Plumbing the depths

Posted on August 4, 2003 by Ken Parish
Posted in Print media

I can live with Right Wing Death Beast Paul Sheehan's dissing of Harry Potter, but stretching a single joke, and an unfunny one at that, to fill an entire column is another thing entirely. Even Phillip Adams doesn't usually sink to that level of uninspired op-ed desperation. I wonder if Sheehan's been overdosing on that magic hallucinogenic water again.

8 Comments

  1. mark
    August 4, 2003

    Maybe not his fault this time. I mean, the CIA's poisoned water supplies in the past (remember that time where they filled an English dam with LSD so that everyone would think the Earth was being destroyed by yellow alien spacecraft?)!

  2. wen
    August 4, 2003

    and you know what - Harry hasn't been to the toilet either, not once in five years!

    hsaH

  3. wen
    August 4, 2003

    'hsaH'

    I didn't do that!
    What does it mean?

  4. Geoff Honnor
    August 4, 2003

    Mark - It worked as I recall.

    Ken - Harry is an English lad. He bathes once a week.

    wen - hsaH is what you end up typing when you've been spending too long trying to balance angels on pinheads.

  5. wen
    August 4, 2003

    Ah ha - think I'll object to that comment Geoff (on Ken's behalf)

    Now, what evidence do you have for your nasty allegation regarding English bathing habits - why would the English be any dirtier than any one else in the world ??? If you look at the Brits in the context of ....
    aargh, I can't go on - pin-induced vertigo!

    (actually, judging by my own seriously soap & water averse son, I think maybe the fact that Harry manages to get away without frequent bathing is part of the attraction. )

  6. wen
    August 4, 2003

    oh dear - meant Harry not Ken - very confused. I'm sure you bathe, Ken. Sorry.

  7. Geoff Honnor
    August 4, 2003

    I know it's a vile, stereotypical slur on the British people wen - many showered regularly when I lived amongst them (though not all, to which the Tube in August provided pungent testimony). Still, it provided the perfect opportunity for a cheap shot.

    British Royal naval vessels used to have signs in the ratings messdecks which read "all ratings are to shower at least once a week." It caused no end of cruel mirth amongst Aussie sailors.

  8. Gummo Trotsky
    August 5, 2003

    Everyone knows that taking showers just gets the coal wet, which only makes it difficult to light a decent fire.