Offensive Public Electronic Communications

A 19 year old man has been sent to prison for three months for posting offensive comments on Facebook about the missing girls, April Jones and Madeleine McCann. Now, I haven't read his comments, nor do I wish to. The Guardian offers an insight into what was posted, and it sounds pretty repugnant, but should he be in prison?
A couple of points strike me about this story, the first being the staggering speed with which this case was tried. Normally the justice system moves at little above glacial pace, and yet Mr Woods has been imprisoned within just a few days of the committing of the offence.
The second point is the disparity in the dispensing of judicial sentences. Let's face it, there are a lot of people out there who have committed serious offences, even violent crimes, who have escaped custodial sentences.
We have comedians working in this country who regularly push the limits of decency in their acts, seemingly striving to shock and even appall their audiences in order to secure career success. With that in mind, should this young man, albeit clearly a small-minded individual lacking in common decency and sense, have been jailed?
This is my public forum, my equivalent of a Facebook page. I'm mindful of my audience, and I hope I'm never offensive, I would certainly never wish to be, but I find myself this morning wondering if having a public forum is wise. After all, as a people we have never been quicker to offend. As careful as I am about what I write, I may inadvertently offend someone in a way I hadn't considered possible. And I'm really not sure I'd do too well in prison.

Another Lion on the Loose?

You may recall the story of the Essex lion. If you don't, in short, people spotted a large cat in a field and thought it was a lion, prompting a widespread operation by the Essex police. No lion was ever found, but suspicion turned on a domestic cat named Teddy Bear.
Well, now there are reports of a lion on the loose in Bedfordshire, with one spotter claiming to have come face-to-face with the beast whilst walking her dogs.
Teddy Bear, what have you been up to?

New Story on QT!

A writing challenge on Café Three Zero prompted a new story for the Quirky Tales library. The theme was 'regeneration'. The resulting story is a cautionary tale for the sellers of hair restorer. If you fancy a look, here's the link:

Regeneration Story, Quirky Tales

Hope you enjoy it.

Flash Mob

Okay, I don't want you being too sad for the weekend following the tragic tale of Vicky and Bertie, so here's a soppy one to cheer you up. Cruise ship entertainer Danny Burns planned a flash mob proposal for his girlfriend. There's a lot of these around now, apparently flash mobbing is this season's style for proposals, but what makes this one stand out is that it would seem the entire cruise ship was in on the secret, and the proposal took place in St Mark's Square, Venice, complete with both Mums!
Stick with 'The Proposal' til the end, even if something starts getting on your nerves. If you're anything like me, one of the credits at the end will make you laugh out loud.

Bertie the Love-Rat

Among the stories of broken relationships, cheats and cads, today's break-up story is surely one that will tug at the coarsest of heartstrings. Vicky, in her prime, a nice home, comfortable lifestyle, has been dumped by fickle hearted Bertie, and now a long standing tradition is in peril.
Eh? Well, Vicky and Bertie are, or rather were, the resident swan couple in the moat at Bishops Palace in Wells, and the tradition is the ringing of the bell. The swans in the moat are trained to ring the bell whenever they're hungry, calling the caretakers to throw food to them from a window. It would seem that Vicky and Bertie had struggled with the concept, as well as being rather put off by the resident ducks, and it all became too much for Bertie. He's scarpered, dumping poor Vicky and leaving her to deal with the ducks on her own. The race is now on to find a more faithful suitor for her, or she may have to be rehomed, leaving no swans on the moat to ring the bell.
Oh Bertie, how could you?

Intergalactic Twinning

During our recent travels, we passed through many towns and villages proudly boasting signs announcing they were twinned with other towns and villages across the world. It prompted a discussion about the value of twinning. On the one hand, it probably does encourage people to look beyond their own restricted borders to the wider world beyond, but how many residents would actually have visited the places their home was twinned with? We drew the perhaps rather cynical conclusion that twinning was more about giving the local councillor an excuse for a jolly to foreign parts than it was about fostering global links.
A story released today has made me rethink, however:
The remote Scottish village, Glenelg, is to be twinned with a valley on Mars. That goes several steps further than fostering mere global links. However, before any diplomatic trips can be undertaken, the Glenelg councillors will need to find a way to transport themselves to Mars, keep themselves alive for the duration, and find a fuel source once there in order to facilitate the return voyage. They might also find the welcoming party a little lacking.
Maybe this is one instance where twinning isn't all about jollies for councillors.

Good Luck J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling has released her first novel for adults. Amidst strict security, legally binding contracts forbidding journalists from revealing details before the book's release, and the mother of all PR machines, 'The Casual Vacancy' was already a bestseller before it even hit the shelves. So far, so good. But from there on the news has been less favourable.
Reviews have been at best, mixed, some have been scathing. As an unknown writer who can only dream of a BBC interview, endlessly repeated on the news channel, I should probably confess here to a degree of jealousy. I'm also ashamed to say that there was a part of me that revelled in the fact that the book might be less than great. Seriously, if even J.K. Rowling can stumble, there's hope for the rest of us. But I also wonder if that's part of the problem. Maybe it just wasn't possible for her to produce a book that wouldn't be ripped to shreds and analysed at the deepest level. How many writers could withstand the kind of scrutiny and expectation she labours under?
She's also come in for criticism for insulting the middle class inhabitants of her childhood village, for being too left wing and prejudiced, and now the Sikh community is apparently deeply offended by her portrayal of a Sikh girl. It's all descending into madness. The idea that authors should tiptoe about the issues, stifling their creative impulse to avoid offending anyone is absurd. Think of the great works that would never have been written if every author worked that way.
The creator of Harry Potter was probably always destined to have a hard time moving on to other projects, not because she is in any way lacking in skill and ideas, far from it, but simply because the media are hellbent on picking fault. So, for all my embarrassing professional jealousy and schadenfreude, I hope 'The Casual Vacancy' continues to sell well and that J.K. Rowling goes on to write many more books. She is, without question, a brilliant writer, and the danger is that if her work is continually subjected to unbalanced examination, we might just prevent her from releasing a story that could rival Harry Potter. That's not something we can afford to do.