https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6EaoPMANQM

Part two of Harbottle and Lewis’s instructional video series to teach even the most regenerate Aussie yahoo how to address a parliamentary commission.

In case you dear sweet people are not aware, H&L did not only represent I, Benedick, before the bar at the Old Bailey (I was in a navy suit, club tie, very clean-cut, athletic, upstanding youth) against Her Majesty’s government but the firm also represents HRH herself.

Queen v Queen? [Independent UK]

“The shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that will occur Friday night if Congress does not reach a deal to extend its authorization would result in the ‘immediate furlough’ of 4,000 workers, bring a halt to $2.5 billion in airport construction projects, and cost the government about $200 million a week in lost airline ticket taxes, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on a conference call Thursday.” [ThinkProgress]

“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill that officially classifies beer as alcoholic. Until now anything containing less than 10% alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff.” [BBC, via Daring Fireball]

Rebekah Brooks may be gone but her glory days as editor of The Sun, Britain’s biggest selling ‘newspaper’ won’t soon be forgotten.

Whether it was swilling pints in the pub with the lads, printing the names of accused sex offenders, brokering deals between her boss and prime ministers, or arranging back-door access, Rebekah’s networking skills were legendary.

And lest we think that the stupefying awfulness of Britain’s tabloids has been somehow exaggerated take a look at Rebekah’s handiwork. (There will be a prize for anyone locating the source of a recent post here at Stingue)

Alright, alright (UK spelling, thanks very much), so she’s not the only one responsible but as I think we’ve already proved (not ‘proven’ for god’s sake because it has been proved), rule #1 is — Blame the Woman.

Students of history will no doubt recall that in or about 1776, those of us who lived on the Freedomy side of the Atlantic decided that we didn’t much like paying socialistic taxes on stuff like tea and Playboy and three cornered hats and those funny shoes with belt buckles for laces, while having no say in how those monies would actually be spent. So we sent an RSVP to good King George explaining, with much regret, that as much as we’d like to come to his birthday party, we would have to decline his invitation this year as were otherwise engaged in declaring our independence and booting his red-coated troops from our lands.

Flash forward some 235 years and the British are apparently still sore over this slight, as evidenced by their contempt (dare I say jealousy) over the startling thing of beauty into which the English language has evolved under Yankee care and tutelage, while back on the British isles it remains stunted, ossified, abandoned and lifeless, having acheived very little in the past 300 years beyond the dropping of thees and thous. As evidence I present to you, dear Stinquers, the following story from the BBC, entitled Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples, in which readers were invited to send in their most hated expressions from this side of the pond,thereby displaying their ignorance and sad lack appreciation for the myriad poetic possibilities of the mother tongue, which have been laregly realized only on these shores. Some examples after the break (with scattered commentary throughout):

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Our exclusive series of Inadvertent Metaphors Illustrating the Congressional Drive to Default America continues today with this forty-foot sinkhole that suddenly appeared under the bed of a nice 65-year-old grandmother.

That sinking feeling: Woman finds giant sinkhole under her bed [Yahoo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkcBlV2qpw