Daily Archives: 18/09/2006

The Sentinel

Posted on by

Saw ‘The Sentinel‘  last night, starrring Michael Douglas (how’s Catherine?). It reminded me that when I started out as a journalist in the South Wales valleys on a short lived title called ‘News of the Valleys’, I worked with a guy called Colin McFarlane who was an ex-sun journo. He was so tabloid he could make up stories, like one time getting me to swing from the top of a water tower and do a picture story titled ‘Towers of Death’. He himself had a quack for it, once telling he dreamed that people were phoning the White House and threatening the President. And yes, when he checked with the White House press office this turned out to be true for the very mudane reason that people who got drunk in deepest ‘US of A’ often decided to give the President a piece of their (drunken) mind.

PS: Colin’s claim to fame is a biography of Tom Jones, titled, ‘Tom Jones; the Boy from Nowhere.’

News of the Valleys, Issue 12, Week Ending 25 August 1991:

Rules of thumb

Posted on by

A few rules of thumb which may work for you?

1. If you want someone to move out of your way quickly and smoothly, first move out of their way – thay way they thank you for doing what you want them to do.

2. By the natural laws of distribution/variation/probability there’s always someone who’s worse/better; happier/sadder; richer/poorer than oneself. Helps sometimes, doesn’t other times!

3. Approach ticket barriers with an eye to the human in front of you; you’ll be surprised how many times they’ll cause a bottleneck just when you’re in a rush/looking like a million dollars. But they really don’t need a ‘reason’.