If one (or many, for that matter) were to ask me which film from a bygone era (though not black-and-white film; I simply don’t see the point when I have colour vision) I would like to sit down and watch in its entirety, it is doubtful whether my memory would have recalled this brilliant film. However, this is precisely the film I should chose if the choice were given me, simply because it is firmly based on a brilliant, engaging plot, and the story-telling is concise while the pace is engrossing. And Edward Fox plays a calm, collected, suave assassin without resorting to any overt theatrics, while Michel Lonsdale’s almost hound-like, plodding Inspector Claude Lebel is wonderful to watch.

My (gorgeous) readers may be more familiar with a more recent remake of this film, that went by the name “Jackal” and had Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier hunting Bruce Willis. And this may well serve admirably as a comparison case; where this hollywood version had shootouts galore, the original Jackal is only shown shooting one person, an unfortunate gendarme, before he is mowed down by his antagonist the Inspector Claude Lebel (and there I ruined the plot for you).

The screenplay was adapted from the book of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, of whom I am a big fan. The film remains truthful to the book, and is much the richer for doing so. And a bit of gratuitous nudity never goes amiss, I daresay. 

Made using a special spicy ‘Laziza Qorma’ sauce bought at Worldwide. Cooked at Ioannis’. Eaten by us. Watched ‘Catch 22’ after that. Then Tinks drops in. Wine aplenty.

Worldwide is a unique oasis; a supermarket that stocks all kinds of great foreign foodstuffs. Indian, West Indian and Caribbean, Middle Eastern, etc. Fresh fruit and vegetables, a butchers at the back that dice chicken exactly the way you want it. And situated right where it is needed, in the multi-cultural (ok, mainly “Asian”) Rusholme.

Badminton has left me with aching muscles again; we (Jill) paid £6.90, which is one hour’s hire charge for one court, and we played on two courts for two-and-a-half hours. There were very few people crazy enough to be at the Sports Centre at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Yossarian is a bombardier in WWII. Obviously, he’s tired of flying missions and being shot at. He approaches his squadron commander.

“I don’t want to fly milk runs. I don’t want to be in the war anymore.”

“Would you like to see our country lose?” Major Major asked.

“We won’t lose. We’ve got more men, more money and more material. There are ten million men in uniform who could replace me. Some people are getting killed and a lot more are making money and having fun. Let somebody else get killed.” 

“But suppose everybody on our side felt that way.”

“Then I’d certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way. Wouldn’t I?”

This twisted logic is a hallmark of this book. The much-used phrase “catch 22” comes from the title of this book, and can be understood by reading the excerpt Ioannis has blogged about.

Oh, and a salute to Homer’s “motivational skills”

“Everybody says they have to work harder when I’m around”

Hats off!

I got two visits to my site over this past week (3rd-9th) looking for mega mammaries. Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t recall having written any post relevant to that particular topic. Tell you what, I’ll do a search now.

later Nope, just as I thought. This is the first post dealing with the issue of mega mammaries. (See how I used subterfuge to add the word ‘mega mammaries’ into my blog so people now looking for it will come here. This tactic is similar to the one channels four and five use after 11 p.m. to show naughty clips while pretending to “analyse the life” or “go behind the scenes”. Not that I’m complaining)

Ioannis has written about the Argentinian movie we watched yesterday on his blog, so I needn’t bother. It was called Bombon:El perro. That’s all you need to know. We each had our drug of choice, Ioannis with codeine, Ali with wine, and I with Stella. Plus pizzas on a conveyor-belt.

I updated my Google Analytics to see if my “goals” are being reached. Since I am not a commercial website (apart from tracking all your bank accounts and siphoning money from them in small, unnoticeable amounts) I set my goal as the URL of my “About me” page. Therefore, the aim of my website is now officially to get people interested in ME, so they want to find out more about ME, and they click on the link that goes to the page “About ME”

I’m reading Catch 22 again after Ioannis reminded me of it. You’re going to see loads of quotes from this crazy book in the near future.

Thanks for the CV. Do you have a potfolio of we sites. I look forward to
you’re response…..

…ends up in my e-mail box. Should I even bother to reply? It seems the onus is only upon applicants to make a good impression and check their spelling and grammar.

And here’s a big lie: An add for a “Business Development Executive” says:-

Please note that this is NOT a Sales job. Previous experience of cold calling, telesales, lead generation, Tele-research would be an advantage.

As part of my entertainment quota, I shall give you an interesting article from the BBC about English mixing with Hindi. All of it is true; I used all of these as a kid. And I learnt that Stepney comes from a brand of tyre in Wales.

Had a great time with Attenborough again. This time we were taken to the northern and southern ice caps of our blue ball of a planet. David was continuingly harping on about how climate change will leave all those luvly-wuvly polar bears stranded in the sea with no ice floes to rest on or hunt on. There was even a little scene where an exhausted male polar in hungry desperation was hunting mammoth walruses (walri??) in a futile attempt to get a meal. He eventually got wounded by two huge stabs in his hindquarters that left him practically incapacitated, so he scraped himself a little hole and lay down to die. This scene really moved me as I watched it with the lovely Lulu warm on my lap.

But the best part was where the camera guys in their cabin were getting approached by hungry males. One wasn’t even scared by all the bangs they let off. Another one sneaked up upon them while they were playing a board game and pressed his nose against their cabin window. Remember, this is an animal that routinely punches through solid ice to get to seal lairs (dens??).

Yummy!

 

And here’s a soundbite from New Scientist

“People tend to have urges to procreate in times of extreme situations.”

The head of South Korea’s Institute for Sex Education, Seong Gyeong-won, explains why condom sales have rocketed following North Korea’s nuclear test (Daily Mail, London, 26 October)

Tell me about it!!

According to New Scientist, you can divide a cake between two people such that each of them gets up to 65% of it!

This division is based on the recepients telling the cake-cutter how much they value each part of the cake.

Read about it yourselves in this article ’cause I’m not here to summarise an already-summarised piece, you lazy bums.

 

Yes, something that needs to be discussed almost as much as that other exploration. I am finally back after another episode of relapses, during which I care not to answer the phone, nor actually maintain much contact with anybody. Human contact, I must clarify because the television is always there.

It becomes difficult given such tendencies to maintain relationships, beacuse frankly who wants to have to always make the effort of reaching out?

But I have my best man on the case, and we shall soon find a way to sort this out. I guess.

I just had a most amazing thought. I want to be an orangutan! The idea came casually to me while I was commenting on Rachey’s post and now it has taken roost in my head. I want to be a swinging, jazz-loving orangutan like the one in The Jungle Book (Disney’s finest; all downhill after that no matter what Boudi says). I want to swing from the trees and shoot two bananas from my feet into my friends’ mouths. I want to hop and jump down the road, skipping over my own joined hands. I want to be able to slap the ground in time to a jungle rhythm!

Oh please can I be an orangutan????