The Decline Of Civilisation

[old khayyam]

this means that 'even if you find the DOG intrusive (17%), irritating (33%) or distracting (40%), once you have been annoyed by say the BBC4 logo and had your eye drawn to it, then it still nonetheless informs you that you are watching BBC4 and ergo it is useful in this regard'.

Have you not noticed that that is the basic principle behind all advertisements? Advertisers dont care about anything but making it stick in your mind, even to the detriment of civilisation.

Human beings, believe it or not, have an inherent sense of aesthetic taste, which makes life easy for the Ads - all they have to do is make a sound/image configuration that is so utterly wrong, that your mind will go into spasms about how such a thing can exist on public broadcast. Disgusted, you spend the rest of the day trying to shake the thing from your memory. But next day, you will watch it again.

Ultimately, you will either join the beast, or become the beast. Those who choose to deny the beast shall be cast out.

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes those onscreen logos! I'd forgotten about them All the terrestrial HD channels have them. I don't accept that there is any logic to having them, especially on channels supposed to be providing the highest possible viewing quality. I know what channel I'm watching. The subliminal presence of the logo does not wed me to the channel. In fact, the opposite, if anything. The spoiling of the picture is a deterrent to watching, not a good advertising ploy. I watched 'Edwin Drood' on the normal channel as I didn't want the stupid, stupid logo intruding into the rectangular portal to Dickensian mystery and fantasy

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

ITV continuity announcers.
Clapping between movements.
Radio 5 live with a drumbeat throughout the weather forecast.
Alison Graham in the Radio Times.
99.9999999999999999999999999% of pop music.
DAB radio.
Cameras without viewfinders.
The intrusive and ugly "FACT" jingle telling me not to buy a pirate video when I've obviously just bought a legal copy.
Mobility scooters on the pavement, with their massively obese riders holding a dog lead (with the dog walking).
Cars parked on the pavement.
Mobile phone ringtones.
Michael Gove.
The current music curriculum in many primary and secondary schools.
Bankers.
British athletes at the opening ceremony of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
Bad grammar by people paid by the BBC.

[Paul Sherratt]

>>>(btw, who are we talking about?)

Mike and Bernie Winters, I think.

[Ferretfancy]

>>>(btw, who are we talking about?)

Mike and Bernie Winters, I think.

Morecambe and Wise were interviewed on one occasion, and were asked what they would be if they were not comedians. The answer, of course, was Mike and Bernie Winters.

[Flosshilde]

>>>(btw, who are we talking about?)

Mike and Bernie Winters, I think.

Isn't there a story about them appearing at the Glasgow Pavilion, a notoriously difficult venue - one got booed & heckeld, & then the other came on stage, prompting the cry 'Oh God, there's two of them!'

[Byas'd Opinion]

Close. It was the Glasgow Empire, "the Graveyard of English Comics":

http://scottishmusichallsociety.webs.com/glasgowempirestories.htm

[kernelbogey]

ITV continuity announcers.
Clapping between movements.
Radio 5 live with a drumbeat throughout the weather forecast.
[....]
Bankers.
British athletes at the opening ceremony of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
Bad grammar by people paid by the BBC.

Bank clerks addressing me by my first name
Call centre staff asking 'Is there anything else I can help you with?'
Waiters putting down a plate and saying 'Enjoy'
Announcements on trains continually asking me to 'keep my luggage with me at all times'
Drivers on the motorway self-righteously returning to the inside lane only to leave it seconds later to overtake
People who turn every statement into an interrogative
The Daily Mail and Sunday Mail and all who buy them

[Paul Sherratt]

>>Drivers on the motorway self-righteously returning to the inside lane only to leave it seconds later to overtake

What is the civilised period, kernel ?

[kernelbogey]

What is the civilised period, kernel ?

IMHO, Paul, the answer is that the civilised behaviour is anticipating how soon you will be overtaking a second vehicle, and remaining in your current lane until you have done so.

[Panjandrum]

IMHO, Paul, the answer is that the civilised behaviour is anticipating how soon you will be overtaking a second vehicle, and remaining in your current lane until you have done so.

KB, you're not one of these middle lane hoggers are you? The cause of more motorway congestion than any other type of motoring bad manners.

In my neck of the woods, they spent £5bn widening the M25 in Herts, only for no-one to use the inside lane; in effect, rendering it a 3 lane motorway, which is what it was in the first place.

[Serial_Apologist]

Modern day toothbrushes:

Too bulky, too soft in the bristle department, which is either too small or made of some rubbery material which actually squeaks when rubbed across the teeth, wrong shape so you either lose grip or grip so tight you bash the damn end into your gums.

Last time I managed to obtain a decent toothbrush was 12 years ago. Marked "Smoker's toothbrush" on the box it was segregated like some antisocial deviant, from the rest in the shop on a different shelf. The brush end was of dimensions sufficient to feel like you weren't brushing with a watercolour paintbrush, and made of firm, not too tightly packed bristles, the handle flat and at 6 inches long just the right length to hold without slippage and to control movements-wise. The moment the bristles on it started curling at the ends I returned to buy sufficient of the model to last my anticipated lifetime, to be told, "they don't make them anymore". So I've kept it, for use it just twice a year, birthday and Christmas Day, as a special treat to remind myself what a proper teeth cleaning session can feel like.

[ahinton]

Bank clerks addressing me by my first name

I sympathise, although mine never do this.

Call centre staff asking 'Is there anything else I can help you with?'

Sympathies again, although the honest answer to this, more often than not, is " but you haven't helped me with anything yet, so "else" doesn't apply.

Waiters putting down a plate and saying 'Enjoy'

Yes - rather pointless, I agree; the answer here is usually "is that a hope or an order?".

Announcements on trains continually asking me to 'keep my luggage with me at all times'

That's fair enough; one also gets these in train stations, airports, coach stations and other public places and one may suppose that proof that they;ve been given might help to exonerate the owners and managers of any such place being prosecuted for cailure to provide adequate warnings about it.

Drivers on the motorway self-righteously returning to the inside lane only to leave it seconds later to overtake

Yes - a pain indeed!

People who turn every statement into an interrogative

You left out the question mark at the end of this. It used, if I recall correctly, to be termed "British Rail sandwich speak", in that each sentence turned up at the corners.

The Daily Mail and Sunday Mail and all who buy them

2 out of 3 there (i.e. the first two) - but what of those who read either or both without having first purchased them?

[ahinton]

Modern day toothbrushes:

Too bulky, too soft in the bristle department, which is either too small or made of some rubbery material which actually squeaks when rubbed across the teeth, wrong shape so you either lose grip or grip so tight you bash the damn end into your gums.

Last time I managed to obtain a decent toothbrush was 12 years ago. Marked "Smoker's toothbrush" on the box it was segregated like some antisocial deviant, from the rest in the shop on a different shelf. The brush end was of dimensions sufficient to feel like you weren't brushing with a watercolour paintbrush, and made of firm, not too tightly packed bristles, the handle flat and at 6 inches long just the right length to hold without slippage and to control movements-wise. The moment the bristles on it started curling at the ends I returned to buy sufficient of the model to last my anticipated lifetime, to be told, "they don't make them anymore". So I've kept it, for use it just twice a year, birthday and Christmas Day, as a special treat to remind myself what a proper teeth cleaning session can feel like.

I'm not a smoker, but is it really true that no manufactuirer of electric toothbrushes makes heads for smokers' use?

[kernelbogey]

"is that a hope or an order?"