Shallow didn't do it

In The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show Bart's made to berate the Comic Book Guy for criticising the 'worst episode ever'. He claims that CBG has no right to criticise the producers because 'They're giving you thousands of hours of entertainment for free'. The Simpsons is not free. When it was on BBC2 I had to pay for it through the licence fee. If I still watched it on Channel 4, I'd have to pay for it when I bought products featured in the 200 advert breaks they cram into each episode.

And while I'm on, in Brother Where Art Thou, Herb is quite wrong to punch Homer after his concept car causes Herb's business to collapse. Herb explicitly told the employees who he set to assist Homer not to question Homer's decisions. The fault therefore lies with Herb in allowing someone with Homer's lack of experience to take important decisions. Homer should have punched him right back.

And another thing. Homer shouldn't have allowed Apu to call Marge a bitch in Marge In Chains. The least he should have done is withhold his custom from the Kwik-E-Mart in future.

Reincarnation warning

If reincarnation happens, and you can be randomly reincarnated anywhere on earth, these are your likely future nationalities:

Nationality	Chance (per cent)
Chinese	19
Indian	14
American	4.2
Indonesian	2.9
Brazilian	2.4
Russian	2.4
Japanese	2.0
Bangladeshi	1.9
Pakistani	1.8
Nigerian	1.5
Mexican	1.4
German	1.3
Vietnamese	1.1
others < 1% each	45

I wish I could say I was surprised last night when Dr Who - The Next Generation ripped off Primeval, with Rose emerging glowing-eyed and imbued with power from the TARDIS, and doing the weapon retraction thing on that Dalek.

I'd been primed by the Initiative similarities in Dalek, and the revelation, in Bad Wolf, of the army of ubervamps Daleks Get It Done-style.

It's odd that RTD's feeble homages to Buffy are more upsetting than his interpretation of Doctor Who (which makes the JNT era seem like one of inflexible devotion to quality and continuity).

I suppose it's because it's a long time since I enjoyed contemporary DW - around the time of Enlightenment 22 years ago - but the greatness of Buffy circa 2001 is still fresh in my mind. So I wasn't about to watch RTD destroying my memories of my favourite Buffy era. I turned it off and put Pyramids of Mars on.

Shallow lacks punch

Disturbing story about Russell T Davies claiming to have threatened someone in a supermarket

I dislike that a lot more than I dislike some of the things he's introduced to Dr Who. I like my violence safely behind the fourth wall, not at Tescos.

Link to Google archive of post now restored

Shallow on Target

My childhood reading has left me with an unjustified, automatic distrust of people who use the following surnames:

Channing
Chorley
Crayford
Cutler
Eckersley
Elgin
Galloway
Hinks
Jaeger
Lupton
Magister
Masters (x2)
Quinn
Stevens

and an equally unjustified warmth towards people who go by the names of:

Benoit
Benton
Fenner
Sondergaard

Hoggwords

Yumsk!
Skillo!
Oh
Right
Sorry
Sor-ry
Oops
Mums
Charterhouse
Budleigh Salterton
'Larious
Two m's, two g's
I'll have to ask
It all got a bit complicated
Da da-da da-da delish!

Shallow - two l's, one o

A happy ending to the current (third) series of Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off, with Arabella accepting his proposal of marriage.

Giles isn't merely a cuddly, likeable posho in the mould of Tim Nice-But-Dim. In episode 2.6 'New Zealand' his conversation with Arabella's mother, Mrs Wells, showed us that he shared her prejudices about Josh. Up to that point I assumed that Giles disliked Josh merely because he was crass, was engaged to Giles' ex-girlfriend Arabella and was trying to ensure that Giles had a nasty accident. But this exchange demonstrated that at that stage Giles found it difficult to stand outside his class identity.

Three years of Canadian Studies seems to have broadened Giles' outlook, because in series 3 he's a bit mellower. He gets on well enough with Darren Smith (the Geordie ballet dancer) in 'Vienna' and very well indeed with Danielle (who nearly had a baby once, but she never) in 'Haiti'.

'Haiti' did have an unpleasant bit. Giles went out there with charity Crisis Help Action Volunteers, and he's made to remark at the end that it's been good to get the chance of working with CHAVS. Has Danielle been weighed and found socially wanting after all?

It is good though to see Giles becoming a little more assertive in series 3. He talks back to Sergei in 'Vienna', and nearly pokes his overbearing godfather in the eye when he moves in on Arabella in 'Ireland'.

And we do see another side to Belly-bells in 'Ireland'. It's been established that she's 'pretty and strong - mostly strong', and she's quite fierce, 'with a punch like a truck', but she's now revealed as endearingly insecure, worried that Keira Knightley will steal her Wemblers away from her.