Captain Sequin
Am flying solo today . Yesterday, as you know, our Editor ( he likes to call himself that ) Peter Rippon was showing me how to send out my first blog. As you also know, his name appeared at the top. So hopefully today it'll be mine, all mine. They've given me the key to the executive washroom AND the cocktail cabinet, as well as Eddie's special dressing up area .
Congratulations to those of you who spotted the deliberate time mistake yesterday. Ho ho ho - you are so clever. And thanks to for concern about my sleeping habits - honestly, being a peripatetic r4 presenter isn't all bad, even if it means that I have to work when others go on holiday.
Roger Sawyer is editing today - he's a cyclist - mad dead keen - but keeps, rather alarmingly, clutching his thigh, blaming cramp. Wish us well.
cquinn
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Listen to PM
No - it looks like this SB 1.... and I can't think of anything to say!
Will you be making a cocktail on air tonight? I think we should all listen out for the sound of a cocktail shaker in the background and try and tell what's being made....
sb1 (I hope!!)
Do tell us what Eddie keeps in his "special dressing up area". I have visions of nurses costumes.
"to" SB "too". Not getting at you Captain, that's for Rufus as he seems to be on a mission? (see STAND IN)
SB2
Sequin, if you've got the key to the executive washroom, does that mean you have to spend all afternoon washing executives?
The things you have to do when you stand in for Eddie!
You'd better watch out: Top Fi Glover Impersonator and stand-in Paddy O'Connell got stuck with the BH gig when he didn't move fast enough. You don't want to get trapped in PM while Eddie escapes to the heights of Money Box Live!
Sequin actually reads these posts?
I'm sure Eddie never does, she should keep a professional distance from the rantings of the Comments (0) section. That way insanity lies.
It might even affect the quality of the show at 5.
That sounds civilised. PM with a perfectly made Martini (Sturred, not shaken)
See you at 5 then - shoes polished, sequins sparkling, tippy toes twinkling, shpeech shlurred by shix....
SB8
(7, Cond)
...and of course perfectly made Martinis for the bloggers tuned in as well.
try for SB9
I can just imagine the scene.... Eric in his dinner jacket (with tie!) sipping a Martini, while Sequin shares a Manhattan with Brian Perkins, and Charlotte Green sings sultry songs in the backgound....
I'm assuming that the dressing-up area includes face masks and associated prosthetics, because whenever I look at the webcam, the person sitting at the desk looks nothing like Eddie's Blog photo or the rather younger PM page photo.
SB 8
That's it! I've just realised who Eddie really is.... He's the living incarnation of Mr Benn from the cartoons I used to watch growing up! That's what the dressing up area is for
SB12, by the way
Yes! Fearless, you are absolutely right. Mr Benn.
Hahahaha.
SB13
Hum, quiet here today....
(or else a huge backlog in the censor's department)
SB14
Er... wot's sb? submitted blog?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAAAY, (GOT MY BUS PAAAAASS), HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE !'.
Having a large evening vodka and tonic.
CHEERS !
Best wishes to everyone and lurve to all at PM.
Being a gay boy and my birthday can I come into the studio as a birthday treat as I'd love to rummage through Eddie's dressing up box while he's away and try on the frocks.
Anything in there with sequins, Sequin ?.
Happy Birthday Alan, have another v+t!
Happy Birthday to You, Alan, enjoy the bus pass then you can have as many v & t's as you like (unless you live anywhere around me, where buses are like hen's teeth).
Frances, SB means Should Be - it harks back to The Game. You have to guess where your post will appear, and there is an enormously complicated scoring system which I think everyone else has given up on.... I did hand over responsibility to someone else to keep score of mine at the same time as his - but he's not 'fessing up.
I'm off for a large glassa myself, as too many daytime distractions, blame Captain Carolyn Couric-Quinn, meant that I've had to be working tonight : (
SB18
Hmmm, yes it has been quiet hasn't it?
sb19
Val P 18
I wouldn't confide this to just anybody, but as it's you: when I first encountered the expression " 'fessing up " it was spoken and the apostrophe was not pronounced. There was no context to give a clue as to the usage and the only word association I could make was with the French word "fesse". You could not imagine (nor would such a refined person wish to try) the mental gymnastics involved in trying to make sense of the phrase.
You won't tell anyone, will you?
I do like Paul Robins strap line for today, (thanks Lissa with an a, or Lissa substitute) but he obviously hasn't seen me as I cycle home.
sb20
Ooops!
Sorry, I forgot.
Permission to come aboard, Captain?
Rats
My sb19 hasn't shown up which makes my substantive 19 seem odd.
Perhaps it was held back because I hadn't sought permission to board.
Hey ho.
Many happy returns of yesterday Alan W.
(Thinks: To how many other people do I have to ingratiate myself?)
Could Be 20 or 21 or 22.
(My brain hurts.)
sb22
Zut, alors!
They've all appeared in the right order now.
I must go for a lie down.
Sorry for not lurking last night, folks, but my broadband connection went a bit fubar last night....
Glad to see I tickled your funny bone, Charles! I have this theory that everyone can be linked to a character in a TV show somehow. Obviously I subscribe to the Now Show belief that Tony Blair, under pressure, becomes Rick from the Young Ones. Now, all we have to do is decide who our beloved Captain Sequin and Lissa are....
What a start to the morning. I don't think I've ever been accused of not "'fessing up" before. Although I might have been but they called it something more, well, ikky.
I simply don't have time to keep my own score in The Game. However, I just had a look at the blogs entries that are still listed - and therein lies an interesting point, should blog entries drop off the end and take on the semi-permanent nature of some of the comments? Or should they preserved in stone (silicon, or whatever substance more permanent computer storage is made from) for all eternity? I shall leave that to the philosophers among you. And I can now reveal, for the first time ever, that Valery P's score is (about) 52. More interesting, though not explicitly reflected in the score - which again raises all sorts of questions, this time about the nature of "process" and "product" - is that VP has a fairly astonishing record of being spot on with her SBs. Probably a dozen or more were posted at the number suggested. Wow.
Now what can we learn from VP's strategy? Two things, I think.
Roll on that bus pass, me thinks.
(PS I don't think underlining works. However, it appears that lists do.)
Happy birthday Alan. Wouldn't you have preferred to be doing something more exciting though? (Or did they let you into Eddie's dressing up room after all?)
Please can we see pictures of Eddie dressed as a giant banana?
Frances O, there has been much reference to it but no-one's actually answered your question: SB = Should Be. John W's the man to explain.
Sorry , I meant John H.
"permanent computer storage" is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron, an impossibility, not going to happen. You have to keep copying stuff from one format to the next. Pen on paper is more permanent. Really.
That was fun, my first serious post. Bit dull really, but I might get better as I practise.
John H - Oh thank you kindly sir! Tbh I think I did come to that conclusion - well both conclusions - but neither action do I enter into deliberately. Easy seen your trip to Croatia has done wonders for you though. Re your thoughts on the ephemeral nature of blogs, perhaps it's just my clockwork pc, but they all still seem to be here- right back to Snoerwang et al. Sigh - happy days.
Rufus - nope I shan't tell a soul, but I do rather think you've just done so? Not many of us though, just the usual suspects.
Well I'm just in time for the number e bus, Stephen Leader must have moved permanently to Pluto, or assumed another identity. I'll go see...
SB28
OK, Andycragg, really sorry to do this but pedantry does overtake me now and then - you can't have "more permanent" - something is either permanent or not. Maybe you meant "more like permanent"...
Otherwise your "serious post" was very good, xx.
Damn - missed the bus - Aperitif, re yours at 25, see mine at 18. You're right after all John H, I obviously write so much that no-one reads them. Sob etc.
I'll get me shoes...
So upset, I forgot to play, so this one is -
SB29
andycragg (shame to have stopped thinking up alternatives), that was hardly taken in the spirit of my post. Tho' I agree that computer storage permanency is something of an illusion. However, it's that "product"/"process" thing again, isn't it? Consigning data to long-term secondary storage can be seen as initiating a process, which through the further processes of backing-up and copying, can be viewed as setting it on an trajectory of indefinite permanence - if that is what is intended. Deleting entries from a few days ago, by contrast, is an altogether different process. It's not entirely straightforward that one is better than the other. On the one hand, you have the "White Horses" programme from years back, no longer in existence because of physical storage limitations and short-term decision making. On the other, you have the debate about the socio-political consequences of cyber-permanance.
Re The Game. I think it is actually John W. who devised it - far beyond my limited intellect. I was just checking VP's score because she told me off.
SB29
Re 18, Sorry Valery P, your 18 wasn't there when I wrote my 25 - HONEST. I always read your stuff - don't get your shoes, unless they're like CQ's of course, and you jst want to wear them...
As for the game, not guilty.
SB34
not being a social worker, middle manager, or consultant of any description I find myself totally bamboozled by the phrase 'trajectory of indefinite permanence'
surely this is an oxymoron, permanence is permanence and cannot be qualified even by the word indefinite.
And Sequin, where is today's blog entry?
I've just had a look and you are right, I did say "more permanent". What was I thinking! Sorry.
I say we get some monks to transcribe everything we know onto paper and then we'll be alright for the future, otherwise, eeek!
I agree cyberpermanence is a b*gg*r, just type my name into Google and see the stoopid things I've said in other places. (don't try it, please. Anyway there are lots of andycraggs, so you couldn't tell who is me).
SB37
I only know one monk and his grammar and spelling are awful.
That means that your monk must be a creative type - he could do all the pictures, what's he like with the felt-tips?
SB39
re 38
Creative, but not confident, so he changes his compositions a lot. Consequently he prefers to work in graphite: it can be altered fairly easily; felt tips are more permanent... ;)
Well now, my contention is that the graphite pictures would be more permanent than computer disks :)
I've just had a look at your website - I think you should do the pictures. I especially like the "warm" collection. I'll call off Brother Linden.
Thankyou! The "warm" collection is the way that I'd like to go, but the demand for "digital art" is a bit titchy. Still, it's nice to do, and keeps my juices flowing, er, creatively.
Ok, I'll start now, how far did the Bro' get?
SB43
Not far - he'd illustrated the "crap" discussion from August, but wasn't happy with it, and rubbed it out.
SB44
I wonder whether my SB43 will be posted?
If you take into account that "crap" is AKA "George W. Bush" (according to Prescott anyway); Linden is, well, a bit preoccupied at the minute, granted, but also sometimes known as "Tony" or "the Prime Minister" and 'rubbing out' is a bit Sopranos isn't it?
It may be that I appear to have suggested that Tony has "rubbed out" George W. I reckon that will be censored. Especially since it might give Mr Blair ideas - wouldn't that render him so popular that everyone would want him to stay???
You see - just take a close look and there isn't actually anything that can be posted.
I got up too early this morning...
Love the exchange between andycrayon and "drinks at six". Wouldn't that be a fantastic story, or even a film? The British PM whacks the Prez of the US of A and achieves worldwide, eternal "much loved" status - whilst coincidentally, probably starting a war.
Have been thinking about anne's objection to my phrase "trajectory of indefinite permanence". Of course, she's spot on from the perspective of correct "actual language use". But words are funny things, and what they represent are wont to be even funnier. I think permanence is a bit like expressions of undying love. Something is permanent as long as it remains, and ceases to be permanent when it no longer does. You can ponder the semantics of real-world "permanence" in much the same way as you can those of the word "pile" with the grains of sand mind experiment. Is "permanent" to be equated with "lasting until time itself ceases to be" or beyond...? I think I would mean something like being available to some enterprising corpus socio-linguist in the near future to investigate PM blog commenters - there are some tantalising glimpses amongst the ludicrousness and irreverence .
All of that aside, my musings (rant) on permanence were for nothing. Val P's reference to an earlier blog entry made me realise that they could be found by nudging the calendar!
SB46
You have made my head hurt, John H. But in a good way - one needs to stretch ones brain now and then.
PS. Does the "H" stand for Humphrys? I think we shouldbe told.
SB47
Yes well, John H - I like to keep it simple you know. Ignorance is sometimes a particularly useful faculty...
I never use the calendar for anything - all those early references. therefore, to stretched spaces and emboldened whatsits went the way of all good near misses. I just use the Previous button, cos I'm a Words kinda gal (the clue's in the name). Symbols get lost on me too - I always see them as something other than that which they are supposed to be! Public toilets for instance, are a nightmare, since when I am wearing trousers I have an unealthy penchant for heading towards the Gents by mistake!! I'm not kidding, it's a standing joke in my family...
How bloody stupid. As if it wasn't bad enough comments appearing and then disappearing, the "recent comments" section (from about 2 days ago) still actually lists/refers to one of the missing ones. If Lissa doesn't get home soon and sort this out, I'll... Well, I suppose I'll just get very frustrated.