A funny thing happened
In fact, two funny things happened to me today as I went about my business in South London.1) I passed Boris Johnson, on the campaign trail, strolling down the high street. He was surrounded by a phalanx of party supporters (albeit not as big a phalanx as Denise Lewis had to have for the Olympic torch), one of whom had a loudhailer and was reminding us to vote for Boris on May 1, while the Candidate Himself just walked along, grinning, and looking smaller than he does on the TV. Anyway, there was a group of likely-looking teenage boys hanging round the steps to a shopping centre, and as he passed, one of them shouted out: "Boris Johnson's got a big, fat head." I admired this for two reasons: it was incredibly childish, and contained no swear words, and also, this was a Young Person who recognised a politician.
2) Inside a second shopping centre (I get about), I heard the screaming of a child. And this was not tantrum screaming, but the actual squeals of fear. As I approached the sound I saw a mother picking up a very young toddler and removing her from the source of her terror. They were outside a toy shop, and a boy in the shop had made a remote-controlled spider - a giant one - walk outside the shop into the main concourse. The poor girl clearly thought it was a real spider, and reacted accordingly. I had to smile, although if I'd seen that mechanical arachnid when I was her age, I would have been similarly "frit", as they say in Northampton.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 9:09 PM
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9 Comments:
The Boris Johnson tale really tickled me. I love childish I do.
I used to live in Redcar and travel to work in Middlesbrough (oh yes) every day. There was a certain point where the train always had to stop for a signal change - alongside part of the huge expanse of disused Steel Works - where someone had gone to the trouble of spraying the words ‘Fuck Off’ on a rotting metal structure facing the track. It wasn’t huge or elaborate, just big enough for passengers to read from the train.
Never a day went by when this didn’t fail to cheer me up. I think it was the pointless, casual mean-spiritedness that did it for me. I know it’s a bit contrary to your ‘Common Decency’ (sorry can’t remember what it was actually called) agenda that I thought was a great idea but I do hope those words are still there.
Well, that's about as much respect as I have for Johnson too. He passed me on his bike recently, as did, Jon Snow. They were both wearing suits and ties. How can they cycle dressed like that? Don't they sweat? Or do they just not care?
I've always been a believer in compulsory voting, but I think I may not vote this time. Ken, who I've voted for twice, just keeps doing too many silly things and sharing platforms with too many unpleasant characters, while Johnson lives in Henley! What does he know or care about London? And Paddick is very uninspiring.
I wish the Liberals had put up Vince Cable (my MP). I think he'd have won.
John
I would have screamed myself if I had seen that big spider. Boris is funny-looking isn't he? His hair looks like bad mannequin wig hair.
I'm desperately trying to make some punning connection between those two incidents and the appropriate song by The Who, but it's still too early for me.
How do you know Boris wasn't remote controlled too?
Ah - but we have to ask, as you saw the man up close, does he have a big, fat head?
Am I the only one to spot the Boris the spider joke/pun :) BTW Ken when you meet him is much taller than you imagine easily 6 ft 1 or 2, from his nasally weasel voice you imagine as tiny.
Funny what children are frightened of. My 3 year old son is terrified of Underground Ernie, a programme actually made with his age-group in mind, and as a child myself, I was almost equally frightened of daleks and Geoffrey from Rainbow...
It also has the third admirable facet of being true, so rare in politics these days
Simon in Sevenoaks
My Ex used to say 'frit' a lot, and he was from Doncaster... (As in :"ooh, that right frit me up!") I found it quite cute in a funny way.. Mind you, he also asked for "Fish, Chips and Scraps" when we were in the takeway. Scraps, i discovered, taste of nothing.
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