'Culture'

Wife. Mother. Leader… Oh, purleeze!

Posted on April 11, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture

I am currently being driven nuts by the ads everywhere, but everywhere, for Commander in Chief (new on ABC1 in the UK, yada yada). The program is about the first female President of the USA, and the strapline is “Wife. Mother. Leader”. I don’t think any of us who grew up with Margaret Thatcher can [...]

The poet BB King

Posted on April 5, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture

BB King was interviewed on the Today programme on Radio 4 this week (audio clip about half way down the page). I was struck by how poetically he spoke, and how often really good musicians have a natural ryhthm and sense of the sound of language. My favourite bit was near the end, when he [...]

Coming out to the doctor

Posted on March 8, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture, Diary

Doctor: Are you using any family planning methods?
Me: No.
Doctor: Do you have a need for any family planning methods?
Me: No; I’m a lesbian.
After years of prolonged conversations with doctors and nurses, I have discovered this is the only way to stop them trying to get me to take contraceptive pills, and I now try to [...]

Victim of bullying gets £20,000

Posted on February 20, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture

There’s an interesting piece on the BBC website today about a 23-year-old woman who was bullied as a child and still suffers from the resulting fear. She got £20,000 from the council to put the matter to rest, but the council doesn’t admit liability.
I was bullied for a year at my first secondary school before [...]

Smoking ban

Posted on February 16, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture

I have to say I am thrilled at the smoking ban that went through the Commons this week. The government is going to ban smoking in all enclosed public spaces from summer next year. I don’t smoke, which makes it an easy win for me, but I can hardly wait to be able to go [...]

Is it funny to be offensive?

Posted on January 5, 2006 ~ Filed Under Culture

The Guardian (may require registration) reports that the BBC has apologised for a Jimmy Carr joke about Gypsies. I’m astonished. I’ve written about Jimmy Carr before but since seeing him live my opinion of him has diminished. I have lost some of my earlier tolerance of his offensive style of humour and I find it [...]

Civil Partnerships: This wasn’t meant to happen to me!

Posted on December 19, 2005 ~ Filed Under Culture, Diary

Today is a very good day indeed. Civil Partnerships have begun to kick in in a big way, with publicity and outrage and, finally, legal recognition for same sex couples. I love it!
Of course, the last few months have been a bit of a nightmare in their way. After years of saying how much [...]

Blunkett resigns

Posted on November 2, 2005 ~ Filed Under Culture

So, Blunkett has resigned from government once again. He claims to have misunderstood the rules and therefore failed to seek advice before taking a directorship. What gets me about this is that he’s either incompetent (if he can’t understand the subtlety of rules), or dangerously arrogant (if he thinks the rules don’t apply to him). [...]

Sheryl Swoopes, high profile basketball player, comes out

Posted on October 27, 2005 ~ Filed Under Culture

I don’t follow basketball and until today I’d never heard of Sheryl Swoopes, but she’s just come out. It’s a really interesting piece - considered and sensitive about the complexities of sexuality. My favourite line, though, is
But the talk about the WNBA being full of lesbians is not true. I mean, there are as many [...]

In Business on Radio 4

Posted on October 22, 2005 ~ Filed Under Culture

Let me quickly recommend In Business on Radio 4. Peter Day, the excellent presenter, describes it as follows
In Business is all about change. New ways of work and new technologies are challenging most of the assumptions by which organisations have been run for the last 100 years. We try to report on ideas coming over [...]

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