http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ The Magazine's recommended daily allowance of news, culture and your letters. en Copyright 2009 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:28:20 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "I'm the queen of saying a lot and then really not having said much at all" - Actress Sandra Bullock Brave is the actor that suggests that their every word is not a slice of brilliant pithy insight, so hats off to the star of Speed and Miss Congeniality. More details (the Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/im_the_queen_of_saying.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/im_the_queen_of_saying.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:28:20 +0000 "I'm pleased with my look so far but what I really want is a tail" - Gavin Paslow, aka Diablo Delenfer, who used benefits to make him look like the devil Divorced father of-two Paslow admitted seven counts of benefit fraud and was sentenced to 200 hours community service after using £3,552 to fund fangs, a forked tongue and horns. More details - and a photo (Metro) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_66.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_66.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:16:34 +0000 "The father was leaning against the headstone eating a Scotch egg and smoking a cigarette" - Alasdair MacNeill, decrying behaviour of some tourists at the Culloden Battlefield Signs will be erected at Culloden asking visitors to respect the site as a war grave following a complaint about picnickers. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:39:42 +0000 "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear" - Psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University There's nothing more reassuring than when academics are able to prove something that people secretly suspected all along. So it is with swearing at the University of Keele. It really does relieve pain. More details (Scientific American) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:00:50 +0000 "If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children" - India's health and family welfare minister on latest plans for population control The Indian government has called for a re-doubling of efforts to bring electricity to all its rural population, believing that, among other benefits, it will help slow population growth. "When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies," said Ghulam Nabi Azad, the health and family welfare minister. More details (the Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/mondays_quote_of_the_day_74.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/mondays_quote_of_the_day_74.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:13:14 +0000 "She recognised him immediately - his eyes are very blue and he has a good tan" - Police on witness who identified naked man who went to dental appointment. We've all been nervous about a dental appointment on occasion. But surely never so agitated that we forgot to wear any clothes. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/fridays_quote_of_the_day_72.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/fridays_quote_of_the_day_72.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:32:54 +0000 "I don't know, is Beckham playing?" - Bruno on England's Ashes fortunes As the presenter of Austria's number one cable TV gay fashion show readies himself for cinema stardom, a knowledge gap appears in his abilities as a pundit. More details (Metro) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_65.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_65.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:23:21 +0000 "We have to keep telling people: please don't change the toilets" - A palace spokesman addresses the misconception that royals require new loo seats on official visits. In the world of the Windsors, does every room smell of fresh paint and does every toilet come with a previously unused seat? Because it is widely assumed that when a royal comes a-calling, the backstage riders include new loo seats for old. Not so, says Buckingham Palace. More details (The Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_70.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_70.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:08:41 +0000 "Location, location, location" - Buzz Aldrin on why the picture of him on the Moon is so iconic. As the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing approaches, Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, has been on the publicity trail, promoting his new book Magnificent Desolation. More details (the Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_70.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_70.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:30:50 +0000 "You know he wears a Speedo swimsuit. That's not a state secret" - David Miliband on the new MI6 chief, Sir John Sawers When Lady Sawers posted a number of family pictures and personal details on her Facebook page, without any privacy protection, she maybe didn't think about her husband's latest job appointment - head of MI6. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/mondays_quote_of_the_day_73.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/mondays_quote_of_the_day_73.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:02:57 +0000 "I will hate you till the day I die" - Alain de Botton responds to a bad review. Monsieur De Botton is not the first person to respond with feeling to a bad review. Here Philip Hensher writes amusingly of the history of such contretemps. But it's clear De Botton was particularly upset by Caleb Crain's review of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. More details (Caleb Crain's blog) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/fridays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/fridays_quote_of_the_day_71.shtml Quote of the Day Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:43:56 +0000 "The last time I had a pint was last Wednesday" - Andy Prior defending his claim to have seen a UFO. The sales executive from Hertfordshire saw two strange objects over his head when he was in his garden late last Friday night. "They were above the clouds, swinging left to right," he says. "There was no noise whatsoever. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I have never seen anything like it before." He has reported the sighting to the Ministry of Defence. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_64.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/thursdays_quote_of_the_day_64.shtml Quote of the Day Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:32:50 +0000 "Maybe the spinach is art" - Artist Jeff Koons, whose new show includes paintings of Popeye. The King of Kitsch has a new muse, and it's the muscular pipe-tootin' spinach-munchin' sailor created in the 1930s. Koons' cartoon-bright paintings and reproductions of inflatable toys now decorate London's Serpentine Gallery for his first UK solo. More details (Independent) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_69.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/wednesdays_quote_of_the_day_69.shtml Quote of the Day Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:31:01 +0000 In this song you're talking about poverty and world hunger and it's Broadway. Can we lighten this up a bit? - Evan Rachel Wood gives Bono tips on musical theatre. Bono's a serious sort of chap, what with guest editing serious newspapers and doing good deeds. So it's perhaps no surprise he wanted to give the musical Spider-man: Turn off the Dark a bit of an edge. More details (the Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_69.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/tuesdays_quote_of_the_day_69.shtml Quote of the Day Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:30:12 +0000 "Mrs Thatcher regarded eating as most of us regard putting petrol into the car" - Norman Tebbit reveals his erstwhile boss was no gastronome. It's perhaps not a massive surprise that the unsleeping workaholic who reigned from 1979 to 1990 was not a lover of cordon bleu cookery. What is more surprising is that Norman Tebbit is enough of a foodie to have produced his own cookbook. More details (Daily Mail) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/mondays_quote_of_the_day_72.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/mondays_quote_of_the_day_72.shtml Quote of the Day Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:35:17 +0000