Susan Hated Literature

I watched Pedigree Dogs Exposed on the telly last night. And my gut reaction? Never ever buying a pedigree dog. Especially not a cavalier King Charles, a pug, a westie, or a bulldog.

I’ve watched bits and pieces of Crufts on occasion. And have often thought that some of the dogs are plain ridiculous. But to hear that a dog which is severely unhealthy, and which can pass along diseases to its offspring, can become a champion show dog? That just makes no sense. And those German Shepherds that the showed? Those dogs could barely walk. When I first saw them I thought they were deformed. I guess that deformity is encouraged by the breeders though.

For those of you thinking of getting a dog maybe you should investigate the health problems associated with particular breeds. And then head down to your nearest shelter and pick up a mutt instead.

Course I’m sure that this is a one-sided show. It wouldn’t make for good telly if they actually showed both sides of the debate. But even allowing for that it makes for disturbing viewing. I do wonder how much of the problem is due to the issues that used to be involved in importing dogs into Britain though. It meant the gene pool was significantly smaller surely? Maybe now things are improving?

And I also agree with the cavalier women who said that the manner of accosting some of the owners and breeders just wasn’t very nice. But then again, that is a telly programme looking for controversy and drama no doubt.

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I seem to have given up on my Rome recaps. That is a terribly wishy-washy sort of statement, isn’t it? I seem to have, you’d think I’d know whether I have or I haven’t. And considering that there is only one episode left to go, you’d have to think that yes I have given up. I think so. But the mood may strike me again, and I may scribble something down, but I blame the BBC. Showing two episodes a week, while cool and keeping me happy with the Rome-ness of it all, means that there isn’t much time before another episode appears. It also means that the season is now pretty much over.

They are starting Heroes next week. If you haven’t seen it and have BBC2 you should probably switch on. Tis quite fun, though not as great or as original as it seems to think it is.

The Sopranos came to an end last night. I had watched it on Vera on my train journey home last weekend, but that ending made me unsure of whether I had it all or not. Turns out I had. I’m in two minds about the ending. I don’t the episode, as a whole, was as good as some others this season. But I quite liked Show Spoilers ▼

This final season as a whole has been most excellent, and I’m coming round to the idea Show Spoilers ▼

I don’t think that matters. It was a perfect ending for The Sopranos. I wouldn’t like everything to end that way. But it worked. More discussion here, with unhidden spoilers, you have been warned.

So that is Rome and The Sopranos coming to an end. And I’d been quite enjoying the few Doctor Who episodes I caught this year, but now they are over too. So many things coming to an end. I suppose Prison Break is still running, but I’m more than a little meh’d at that show. Tis too silly, and with the constant, never ending stabbing each other in the back it gets a little repetitive. Although whatshisface, teabag? Show Spoilers ▼

And on account of various things I’ve been missing Jekyll which I was enjoying. But then again, I can play catch up, the flatmate has two episodes recorded, so I can play catch up at some stage.

And I have a few boxsets I should get to watching; Carnivale, Twin Peaks, The Wire. Plenty to keep me going.

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This is not news. It isn’t even fake news. If it was a parrot John Cleese would be here trying to get a refund. Actually, he’d never have bought it in the first place, because it, in no way, resembles a parrot. Or news. Or whatever it is supposed to be.

And to the people who run the BBC news and decided that this was more important than the people being killed in Iraq? Well, I have to ask if you are sure you have your priorities right.

And yes, I am well aware that blogging about it is contributing to the whole discussion on the topic. But see, I have cunningly not mentioned either individual, or indeed what it is that the story is. Or isn’t. Cause it isn’t a story. Not unless you are one of the individuals. Or a close friend. It certainly does not warrant the attention it is getting.

For a much more entertaining non-news story, why not read about Richard Gere upsetting all of India. Not to be judgemental at all, but it does seem that angry crowds really enjoy the whole burning effigy malarky.

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It’s a little on the wet side today. And after I opened up the library this morning I noticed a little kitten sheltering from the rain. One of the feral cats that live round the back. As young as it was it had already decided that people were bad, so I left it alone. And every few minutes I’d see the mother cat appear, try to pick up the kitten only to notice people moving about in the library and, agreeing with the kitten that people were bad, leg it. And then return to do the whole thing al over again a few minutes later. In the end I decided to close the door so mammy cat couldn’t see us, and when I reopened the door, mammy and kitten were nowhere to be be found.

But if anything the rain has gotten worse. Its like that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace turns up looking for whatsherface-what-gets-her-throat-slashed-later^[1] and says to her father that it’s a grand soft day. Well, that wasn’t a soft rain, but never mind. That’s the sort of falling straight down rain we have at the moment, so it isn’t too bad. It means umbrellas are actually useful. Usually the rain falls at an angle, or doesn’t so much fall as move horizontally across the face of the earth rendering umbrellas useless.

Anywas, Braveheart, was on last night. I dinnae watch it. Mainly cause I’ve seen it umpteen times^[2] and to be honest all of Mel Gibson’s anti-English propaganda is wearing a little thin at this stage. What I did watch was Dr. Bashir on an elephant. Also known as Hannibal. This was a made for tv film thing on BBC1 last night, and it wasn’t terrible. Wasn’t great either though. What I have noticed about these ancient war type films is that they can never really show proper cavalry battles, on account of their being no such thing as stunt hosses. And the beeb obviously didn’t have the sfx budget of a big action film. Still they did quite a good job, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Vin Diesel film compares, if that ever gets made. The writer, David Franzoni doesn’t inspire much confidence from me, as he was responsible for King Arthur which is a lot better without the sound and Amistad which was a crap film over-rated because of the subject material. I suppose he deserves credit for Gladiator, so we’ll reserve judgement till we see the film.

And seeing as there are only five days left till the rugby I’ll direct you over to The Limerick Blogger’s round-up of the weekend newspapers.

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I knew there was something I wanted to post about. Last weekend I was home and de mudder was watching a Time Watch programme on the BBC called The Bog Man. Which, incidently was narrated by Robin of Sherwood. Anyways twas quite interesting, in a creepifying way. All about these two bodies found in bogs in Ireland in 2003. And because of being in the bog these two bodies were very well preserved. So well in fact that they could figure out that the one with a head actually used imported resin as hair gel. I think it came from Spain, or maybe France^[1] .

But the reason I am posting about it is because of the way a lot of the news peoples reported on these bodies. A week or so before the programme aired the news was full of stories about how these two fellas were sacrificed in order to ensure the land remained fertile. Now this was not reported as a theory, but as a fact.

So I was a little interested in how exactly they knew this. Afterall, unless they can go back in time over 2000 years and ask someone then they can’t very well discover the reasons behind their motivations now can they?

But it turns out that the show never stated “these men were killed as human sacrifices”, instead that was one of an number of options. My favourite was the theory that they had committed some sort of crime, and part of their punishment was the manner of their death, torture and then after death rendition to the bog for burial. The reason being that a bog isn’t really land. And it isn’t water either. So it is an in between place. The historian/archeologist who suggested this theory said that he believed it was a method of ensuring that the souls of the dead^[2] never got to go to the next life. The crimes they had committed were so heinous that death wasn’t enough, these people deserved to be punished for all eternity and by placing the bodies in the bog they were ensuring that they wouldn’t decay, wouldn’t let the spirit free.

And, unrelated to that stuff I’ve just written, I was following some fish earlier in the week, when Carroll’s Beware the Jabberwocky was mentioned, which in turn reminded me of that advert that was on a few years^[3] back, anyays, found an online version, so does anyone else remember the Judder Man?

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