http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ The Magazine's recommended daily allowance of news, culture and your letters. en Copyright 2009 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:28:50 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "Wow, 20 years huh?... I'm not responsible for the Wall coming down" - David Hasselhoff finally admits he did not cause the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is one of the great canards of European modern history/bad popular music. Now the Hoff has finally laid it to rest. He magnanimously added: "The East Germans are responsible for the Wall coming down... because they believe in freedom." More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/fridays_quote_of_the_day_88.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/fridays_quote_of_the_day_88.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:28:50 +0000 "What were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral" - Rosa Sampaio, whose uncle turned up at his own funeral A Brazilian man's relatives were shocked when he turned up at his own funeral. They had wrongly identified him as a car crash victim. He'd actually spent the night drinking rum with friends. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_82.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_82.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:09:10 +0000 "I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears" - Pop star Rihanna breaks her silence over her assault by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown The singer has spoken for the first time about how leaked snaps of her beaten face became the focus of worldwide media after she was assaulted by R&B star Chris Brown. She wants to become an unofficial spokesperson for domestic violence victims. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:14:26 +0000 "I don't know what the buns would be in bra sizes but we've gone four sizes up" - Producer of Calendar Girls stage show on enlarging Kelly Brook's buns A publicity shot of Kelly Brook holding iced buns over her breasts was vetoed by Transport for London because the bakery goods were judged too small. The client grudgingly took remedial action. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:59:09 +0000 "Everyone thinks models are stupid, but a lot of them are just really hungry" - Size 16 model Crystal Renn explains fashion's classic vacant look. The uninitiated may have thought it was just the superwaifs trying to look cool, but it turns out the catwalk's standard glassy stare may just be a product of insufficient calorie intake. More details (Daily Mail) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/mondays_quote_of_the_day_90.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/11/mondays_quote_of_the_day_90.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:24:48 +0000 "The plane is facing a technical problem and has to return. So please pray" - Reported words of Iranian airliner pilot to passengers. The two words one doesn't want to hear over an aeroplane PA system are "please" and "pray". So the travellers on the Aseman Airlines flight were probably very grateful to get back to Tehran in one piece. More details (Jordan Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/fridays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/fridays_quote_of_the_day_87.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:39:00 +0000 "As for Googling myself, I did that once but I gave up. There were seven and a half million sites" - Michael Caine on ego-surfing. We've all been there. And for the record: Googling "Michael Caine" gets just under two million results. Without the quote marks it's 2.2 million. What happened to the other five-and-a-bit million? Answers on a postcard. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_81.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_81.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:26:59 +0000 "It's me, bear, it's me" - Black bear expert Lynn Rodgers on how he interacts with the animals. Prof Rodgers has spent 43 years studying bears, but his approach differs from most scientists. He likes to get close to them. Very close. More details (The Guardian) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:03:24 +0000 "I would tell them to go to hell... go home [o]r wet your pants" - Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, on parents who fear the book is too scary for children With a film of the classic 1963 book due out later this year, Mr Sendak has little truck with the cotton wool style of parenting that is popular with many mothers and fathers today. More details (the Guardian) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:16:31 +0000 "People are fed up wasting time and money meeting unattractive people on the net" - Greg Hodge, who runs a dating website that excludes ugly people Applicants to join the website Beautiful People, which this week goes global, are rated by other users according to their attractiveness. Only one in five people, including one BBC journalist who tried it out for the sake of research, is admitted. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/mondays_quote_of_the_day_89.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/mondays_quote_of_the_day_89.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:48:59 +0000 "He said they had wine in them and pointed to the word wine on the packet. I was speechless" - 15-year-old told he's too young to buy wine gums as they contain wine. Jaz Bhogal tried to buy the non-alcoholic sweets from a 99p store in Cambridgeshire, only to be refused service on the shopkeeper's mistaken belief that wine gums contain wine. They have traditionally been printed with the names of alcoholic drinks such as port, champagne and gin. More details (Daily Mail) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/fridays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/fridays_quote_of_the_day_86.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:56:27 +0000 "We're bored to tears of it" - UB40's Robin Campbell on their hit Red, Red Wine Some music fans may wonder why it has taken the Birmingham band so long to tire of their 80s' hit, but followers of the group shouldn't worry. The song, which was originally written and recorded by Neil Diamond, will feature in the band's upcoming live shows. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_80.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_80.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:54:12 +0000 "I was only heading to the toilet and found God... mind you, you need a little divine intervention to get out of here sometimes" - Ikea shopper who spotted a bearded face on the door to the gents' loo. During a comfort stop at the Glasgow branch of the flat-pack 'n' meatballs emporium, a customer noticed a distinctive pattern in the wooden door - a face with long hair and a flowing beard. He, and others, reckon it's an image of Jesus. His wife says Gandalf. An Ikea spokeswoman says it's Swedish pop legend Benny "Abba" Anderson. More details (The Sun) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_85.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_85.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:20:17 +0000 "The best our secularist friends can hope for is a poem from nan combined with a saccharine message from a pop star before being popped in the oven with no hope of resurrection" - Vicar Ed Tomlinson bemoans the decline of genuinely Christian funerals. Mr Tomlinson has had enough of feeling like a "lemon" at funerals where he is clearly only a token presence. The telltale signs are Tina Turner playing at the beginning and only a grudging allusion to Christianity. More details (The St Barnabas blog) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_85.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_85.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:05:25 +0000 "He may be nutty, but he's not a professor" - Sheriff casts doubt on "balloon dad" Richard Heene's claimed scientific credentials. Last Thursday, the Heene family of Colorado claimed their youngest boy had floated off in a run-away weather balloon. TV schedules were cleared and hearts stopped in mouths. But it turned out he'd been hiding in the attic - and told one of his many interviewers that his father said "it was for a show". Local sheriff Jim Alderton re-interviewed the family and told reporters it was a publicity stunt. More details (Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/mondays_quote_of_the_day_88.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/10/mondays_quote_of_the_day_88.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:38:24 +0000