Happy Birthday, Bob!

#17

Update of The Week:

Ai Weiwei has – at last - been visited in prison. He does not seem to have been charged yet or brought before a court. No worries about ‘habeas corpus’ in the People’s Republic, then Mr Hu? It looks like they are going after him for ‘economic crimes’ – possibly tax evasion. I find it hard to believe that he is the ‘Mr Big’ of Chinese tax-dodgers even if he has evaded some taxes. The million or two top-ranking, heavy-duty, tax cheats in China probably had the good sense not to stick their heads above the parapet by going public with criticisms of the regime’s human rights record. The authorities will probably bring him before a court when they’ve “found” enough evidence to send him down. Is that the Chinese way, Mr Hu Jintao? Bust the guy first, then go looking for the evidence to justify his arrest? Not so much ‘Innocent until proven guilty’, more a case of ‘Arrested until proven guilty.’

Twit of the Week:

“Mr CTB” wants to take on Twitter (an economic entity incorporated in the state of California) for insufficient cleansing of gossip among the Twats who use it as a platform. I find it difficult to grasp how an American corporation can reasonably be held accountable for breaches by others of an injunction issued by an English court. Contempt of Court is a serious business and, difficult ‘though it may be, I do encourage you to conceal your contempt for super-injunctions and the courts that issue them.

I neither know nor care who Mr CTB might be. Whatever happened to the convention of calling the egregiously shy ‘Mr A’ or ‘Miss X’? My hearing is not what it once was and I’m easily confused these days. For a while I thought they were calling him ‘Mr TCB’. Down here in the South London ‘hood, TCB means ‘taking care of business’ - the nicest interpretation of which might be taken to mean ‘get a job’. Other interpretaions tend to involve violence against the person.

Quote of the Week:

In a trailer for BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review programme (21.5.11) apropos Tracey Emin’s show ‘Love is what you want’ at the Hayward gallery, Tom Sutcliffe was heard to ask, “…When will she overcome her chronic shyness?”

Admission £12. The show runs until 29 August.

I just checked my diary. Imagine my disappointment – I don’t have a window until Tuesday, 30^th Aug. Hey ho, never mind eh.

Joke of the Week:

Bloke goes into a pub with a parrot on his shoulder. The barman looks up, clearly amazed. “That’s fantastic,” says the barman. “Where did you get it?”

“China,” says the parrot. “There’s millions of them.”

Next week: Norman is an island entire of himself…[1]

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[1] With apologies to John Donne, 1572-1631