Doctor - Who?

No it's not a Tonka toy, it's a VERY LARGE Dalek.

As In Who Will Play The Next Doctor?
     Apologies for the terrible pun.  I sometimes still pinch myself to be sure that Doctor Who has returned to the small screen.  After such a long wait between the last of Sylvester McCoy and blue-eyed Chris Eccleston, too.
     I have to say I prefer the old Doctor Who.  I won't say "classic" since some series were <ahem> quite rubbish, frankly.  But I did like the utter bleakness of some storylines, it has to be said.  And the set-dressers could make the same quarry look so different between storylines.
     The newer version was, I thought, too touchy-feely in parts, trying too hard to be modern and PC.  When it worked, however, it WORKED.  "Blink" is a terrifying story on many levels, for one example.
     Thus we come to the next regeneration of The Doctor.  And who do we see mentioned on the BBC website as potential replacements for Matt Smith?  Well, Chetiwel Ejiofor and Idris Elba for starters - both black actors.  Chetiwel has a lively, active presence and Idris is brooding and physical - and this is where the new Doctor Who scores over the older, because also mentioned is Helen Mirren*, who - I point this out as you may not have noticed - is a woman.  This isn't being PC, this is opening up the role to opportunity that the 1970's never dreamt of!
     The only problem is that we have to wait until Sunday for the revelation. Aw bum.

Vive La France!
     Our transatlantic cousins sometimes forget how helpful France was as regards the American Revolution, resulting in some inaccurate and unpleasant insults about French martial ardour.  I plan to revisit this theme in some detail in a later blog, so I will only mention here Rudyard Kipling's quote: "Their business is war, and they do their business". 

 On to more timely and relevant matters. Remember, the French invented flight.  The Montgolfier Brothers sent aloft a balloon containing a sheep, a duck and a cockerel in 1783.  230 years later we get this:


 That's 400 balloons attempting a record take-off.  Bonne chance Jacques and Joseph!

Getting Trollied
     Taking all my inspiration from the BBC today, and maintaining a Gallic theme, I see that French official descriptions of "binge drinking" are now to be described as "beuverie express".  "Binge Drinking", however, is an official term that no UK participant will ever, ever mention or use.  Hence the heading about "Getting Trollied".  Were I - and I hasten to assure the readers of BOOJUM! that this is purely hypothetical - to go off into Manchester** and down eighty tequila shots in the space of an hour, I would not state to my fellow imbibers "Gosh, I have been Binge Drinking for the space of sixty minutes."  Reason one, downing that amount of tequila that quickly would probably render my tongue inoperable.  Reason two, I'd probably use some slang term instead - "trollied; blitzed; blammoe'd; Tizered; hammered; wellied; zonked; bladdered; munted - <cont. Page 96>"
     I will, however, adopt the phrase "Beuverie Express!" for getting the round in from now on.
     Whilst attending the Oldham Beer Festival a couple of months ago, the Trollied, Blitzed and Wellied were notable by their absence.  There were a lot of people there, enjoying drinking beer, without trying the sports of Gutter Diving, Park Bench Sleeping or Vomit-as-Blanket.

The poster children for "drinking responsibly".

* Helen, quite the attractive older lady.  There is a tasteless acronym out there but BOOJUM! will not be drawn!
** Manchester.  Wasteland of morals, ethics and microbreweries.