however. At one point, they gathered all the residents around a table and asked them what their favourite dish was so that it could be included in the menu planning. Various meals were suggested, though, interestingly, 'rice pudding' was one person's favourite; a dish which I would have thought featured on most care home menus - Asian or otherwise. It was all too much for one elderly lady who simply wailed 'I want to 'phone my son!'
The carer in charge said (as they always do in these places) 'We'll do that later, shall we?' My heart went out to her. A chicken curry with an onion bhaji was not going to fill the emotional void in her life. The material and cultural circumstances of these residents were possibly better; and this could lead to charges of Racism. However, as superior as this home was, it did not address the wider malaise of caring for the elderly in this country. Sir Gerry Robinson only scratched the surface in his documentary on dementia care back in 2009. No-one seems to have said anything or done anything to improve the situation since.

"I'm not a celebrity" insists Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell's joint appearance with Author Jeanette Winterson on last night's BBC Two programme 'My Life in Books'was interesting as it 'revealed' a couple of things that had obviously not been publicised very well so far about P.R.Giant Ali C. One was that, when he worked as Tony Blair's Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell's French was better than Tony's 'by a mile'. Despite this boast, however, Campbell was not exactly full of 'entente cordiale' towards the French. The other thing you might not have known about Alastair Campbell was that he made the list of nominees for the Literary Review's 'Bad Sex Award'last year. This award apparently goes to the writer who, from all the nominees, has been judged to have written about sex in the most cringeworthy way possible. I hear that the French do not have such an award because (naturellement) it is assumed that any French writer worth their garlic would deal with such a subject with style, substance and sensitivity. Campbell's feeble attempts to be self-effacing were made worse by comparing himself with Katie Price, who, he said, was a 'real celebrity'. He's not wrong there. As a household name twice over i.e. as 'Jordan' and 'Katie Price', the woman's fluency in the language of celebrity is ahead of Alastair Campbell's, not just by a mile, but by several. He's on the right lines though. By linking his name with that of Katie Price as much as possible, he'll gradually get into the celebrity groove more and more. Other things Alastair Campbell could do to 'celebretize' himself would be to a) launch his own brand of highland shortbread (see my previous posts on the p.r.values of shortbread) b)wear a kilt more often c) acquire a proper Scottish accent (look what it's done for Lorraine Kelly). But, of course, we all know that the only way to become a real celebrity these days is to enter The Jungle. 'Bad Sex Award'? Katie Price? It's just a short 'Highland Fling' to celebrity bling for the man Jeanette Winterson said was 'not as bad as we all thought'(Or words to that effect). Praise indeed.