Tuesday 31 March 2009

Positive punctuation and Negative news

I couldn't decide whether this should be a positive blog or a negative one. So you get both.

The positive is provided by Lynn Truss through her book "Eats, shoots and leaves" which I am reading at the moment.

This should be a boring book because it's about English grammar and punctuation. But in fact it's a very funny book because of her writing style and her quirky use of examples. This was why it was a best-seller a few years ago and gave her the fame and fortune she so richly deserved. A cliche anyone?

The negative comes from Sky News. They promise me "Fifteen minutes of news every fifteen minutes." So I sat down at 9.45 p.m. last night prepared to be told the latest current events and rose at 10.00 p.m. in a rage. Why? Because they showed endless pictures of Prime Minister Gordon Brown meeting and greeting people whom I took to be heads of state and talked over them about the Home Secretary fiddling her expenses.

I was incensed. The business about the expenses will be forgotten next week while the talks the PM has with these people will have an affect for a long time to come. AND THEY NEVER TOLD US WHO THEY WERE. How frustrating and maddening!


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