Dear fellow mammals,
Sometimes I literally don’t know where to start!
I mean, I really, really don’t know where to start!
Since I last wrote to you (not since I last wrote a post - you should see the drafts that never made it…), there have been about a million elections, the big sports thing, everyone lost their minds about the disgusting portrayal of the Last Supper (a portrayal that was neither disgusting nor The Last Supper) and Twitter has reached new, so far unknown depths of toxicity.
So, that’s nice.
Anyway, let’s crack on! In this week’s edition, I will:
Talk about Muppets (seriously, stay with it)
Stock up on cans (that’s actually really clever, as you’ll see)
Make a Public Service Announcement
…and much much more!
So, come on! Take my hand and let us skip through the field of fresh weirdness…
Have a great week/weekend/day/evening [delete as appropriate]
James x
Those Elections
Well, congratulations to the UK! You did it! Finally! At the 97th time of asking!
Look, if you don’t like political stuff, I’ve got some good news for you. One of the draft editions that never made it was seriously politics-heavy. Why didn’t it get out? Because sometimes I become really self-aware about when I’m banging on about political stuff and it isn’t necessarily always entertaining or enlightening. I felt a bit like that about those draft editions.
So, well done! Great to see so many terrible MPs lose their seats - I hope the new ones don’t let everyone down so much.
They need time to be able to actually do something. Quite a lot of time.
That’s all I’m going to say for the moment. Consider that a bonus win!!
LOLz
The brass neck on this one…
Muppets at 70
It is the 70th anniversary of the Muppets - don’t do the maths or you might find out you’re old too!
There’s been a steady stream of Muppets stuff online and, as a Muppets fan, it’s been great to see - and some of it really fascinating.
For instance, I had no idea that Rowlf was originally conceived as a puppet for an advert for Purina in Canada in 1962.
Now, the reason why Rowlf is key to the Muppets isn’t that he was the first (he wasn’t) but that the money from those adverts helped Jim Henson build his company and he hired Frank Oznowicz (better known as Oz) to be the other puppeteer who operated Rowlf.
If you look at Rowlf, you’ll notice he has two live hands (not all Muppets did), so Jim Henson needed someone to operate the other hand - that was to be Oz.
Rowlf went on to be an integral part of the Jimmy Dean Show from 1963 - he became seriously famous.
Fast forward to 1975 and, with Sesame Street under his belt, Henson decided that the Muppets deserved their own show.
This is part of the pitch for that show - and I think it’s amazingly good!
I don’t know what it is about it but it feels kind of special to be able to see the pitch for a show as big as The Muppet Show!
Unlikely Hospital News
Since the car accident, we’ve visited just about every hospital and specialist within a 4000km radius (it feels - could be less). So, it was nice to see something a bit different - even if it was really quite strange!
As I was walking out of Morlaix hospital, I took a look at the variety of actual foods available in the vending machine and I was wondering how much the salads and pasta boxes were (just out of idle curiosity, to give me something new and interesting to moan about!). So I tapped the screen to tap in the numbers and find the price and this popped up…
That was really, really unexpected.
So unexpected that I had to click on it to find out which cryptos you could use to buy a sandwich…
It turns out that you can only pay with Solana (SOL) and the process for that is that they will take 40€ worth of SOL and then refund you what you do not use.
Which is a hard ‘no’ from me!
Twitter Latest
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
If you live in France, please, please, please, go out in the next week or two and go to your local independent cinema. Look, the big chain ones are good but they can do their own adverts!
The little local cinemas we have are an absolute gem. Often run by volunteers, with prices that defy logic, if we don’t lose them, they’ll go and we’ll never get them back.
This is the wonderful Cinéma Le Douron in Plestin-les-Grèves (29). We have lots of small cinemas near us but this is one of my absolute favourites. If you buy a card (2€), you can recharge it with 5 or 10 tickets at 5€80 each for an adult ticket. Under 14s are 5€ and under 4s are 4€.
Brexit Benefits
Since my last email, I went hack to the UK. Despite having passed through Plymouth ferry port before, I saw something this time that I had not noticed before.
This is the new, post-Brexit customs checking area. Looks nice and shiny and expensive.
The reason why this stopped me was because, as a foot passenger, I had just walked past the queue of cars waiting to get on the ferry. It was the height of the tourism season.
What struck me was that, despite there being hundreds of cars, there were three French registration plates (that I could see).
Overwhelmingly, the people passing through that port are from the UK.
Britain has put up a customs point primarily to check its own citizens.
So much freedom.
Pumpin’
I’d forgotten about these! I’ve not seen one of these since I moved to France, 10 years ago.
I found these in Poundland where, when I was around, everything used to be a pound.
I wonder what the argument is for them now? A massive amount of plastic for pretty much zero gain - and, wow, when did toothpaste get so expensive?!
Also, while I’m here…
Cans of gravy?
What fresh hell is this, Britain?!
Election - Final Question…
I can’t be the only one wondering if the Natural Law Party would have beaten the Tories?
Can I?
So, what’s coming up, I hear you ask!
Well, thanks for asking!
Between now and Christmas, there will be some Paris stuff, some Germany stuff and some Croatia stuff too. And ducks.
Also, the return of coffee photos - sponsor a coffee and I’ll post of photo of the coffee and a thank you!
Don’t forget, you can find me on Bluesky @jamesmb.bsky.social - because leaving Twitter is A Good Idea! Come and say hi!
Have a great one and see you next time!
James