[blogfocus tuesday] fair range early in the week

Joules Girls

Fair range this evening and posts were included for interest's sake.

1 Muttering's no Sloane Ranger and yet:

I love getting the new season’s horsy catalogues through the post. Ride Away, Robinson’s and Derby House all bring a smile to my face and a sense of anticipation as I study the sweet, new-smelling pages. The Internet’s all well and good, but there’s nothing like getting to grips with a shiny new catalogue stuffed to the gunwales with things I think I want but can’t afford.

The people who stride across these pages have lives that bear little resemblance to mine. They can wear lemon, lilac and pale blue shirts with alacrity; they can don beige jodhs and breeches on a daily basis without fear. They, it would seem, are never troubled by mud, muck, or dribble.

2 Daily Referendum cracked me up with his last line here:

Twenty-six smoking toilets, and three more on fire, put a Japanese toilet maker in the hot seat today.

Toto Ltd, known for its high-tech toilets with bidets that have blow-drying, air purification and seat-warming functions, apologised to consumers and offered free checks and repairs after some of its toilets with bidets and heated seats sent up smoke and three caught fire.

There have been times when I thought my toilet was on fire.

3 Thank you, Mr Eugenides, for this piece of gratuitous advice:

So what do you do after you neuter your pet? Why, buy a set of Neuticles, of course, to help your pet "to retain his natural look, self esteem" and aid in "the trauma associated with neutering".

Yes, there are photos. There's even a sizing guide, so your pet doesn't end up with bigger balls than before.

4 Matthew Sinclair touches on what justice really means:

Nick Leeson collapsed the Barings Bank by losing £827 million. He lost his job, went to prison for four years in Singapore and won't be managing other people's money any time soon. By contrast, Gordon Brown has lost over twice as much, £2 billion and he's going to be promoted to Prime Minister.

5 Matt thought his life was coming to an end at Purdue:

I was working on some homework last night in my room, when I heard what I could have sworn was an extremely loud explosion (like a bomb being detonated) outside my window. If I had only looked outside, I would have known how right I was. I wish I would've kept today's copy of The Exponent as they mentioned (as the link is outdated in terms of info) that three 20 oz. bottle bombs were found in Cary's courtyard and detonated by Purdue Police's bomb squad.

6 Dizzy writes of incentives and disincentives in producing desired outcomes:

Now personally I've always believed that the use of incentives (pleasure) rather than punitive taxes (pain) will always produce better results in behavioural change, so on the face of it, this sounds like a good idea. However, and there is always an however with any Government and especially this one, there is one slight problem.

If the results of the trial are successful then presumably it would be pushed harder as the route we should all want to take. At some point in the future, when that happens there will come a time when the number of people using such a system will provide the Government with the means to say "we're going to make this compulsory".

7 Deogolwulf reflects on the joy of celebrity over at Highbrow Net:

Given the calibre of modern celebrities, it is best not to mention their names without sober purpose, lest one wantonly add — even in the slightest degree — to the extension and endurance of their fame. In the ancient world, Cato the Elder took such a policy to an absurd length. One can only wonder what he would have said about the kind of celebrity that can be won nowadays simply through a proclivity to chatter like an excitable baboon. I suspect he would have said nothing at all, and just quietly eaten his toga.

8 If you haven't caught up with CityUnslicker's Sunday Business round up, then you're missing some essential reading. I particularly liked this one:

Buy-to-Let will be the first to suffer in housing crash - but when will it start?

Also, don't miss Ellee Seymour's posts on Mental Health and Blindness and Welshcakes' touching post, simply entitled Mum. There are no excerpts here - they have to be read in their entirety.

Hope to see you on Thursday evening.