Thursday, December 22, 2005

All done with mirrors

Our local paper reveals today that there has been a spate of thefts of Volkswagen wing mirrors by a gang they are imaginatively dubbing the VW mirror gang. It doesn't have quite the ring of The Black Hand gang, or the Jesse James gang, does it? The thing is, my VW wing mirror was nicked a few weeks ago. I assumed it was some scally whose mirror was broken and who fancied mine instead. It's now clear that VW wing mirrors across the Fylde are being nicked. But why? What's the market? Do blokes sidle up to other blokes in pubs saying "Fancy a VW Wing mirror mate? Only a tenner." Or what? Anyone out there know what might motivate a criminal to target VW (and not any other cars) wing mirrors?

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

"Life Reeked with Joy"

Jeff Weintraub: "Life Reeked with Joy" Thanks to Norm for the link to this. The celebration of howlers is a regular feature of the educational end of term calendar. What's great about this is that the writer has constructed a chronological narrative out of it.
I sent this to a colleague, who fired back a classic:
"In 1066, a man named Norman Conquest came to England and brought lots of French words with him." (that's from a first year undergraduate essay...)
Of course, I once did come across Mr and Mrs Conquest's little boy Norman, but that will start us off on the barmy names thread again...