Three unrelated things!
I've just been catching up on a couple of TV programmes I've missed over the past few days, including Countryfile. Imagine my surprise - and pleasure, on seeing inzilbeth_liz and her Dexters about half way through the programme!
Especially as we have just met up with each other on Facebook. She was saying the reason she had not posted on LJ for a long time was because it had basically stopped working for her. But she says she now has Windows 10 and plans to give it another go - I hope she does, as I miss seeing her around LJ.
An interesting 'non-event' - which would have doubtless attracted more press attention a few years ago, and quite possibly some rather unpleasantly obvious headlines; our Chief Minister mentioned, in an interview in the Guardian, that he is gay and has lived with his partner for the past 21 years. This is not 'coming out' in the traditional sense - they made no secret of it and most of the island's population were well aware but, as he said, no-one has ever asked him in an interview before and so it has never been a published fact.
I have just googled to see if it was then picked up as interesting by any other UK papers and found the only mention seems to have been in Pink News, where they commented that local media had missed 'a scoop'. And I thought it would have been no more a scoop for local newspapers than telling us the boat comes in to Douglas every day or, as S2C says, that the Pope's a catholic. A couple of local media mentioned the article, as it was on his plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill, but not in a 'OMG! Allan Bell is gay!!' way.
But how good that it was not the headline, nor even the by-line, of the Guardian article. Even a few years ago, say when he was elected to the role of chief minister in 2011, you might have expected at least one of the UK scandal sheets to have come up with something like 'Isle-of-Man's top man says 'I love men'... and now it is a non-story. Hurrah!
Also wasn't Bake Off excellent last night? I was most impressed with Nadia's method for making fondant icing - and on how to get a really neat cut through a sponge cake!
Especially as we have just met up with each other on Facebook. She was saying the reason she had not posted on LJ for a long time was because it had basically stopped working for her. But she says she now has Windows 10 and plans to give it another go - I hope she does, as I miss seeing her around LJ.
An interesting 'non-event' - which would have doubtless attracted more press attention a few years ago, and quite possibly some rather unpleasantly obvious headlines; our Chief Minister mentioned, in an interview in the Guardian, that he is gay and has lived with his partner for the past 21 years. This is not 'coming out' in the traditional sense - they made no secret of it and most of the island's population were well aware but, as he said, no-one has ever asked him in an interview before and so it has never been a published fact.
I have just googled to see if it was then picked up as interesting by any other UK papers and found the only mention seems to have been in Pink News, where they commented that local media had missed 'a scoop'. And I thought it would have been no more a scoop for local newspapers than telling us the boat comes in to Douglas every day or, as S2C says, that the Pope's a catholic. A couple of local media mentioned the article, as it was on his plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill, but not in a 'OMG! Allan Bell is gay!!' way.
But how good that it was not the headline, nor even the by-line, of the Guardian article. Even a few years ago, say when he was elected to the role of chief minister in 2011, you might have expected at least one of the UK scandal sheets to have come up with something like 'Isle-of-Man's top man says 'I love men'... and now it is a non-story. Hurrah!
Also wasn't Bake Off excellent last night? I was most impressed with Nadia's method for making fondant icing - and on how to get a really neat cut through a sponge cake!