From Twitter 10-11-2009

• 08:39:49: Happy Sunday morning. RIP Stephen Gately.
  
• 08:49:23: My sermon for today, in case you are not going to be at St. John's: http://digg.com/u1E3Av
  
• 15:25:07: @therealgokwan i think that more people should have thankful moments. thank you for all the pleasure your work has given me.
  
• 16:09:17: @GaySkyHooker mothers are there to criticise you. it's the most important thing they do, even more than birth. Remember: you're really good!
  
• 18:30:41: @GaySkyHooker My mother was ok, but of course other people's mileage may vary...and mine has been dead for 28 years next month, which helps.
  
• 18:39:31: @jonk sandwich bags are cheaper.
  
• 18:41:24: Hotter than a $10 pistol: RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l4mdk - 10/11/2009 11:00 | 22 yrs | ARLINGTON PD WARRANT / SPEEDING
  
• 18:53:42: Thankful they let u out? RT @natflatt: Omg. I had a dream I got arrested & went to jail. I've got something to be thankful for this morning.
  
• 18:56:05: Using Vulcan Mind Meld:RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l4gcf - 10/11/2009 10:09 | 23 yrs | DRIVING WHILE LICENSE INVALID | EXP REG
  
• 19:14:22: RT @tentenuk: BAA have announced that they're scrapping their plans for a 3rd runway at Heathrow: http://tr.im/Bq4u & #1010 rumbles on... ;)
  
• 19:17:40: They keep arresting leprechauns... RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3qme - 10/11/2009 03:31 | 23 yrs | SPEEDING 76 MPH IN A 60 MPH ZONE
  
• 19:20:43: Wow, man! Mellow! RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3pp1 - 10/11/2009 05:01:19 | 23 yrs | ALCOHOL/PUBLIC INTOXICATION
  
• 19:21:49: Where's my neck gone? RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3nfp - 10/11/2009 04:21 | 27 yrs | FAIL TO MAINTAIN FINANCIAL RESPONS ...
  
• 19:23:23: Cow Pat WTF?? RT @Phuket_Gay_Boy: Just eating Cow Pat Goong (Fried Prawn Rice) with Goong Grapao (Hot Spicy Prawn Curry) ☼
  
• 19:24:02: Hell yeah, I'll have another! RT @DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3ke9 - 10/11/2009 03:34 | 35 yrs | ALCOHOL/PUBLIC INTOXICATION
  
• 19:28:56: We are not amused. RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3iny - 10/11/2009 03:08:54 | 21 yrs | Bond: $500 | ALCOHOL/PUBLIC INTOXICATION
  
• 19:29:55: The ears have it! RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3hqy - 10/11/2009 02:11:15 | 20 yrs | Bond: $500 | ALCOHOL/PUBLIC INTOXICATION
  
• 19:30:50: But we ARE amused! Hugely so! RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l3hqw - 10/11/2009 02:50:53 | 33 yrs | POSS CS PG 1 <1G
  
• 19:37:47: He drank to forget...something or other RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l2cg5 - 10/10/2009 21:31:13 | 29 yrs | ALCOHOL/PUBLIC INTOXI ..
  
• 19:40:45: Gimme * 3 a man right at midnight RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l1uqv - 10/10/2009 00:00:00 | 29 yrs | LOCAL MUNICIPAL WARRANT
  
• 19:43:45: Sultry...hot! RT DentonPolice: http://twitpic.com/l1f6o - 10/10/2009 18:16 | 17 yrs | NO DRIVER'S LICENSE | FAIL TO MAINTAIN FINANCIAL RESP
  
• 19:44:03: RT @therealgokwan: Just stopped to buy milk and some drunk just said "you look like an ugly Gok Wan!". What a liberty! Hahaha! X
  
• 19:45:31: They've arrested a mop! RT @DentonPolice http://twitpic.com/l0zjt - 10/10/2009 16:51:56 | 18 yrs THEFT
  
• 19:46:56: Tired this evening. Boiling the chicken carcass for stock. Listening to News from Lake Wobegon podcasts stacked up since May...
  
• 21:01:48: @jonk oh, I thought you were using them for something else...I'll do a Roseann Roseannadanna now...
  
• 21:03:04: What a wonderful wedding announcement: http://bit.ly/3xTs2s
  
• 21:05:09: RT @pinoyboy: making beet soup... reconnecting to my russian polish fjłupiną roots
  

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

Today's Humour

An old man lived alone in a New Jersey suburb of NYC. He wanted to plant a tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop, Don't dig up that garden plot. That's where the bodies are buried.

Love, Vinnie

At 4:00 the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area to a depth of three feet. They scanned the area and dug up and removed some rocks and an old shopping cart. They didn’t find any bodies. They apologized to the old man, leveled the ground out, and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you, Vinnie

A sad story

Let no one tell you that being a bar girl is easy and victimless. I am really sad after reading this story.

PM Blog FAIL!

I listen most afternoons at 5 pm to the afternoon news and interview show PM on Radio 4. Today they changed a little bit of the program, in which I was intensely interested. They've modified the weather forecast.

Now those of you in the U.S. or in Singapore might wonder what the fuss is about. I gather that Singaporean weather forecasts are pretty much the same every day, and weather forecasts in the U.S. generally focus on a small metropolitan area in which the weather is mostly homogenous.

Here in the United Kingdom, weather forecasts on the radio and TV have generally been delivered as a story. In order to keep the Scots, Welsh, and Northern Irish happy, sometimes the forecast begins with those, other times, and perhaps even most times, the forecast begins with Southeast England and East Anglia, corresponding to Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk counties and the London Metropolitan Area. But, what often happens is the one's ears glaze over when the weather forecast starts, only to snap to attention when it's too late and your area has already been mentioned.

A few weeks or a month ago, a woman wrote in to the PM program stating that the current weather forecast was very easy to forget to listen to; she wondered whether other formats would work better. So some experiments were conducted, including:

• Delivering the regional forecasts in the accent of the area concerned—Scotland in a Scottish accent, North East England in a Newcastle accent, and so on;


• Playing music behind the forecast;


• Playing agricultural sounds such as birdsong behind the forecast;


• Playing sounds corresponding to the weather being forecasted—gales behind strong winds, pattering rain behind showers, and so on;


• Finally, dividing the country up into regions and announcing each region, then its weather—similar to the Shipping Forecast.

After trialling each of these, and consulting within the BBC and the Met Office (=USan Weather Bureau), the last alternative was selected. Peter Gibbs, the head of weather broadcasting for the Met Office services for the BBC, (also a hottie for those who are into men like him—unfortunately, he's already taken), went on PM and explained how and why the new style forecast was being trialled. If it works well, and people like it, it'll probably replace the current story weather forecasts on radio. The PM host asked for comments to be left on the PM Blog.

I heard the forecast, and I liked it. I was able to concentrate long enough to get the gist of what will be happening here tomorrow. However, when I went to the BBC PM blog website to comment, I discovered that one has to register to leave a comment.

No problem? After filling out the form, you have to also verify your email address by clicking on a link in an email that the blog will send you, presumably automated. What PM didn't seem to anticipate is that so many of its readers would not already be commenters that the comment verification email mechanism would be overwhelmed and is probably down for the count. I asked for the verification email to be sent 27 minutes ago. Nothing yet. Normally these emails arrive almost automatically.

Of course, when I finally get my email, finish registering, and make my comment, I'll have a short approving phrase for the weather forecast and a rant about not anticipating this kind of load.

#BBCPMBlogFAIL