OMG spam from Fortnum and Mason!

I don't think I've ever ordered anything from them online, so how I am on their list I know not - can it be that a shop which has been going for 300 years is investing in lists of email addresses? Woe, Woe, Infamy!

(I was actually shocked! shocked! when I was in Piccadilly for a meeting last week and popped in to ( Read more... )

For those of you who may not already have heard about this, there have been reported sightings of a large crocodile in the Bristol area.

I will believe this when I see the body, pretty much, because profound scepticism on this sort of thing is the way I roll.

I do wonder if it is stealth publicity for what sounds like a terrible movie being filmed ( Read more... )

At the side of the up escalator, ads for something promising 'Hot White Teeth in 2 weeks'.

To which my response was, are not hot teeth rather uncomfortable? or perhaps it is just a pleasing warmth.

Even so, perhaps not optimum for eating ice-cream with.

Which led me to think about that (though apparently it's a spoof?) Ben and Jerry literary-themed ( Read more... )

Dear FaceBook ads in the sidebar, who, who, WHO
is in the market for Royal Tudor Jewellery
AND
retro Rockabilly dresses (froof those starched petticoats!)?

The words 'Dog's Breakfast' spring to mind.*

Y U NO REK ME WAISTCOATZ?

*Or am I supposed to be a renactor who alternates Ye Tudorz with The 50z, which might give one whiplash?

This entry was ( Read more... )

A thought generated by Oliver Burkeman's column in today's Guardian Weekend, which has interesting resonances with this post I made some while ago about people undervaluing their own skills.

Burkeman is considering Rothbard's Law: "People tend to specialise in what they're worst at" and suggests that what it's getting at is this:
[I]f a talent has ( Read more... )

Particularly beswozzled by the juxtaposition in the FB sidebar just now:
Beat your funeral costs!
Sexy swimwear from £15!
Kill germs with Domestos! (this appears to be a game, rather than a hygienic recommendation)*
+ Short romantic breaks with Hoseasons.

Plus, I think there is some incongruity between the ads targeted, apparently, at people who ( Read more... )

Following yesterday's post, have been noting my FB sidebar ads.

Which today have included car insurance (car that DO.NOT.HAZ) and dog-grooming (dog also DO.NOT.HAZ, and if I had one, I wouldn't take it to Milton Keynes for titivation. See also 'local' chiropractor nowhere near me.), and various things like children's fancy pyjamas and dancing ( Read more... )

In the ads down the FB sidebar, one that touts losing 27 kg per month*.

When you click through, it actually gives a slightly more plausible 1-2 stone**.

But I think there is some significant error there in their lbs/kg conversion!

(And on that alleged panoptic FB tracking of interests, why on earth do they think I care? or does everyone who ( Read more... )

In the ads down the side of my FB page:
Groundbreaking implants

Of the dental variety, but this seems to me to imply that you could also use them for your springtime gardening needs.

Or pioneering in the unploughed plains...

This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1847648.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
( Read more... )

Spotted just out of the corner of my eye while reading the paper on the Tube, ad for holidays exploring England's coastline.

Well and good.

What thikkt blud with cold was the promise of 'local personalities' to be one's guide to the delights of the various places.

We bet they are just like the proprietor of the Mad Hatter cafe in Margate and of a ( Read more... )