Obscure Box

Poor Andrew Sachs. Thrust into the world news after an ill-thought out radio prank on his answer machine backfired on two BBC presenters who should have known better. The details of the prank are plastered far and wide on websites, including a comprehensive coverage on the BBC’s site with a handy Timeline. It comes complete [...]

Always suspicious when some survey drops into my inbox but this one claimed to be from The Guardian and The Observer, the UK newspapers and online web sites. Titled Guardian and Observer Reader Research the e-mail from Alan Rusbridger, editor, the Guardian, pointed me to an online survey at http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/p661996682.aspx?r=… A quick web search didn’t [...]

Reports from New Zealand that a judge has ordered a young girl can change her name after being embarrassed she would only tell her school fiends she was called ‘K’. In the New Zealand Herald’s report “Name change ordered for ‘Talula Does The Hula’” (Thursday 24 July 2008) Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt said he [...]

Some one’s finally spilled the beans about all those lists you read in newspapers, magazines and now online. You know the ones. Top 10 things to do with a banana, top 5 things to do on your own, or the top 3 things you can do with a list. The Times in the UK has [...]

It was the moment many newsrooms were probably dreading. “I will be making no decisions tonight,” said US Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Grief! Moments earlier she had the newsroom I was in captured, TV sets were tuned in to her live speech and journalists left their desks to go see what she had to [...]