Melody

Today's the day. Already got a headache.

SF Ballet has a 17-year-old company member?

I thought I'd already mentioned this but it must have been in another forum. For very light-skinned people who are (or may be) at risk of skin cancer, the vitamin D remedy of sun exposure without sunscreen might not be advisable. I know the UK isn't normally a constant-sun environment, but if there's any skin cancer in the family, including basal cell carcinoma, it's worth mentioning to the doctor when figuring out how to get enough vitamin D. I spent years being told to cover up and wear sunscreen whenever I was outside (especially the case when we lived in California and I'd had one skin cancer and one precursor thingy removed), and then the vitamin D levels started to be a thing so I was advised by a doctor in Maryland to spend more time exposed to sunlight. After I reminded him that I'd had a couple of run-ins with skin cancer, he said that probably wasn't such a good thing and to just be certain I was taking the supplement regularly.

Oh, gosh, I hope they don't go trendy, especially if they're planning to retire the current version. It might be a bit of a restriction, but the Royal Ballet is one of the companies that's best placed to preserve the Petipa/Ivanov repertoire, and it would be hard to get it back after several years of Twenty-First Century Swan. I don't have a problem with Odile wearing a black dress, although I always thought it was misleading to refer to her as the black swan since she's human all the time (that is, as human as a daughter of von Rothbart could be) and is just mimicking Odette in her human form.

And when is the last time anyone heard of a man being referred to as bossy?

People haven't lost the ability to care, but unfortunately we've got to the point where entertainment is more important than information and the news services have more or less turned into entertainment venues. This has been a topic of much discussion over here among people who care about getting informed. There was a time when TV news was walled off from the profit-making entertainment part of the media companies but that isn't the case any more. News is supposed to pay its way just like everything else, so of course it's getting trivialised just like everything else. And then you have the problems of the high-profile media stars (the news anchors and political correspondents and talking heads) being prepared to sell their souls for access to the politicians, so there's very little hard-hitting investigative reporting going on among the mainstream media, most of it is easily digestible, entertaining, softball pap. And don't get me started on false equivalence (particularly with regard to global warming), which can really take the heart out of a topic. Then you also have news channels with right-wing or left-wing slants, such that people who want to hear only what they already agree with can very easily do that. Same goes for the internet of course. This is what's actually fairly important about some of the late-night talk show hosts. A lot of what they do is much more hard-hitting, and factually based, than what's going on in the actual news, largely because they really are outsiders in the political game and don't need favours from the people they're reporting on. Which is a very sad indictment of the mainstream media but true nonetheless. John Oliver just won an Emmy for his programme because it's doing in-depth investigative reporting of serious social issues - of the sort you very rarely see on the mainstream news channels any more - but presenting it in an entertaining way, although not trivializing the seriousness of some of the issues. During previous election cycles, a lot of people said they got their news from The Daily Show (Jon Stewart's old show, where the current talk show hosts John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, and others got their start) rather than from CBS or CNN or other actual news programmes. This is John Oliver's reaction to the Trump tapes, and you won't hear anything like it on CNN because it doesn't let politicians frame the argument, it cuts through all the comfortable excuses and holds their feet firmly to the flames. Please note there are a lot of four-letter words so be careful about where you open it (NSFW!).

I'm just glad I don't live in a swing state or we'd be inundated with political ads. We're getting enough as it is because Virginia is nearby, but I'd hate to live in Ohio or Pennsylvania. At least this election, and Donald Trump in particular, is providing a lot of fodder for the late-night talk show comedians. I'm so glad John Oliver decided to move over here and was given his own show.

If Peregrine has taken to relieving himself on stage on a regular basis, why isn't he fitted with one of those bags that catch poop?

Honestly, I don't know anything about the handicapping system; I just watch golf, I'm not a player. My husband is the golfer in the family, and I asked him about the new handicapping system and he just sort of shrugged. He belongs to a couple of local senior leagues and said that there are always some players who'll try and game the system, however it's set up, so he doesn't worry about it any more. I do remember a few years ago he was pretty vocal about people trying to manipulate their handicaps, but that was when he was more competitive - now he doesn't bother about it too much.

I hope it's still a real rarity for kids to be taking weapons to school. It'd be awful to have to install metal detectors and pat down the kids every day.

Oh, I agree, he had a lot more going for him on the par 5's, and I still don't know what he was doing with that approach shot on the second playoff hole. I thought he'd lost momentum after those two playoff holes, but he's more mature than he used to be. Mind you, I didn't think he had a hope of sinking that last putt on 16, since his putting game hasn't been great this year, at least until very recently. I thought, considering his play during the playoffs last year, that he deserved to win the FedEx cup then, but the format meant he didn't. So I was really glad to see him win this year. Such a shame that Jason Day had to withdraw twice in a row. I remember some months ago, Nick Faldo (who commentates on the CBS channel over here) saying that he'd love to watch a tournament where Day, McIlroy, and Spieth were all playing at their peak. That really would be quite something. If you did get your clubs out, I hope you had a good time.

Yes, I know - golf, boring - but that was bloody brilliant. Rory McIlroy won the TOUR championship, and the FedEx Cup along with it, by hitting a birdie on the fourth playoff hole after tying for the lead with two other players after 18 holes, including an insanely wonderful eagle on 16. Then, after three closely fought playoff holes, two of them were back on 16 and McIlroy holed a long putt for a birdie. They're going to need to name that hole after him. Now I'm sitting here with no fingernails left. :D

I remember when we visited England for the solar eclipse in 1999 and went to Torquay since that's where totality was happening (and was an opportunity to revisit the hotel where we'd spent part of our honeymoon) - and they were happily digging up one of the main roads into Exeter, which caused traffic mayhem as people were trying to get further into Devon and down to Cornwall, and then back out again the day after. We asked the people at our hotel about that idiotic decision, and they said rather vaguely that nobody in town had known there was going to be an eclipse. Sometimes you really do have to wonder...

They tried to re-create it over here with Paul Hollywood but not Mary, and it didn't do very well. I was reading that at the beginning the producers were trying to make it more emotional and competitive, and Mel and Sue insisted that they stop trying to make the bakers cry so they could have more "human-interest" content. So as long as Mel and Sue were the ones who turned the Bake-Off into the cooperative and gentle show it's become, I rather dread to think what the production company will do with it once it's on a commercial channel and only has Paul from the original group. It sounds as though the BBC might try and do its own baking show, presumably with Mel, Sue, and Mary as the core group. They'll have to figure out a different format but it shouldn't be impossible.

After a working life as an editor, I'd like to be an author. Historical novels, preferably. Although I have some Facebook friends who are historical novelists, and it's bloody hard work if you're going to do it right.

We're in the middle of yet another heatwave, temps in the mid-80s at 9 pm - I just went outside to put the rubbish bins out for tomorrow's collection, and nearly fell over a snake sitting in the middle of the driveway soaking up the heat. I'll be so glad when winter finally gets here.

Oh dear. Maybe one of the subjects of his less than positive opinions has sued or something. It's a pity if it's permanently discontinued because it's a really interesting account of the development of British ballet. Just wondering if I should hide my copy in case the Book Police come searching for it so they can shred it...

As long as the tone has been lowered , I remember seeing a neon sign inside the childrens' section of a department store a while back which had lost some of its letters. So instead of "Great Clothes To Grow Up In," it actually said (and I don't know whether this really was random or if it had been tampered with), "Great Clothes To G-o- -P In." On the subject of missing neon letters, our local Safeway (yes, we still have Safeway over here, it hasn't turned into Morrison's) had lost some of its letters and instead of saying SAFEWAY it just said -AFEW--. Not the greatest of advertisements.

She's only four and she's been dancing for nearly two years? When children start that young, surely teachers explain to parents that it's basically just for fun and for overall progress with posture, movement, and musicality, not discipline and technique. Of course, that doesn't mean that parents understand. Poor kid, though. If she loves dancing and is being blackballed throughout the area because of a pushy parent, that's going to be hard to explain to her.

It's amazing that this sort of thing seems to keep happening - a manageable dispute escalating to the point where police are being called in and people are going to the press. At least in the UK it's unlikely that an irate parent or teacher would decide to settle things with a gun, but that seems to be the answer to increasingly trivial problems over here. I don't know whether it's social media or lack of good writing skills or too much reality TV or what, but there seems to be a lot less tolerance and considerate behaviour than in the past. And now I sound like the stereotypical old woman complaining about how things were so much better 100 years ago...

Oh, my goodness - whatever next? Somehow when something like this turned up, it's sort of inevitable that it'd be the Dutch National Ballet.

When we lived in California, the worst drivers tended to be Asians behind the wheel of a BMW or other high-powered car. You'd sort of be ready to leap for your life crossing the road when one of these BMWs was stopped at an intersection, because they seemed to wait for pedestrians to step into the road before deciding to turn right on a red light after sitting there looking innocent while the pedestrian was still on the path. When a friend was visiting us from England, we warned her about the dangers of what was affectionately (or not so affectionately) known in the Bay Area as "driving while Asian." And one day she started to cross the road and was very nearly flattened by a BMW complete with Asian driver. So we said, "erm, we did warn you about Asians in BMWs..." and she said in a very irritated tone of voice," he's not Asian, he's Chinese!" Apparently to her, Asian meant Indian or Pakistani, so she hadn't been paying attention to the Chinese and Japanese maniacs behind the wheel. Not entirely sure what continent she thinks China is in.

Who was it who said that golf was boring? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbsIwjRsMNI

I have a feeling there are going to be some serious post mortems in China and Russia after these games. Neither country is doing well compared to the USA, and that's going to hit some nerves.

No idea, but if that was the case and it was a way of enhancing performance, I assume the men would also be wearing midriff-baring spandex, and they aren't.