Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Cats galore

Where would this blog be without pictures of cats, eh?








Monday, 23 September 2013

Hobson's unfortunate choice of words

I've been reading books by British stage, movie and TV actress Maureen Lipman, where she relates many hilarious anecdotes about herself and fellow thespians.

One of her favourite stories is worth repeating, and I hope it makes sense to my American friends...


"... the producer was keen on Hobson's Choice, but I had such strong memories of Julia McKenzie in the role of that I doubted my capabilities to measure up to her.


Julia McKenzie

Almost my favourite theatrical anecdote is Julia's experience of playing Maggie Hobson to Ronald Pickup's Willy Mossop. One night, well into the run, she came to the moment in the show when Maggie summons Willy from the basement to inform him that he has great skills as a cobbler and she intends him to be her husband. 'Willy,' she tells him, 'show me your hands,' and goes on to tell him that he has the hands of a craftsman.


Ronald Pickup

On this particular night, she summoned him as usual, he poked his head out of the trapdoor and, bright as a button, she rapped out the command: 'Hans, show me your willy!'

Suffice it to say that the Willy in question shot back down the trapdoor and Maggie Hobson got uncommonly interested in the dusting of every article on the upstage mantelpiece!"

Spoonerisms tend to be quite funny, but the example above is a winner! [A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels or morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase.]

Maureen Lipman
[Just in case the anecdote doesn't translate well, change the character's name to Dick Mossop...]

Sunday, 22 September 2013

Love and pain

Mrsgunka sent us this joke. Thank you, MrsG.

A married couple went to the hospital to have their baby delivered.

Upon their arrival, the doctor said that the hospital was testing an amazing new high-tech machine that would transfer a portion of the mother's labor pain to the baby's father.

He asked if they were interested. Both said they were very much in favor of it.

The doctor set the pain transfer to 10% for starters, explaining that even 10% was probably more pain than the father had ever experienced before.

But as the labor progressed, the husband felt fine and asked the doctor to go ahead and kick it up a notch.

The doctor then adjusted the machine to 20% pain transfer. The husband was still feeling fine. The doctor then checked the husband's blood pressure and was amazed at how well he was doing.

At this point they decided to try for 50%. The husband continued to feel quite well.

Since the pain transfer was obviously helping the wife considerably, the husband encouraged the doctor to transfer ALL the pain to him.

The wife delivered a healthy baby with virtually no pain and the husband had experienced none. She and her husband were ecstatic.

When they got home they found the mailman dead on the porch.


Friday, 20 September 2013

A fun birthday greeting

Dave Allen was a great Irish comedian. What could be better than a bit of Irish fun to wish our resident Leprechaun a happy birthday?



Happy birthday, dear Pallottine!