Lemons, Landmarks, and other fannish musings.
There is a 'Lemons and Landmarks' project that is the brainchild of pudupudu (explanation here for anyone interested; I don't expect anyone on my flist is unless they've listened to Cabin Pressure). I really want to do something with the lemon - give it face/arms/captain's hat/whatever, or draw it in a suit, or something, but I don't know what exactly and also it might be a bit sad.
For the landmark part, I was thinking of the white lion in Whipsnade, Ivinghoe Beacon, Ashridge, or somewhere like that. The deadline I think is 16th May; we're going to London for one of John Finnemore's Priory Engagements on the 13th, but we don't even live in London so I'd like to submit something closer to home. There is the monument about Catherine of Aragon in Ampthill Park, but I think Emagan and Elle will submit that. There's also Bletchley Park, parts of Milton Keynes, even Bedford with its selection of historical connections ... kind of spoiled for choice, but not many things locally are actually well-known landmarks. Oh well, we'll think of something. We can just take loads of pictures and select the best one or two to submit. Though I think pudupudu has one of, if not The Best submission: Roger Allam, aka Douglas Richardson.
Also, 'The Unbelievable Truth' seems to fairly often feature John Finnemore, but even when he's not on it, it's still a pretty funny (and educational) programme ... I guess it's kind of in the spirit of QI, but the humour is cleaner! Available on iPlayer here. It's hosted by David Mitchell and features a mixture of well-known and slightly-less-well-known-but-equally-funny comedians, and was created by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith - familiar names to the regular Radio 4 listener :)
Another fannish custom among Cabin Crew (a term used to refer to fans of Cabin Pressure) is the game Yellow Car. Mr Finnemore posted a video entitled The Official Rules of Yellow Car, on his blog and Youtube. Now, I used to think to myself 'thank goodness John Finnemore's fans aren't all as crazy as Benedict Cumberbatch's*' ... I've kind of had to re-think that after reading the comments on that post, but I think we're probably crazy in a different way. I've never heard of anyone swooning over John Finnemore in his presence, for example, but as a collective fandom we seem to have a tendency to overthink things!
[*No offence whatsoever to anyone who is a fan of Benedict - I myself admire what we know of him and his work - just the way a lot of people seem to swoon over him in fandom really isn't my style; each to their own. And I use the word 'crazy' because it's alien to me and I can't understand it, no matter how much I try! Whereas the way John Finnemore's fans pick up and run with jokes long after Mr F has written them might strike other people as crazy.]
One would find it difficult to believe this post was initially only intended to be about travelling lemons.