A guy rescued a suction pup that crawled out of some garbage he’d collected, and it bit him when he tried to return it to the water. After a week, it’s still sore.
I knew that some octopuses were venomous, but it was only now when I looked it up that I learned all octopuses (and all cuttlefish) are venomous.
The BBC executive responsible for greenlighting Monty Python’s Flying Circus was none other than David Attenborough, then head of BBC Two.
BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public’s imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel’s quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two’s output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel’s identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening’s viewing. Programmes he commissioned included Man Alive, Call My Bluff, Chronicle, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Money Programme.
Although I expect some of our British Dopers may have known that interesting random fact, even they may not be aware of this:
With the advent of colour television, Attenborough brought snooker to the BBC to show the benefits of the format, as the sport uses coloured balls.[30] The show – Pot Black – was later credited with the boom of the sport into the 1980s.
Although Attenborough will turn 100 later this year (May 8), he’s still making documentaries!
In September 2013, on the prospect of retirement, he commented: “If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I’m not. I’m swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune.”
Wow - thanks for this. He was already the Most Interesting Man in the World (in my book)… and yet there was more!
Thus giving rise to the commentator’s immortal remark “For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green”.
That idea didn’t float.
Hey! I was going to post that! (For those of us unfamiliar with snooker, it isn’t quite as stupid as it sounds: the colored balls are placed in specific locations (eg “the green spot” for the green ball) - unless they have been moved in the course of play. In this instance the pink had been moved and was adjacent the green which was still on its spot.)
So I’ll just have to post another of Ted Lowe’s gems.
He once told viewers that Fred Davis, struggling to rest one leg on the edge of the table in order to reach a long shot, “is getting on a bit and is having trouble getting his leg over”
I trust that euphemism is well understood.
j
Here’s something completely different. We were in London catching up with an old friend yesterday and, strolling the South Bank, she mentioned our proximity to Crossbones Graveyard. It’s little known (we had never heard of it) and sited in that formerly lawless area outside the jurisdiction of the (then) city of London, not far from where Shakespeare was strutting his stuff at the Globe Theatre. It’s an unconsecrated graveyard.
Excavation reports state that “the ground is thought to have originally been established at least as early as the 17th century, as a single women’s (prostitutes’) cemetery. By 1769, it had become a paupers cemetery and remained so until its closure in 1853.” These women were also known locally as “Winchester Geese” because they were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink, an area outside the jurisdiction of the City of London where brothels, theatres, bull baiting, bear baiting, and other activities not permitted within the city could be found.
Good to know that the Bishop of Winchester was a pimp. (I’m sure someone here will be much more knowledgeable on this subject than I am; at the time this sort of patronage seems to have been standard (/necessary?) - Shakespeare’s company was The Lord Chamberlain’s Men).
I’ve mentioned my fondness for blue plaques before - this one is unofficial (and not blue) but oddly touching.
Maintaining the site has seemingly become a community project, with local people rallying to prevent the site being “developed”. Here is the website. The site is only open for half a dozen hours a week, so we could only peek from outside, but it’s an intriguing and rather beautiful place, and we’ll be coming back during opening hours..
j
Very similar to a moment in radio history, when a cricket commentary spread infectious laughter across the nation, to the point of causing drivers to pull over and stop
I have a real Mandela Moment about this. My memory is that I was one of those drivers who had to pull over; but looking at it rationally it seems extremely improbable.
j
I had to Google. Get your (his) leg over is British slang for have sex. I’ve watched a lot of British media and was unfamiliar with it. It’s supposedly considered old person slang now.
At the racy end of “Carry on…” humor.
j
Isn’t it also a non-euphemistic term for being able to get on a horse?
It is oft repeated…
Or a bicycle.
Another gem from Brian Johnston:
“The batsman’s Holding, the bowler’s Willey”.
I get that reference. Saw the movie when I was about 6 or 7 years old, via an old-school projector at a school my mother taught in.
Television executive and producer Bruce Lansbury was the brother of Angela Lansbury. Nothing shocking, but I never connected the names.
I feel “semi-funny” today - the note read:
Dear Customer of ACME Rescue services:
Thank you for contacting us. Your case is important to us. Please standby while we will discuss internally asigning an agent to your case. We shall be coming back to you at our earliest convenience.
For further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
With best regards, your ACME rescue team.
Sadly, I believe this one to be an urban myth. Happy to be proven otherwise though.