A pleasant change of pace

(Like those UK commercials that showed things like giant hedgehogs running over tiny little trucks.)

Normally any time we hear the word "samurai" in a TV news story, Peter and I both wince, expecting to hear about somebody who's run amuck somewhere with a cheap katana. But today, for a change, it's something different.

Police are trying to trace a mysterious samurai sword-wielding vigilante who came to the rescue of two officers when they were being attacked by an armed gang.

The officers had been set upon after they tried to disrupt a burglary at a flat in Laygate, South Shields.

...One of [the burglars] lunged at a policeman with his knife - but just as he did so, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked [the burglar] with a samurai sword.

One of the burglars ran off, but was stopped by the stranger, who hit him on the arm with the sword.

He was arrested, along with another man from the flat, but in true superhero fashion the samurai man disappeared before police could speak to him.

Going to be interesting to see how this unfolds...

Shilpa

The TV news often runs in the background while I'm working, and today it seems there's a ruckus kicking up about the  treatment of the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty in the (British) "Celebrity Big Brother" house. (Also surprising is the amount of  airplay Sky News is giving this: I suppose it's a diagnostic of sorts. It'll be even more diagnostic if Fidel Castro discorporates suddenly and the news mix remains the same. [That said, the story of his "grave condition" is being denied from various directions, so it's entirely possible that Fidel isn't going anywhere just yet.])

...At first glance the BB situation looks to me like a class issue. Take a crowd of C-list meta-celebs such as they've got in there at the moment and put a millionairess in with them, and it's likely to produce a fair bit of friction. This is the only chance some of those people will ever have to spend a prolonged period with someone so much more powerful and wealthy than they are; as a result, they're making the most of it (for some rather ugly values of "most").

(sigh) Meanwhile, I don't know about everybody else, but I can't wait for "unscripted drama" to run its course. Electrons are dying for this?

And the winner for 'Best Acceptance Speech' is...

Hugh Laurie.

I am speechless. I'm literally without a speech. It seems odd to me that in the weeks leading up to this event, when people are falling over themselves to send you free shoes and free cufflinks and free colonic irrigations for two, nobody offers you a free acceptance speech. It just seems to me to be a gap in the market. I would love to be able to pull out a speech by Dolce & Gabbana.

(bowing in his general direction)