Stuff that pops into my head. Innit.

Friday 15 October 2010

Short thoughts

The Chilean miners' rescue has confused me somewhat. Not the actual freeing of the pit workers, obviously, but the fact that many of them gave a lot of the credit for their rescue to God.
As a non-believer, I am astonished by the humility of those who would give God the credit for their own man-made deliverance, but also confused by it. The miners were in some respects lucky – they had space to move around in, a natural shower to wash in, and they weren't trapped in a coalmine where methane gas might have killed them. Such good fortune they may well have attributed to God. But what do they think God was doing when nearly 500 people died in a Chilean earthquake early this year? Was he on holiday? Doing the washing up? The seemingly random nature of God's mercy is something I have always had trouble with.
And you can forget about that "mysterious ways" bullshit too if that was going to be your response.

"Now...reach for the stars"





The Commonwealth Games have just finished, and it seemed like no-one cared that they were on. Certainly not the majority of elite athletes who could have competed if they had chosen to. And certainly not the majority of the Delhi public, who were kept away by the high (relative to earnings) price of tickets, the lack of the aforementioned superstars, and almost certainly the fact that India were playing test matches against Australia at the same time the games were on. Knowing the love the Sub-Continent has for cricket, that's a stupid piece of scheduling by someone.

"Good this innit?"




Pizza Express, a national restaurant chain here in the ever sunny UK, is going to teach it's staff to flirt with customers. No, really, I'm not making it up or anything.
The family-friendly restaurant, famous for serving up "bambinoccinos" – a cappuccino without the coffee for kids – has recruited classically trained actor Karl James to teach flirting and the art of chit-chat to staff to help them to butter up the restaurant's customers.
Great. Who wants to be flirted with by a teenager covered in acne? 
I feel a rebranding is in order here. Pizza Distress? Pizza Depress?

"Hey baby, fancy a calzone?"


5 comments:

Mustang Sally said...

Laugh at Pizza Express if you like, I think they may just hit the jackpot with that.

I waited tables for years and found that absolutely, the biggest flirts made the most money. Good service came in a distant second. I wish I'd had some flirting lessons, it would have come in handy ;)

The Beans said...

For the first part: South Americans are very, very Catholic and a belief in God ties into their very culture(believe me, my mother is Colombian).

For the second part: the WHAT games?

Third: I get enough flirting from the French on a daily basis. :-P

-Barb the French Bean

fizzee rascal said...

MS, I guess we'll have to wait and see, but from my point of view, flirting with serving staff? No thanks.

FB, Thanks for the S.America explanation.
You've never heard of the commonwealth?

Mrs Midnite said...

Trained flirting, oh dear. If it is a waiters natural way of behaving it can be fun but those that are forced will make me cringe.

I just wrote about miners too, hadn't thought about the religious aspects but I guess if you are that way inclinded you will always thank God for the good stuff and blame yourself for the bad?


Commonwealth Games handed over to Weegieland was the only bit that really filtered through to me. Looking forward to that, should be an interesting event :0)

Unknown said...

Pizza Sexpress
Gimme a 'Pizza your Express'
Your ex pressed my buttons

Ok I'm scraping the barrel. I'll stop now.

You want extra sauce on that?