Bewildering headlines

click photo to enlarge
I consider myself to be reasonably well informed. I get the "Guardian" newspaper daily, read news websites, watch some television (though not a lot), listen to some radio, buy and read books, and discuss many topics with family, friends and acquaintances. But, for all that there are many parts of modern life in which I can claim little or no knowledge. Television, celebrity and sport are three such areas. Consequently I can be completely puzzled by a headline such as this one that I saw on the BBC News website: "Abercrombie alarm at Jersey Shore".

To have any hope of decoding it I would have needed to know two salient facts: that Abercrombie and Fitch sell clothes (I thought it was one of the big three global credit rating agencies) and that "Jersey Shore" is a so-called "reality" TV programme about "rowdy, hard-partying" and "loud" young Americans. If I had known those particulars I wouldn't have read the article. As it was, my interest was piqued by the indecipherable quality of the headline and what I gleaned made me, firstly, laugh out loud, and then slap my forehead in despair. Apparently Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino (one of the men featured in this programme) wears clothing made by Abercrombie and Fitch and they want him to stop doing so. You might wonder why they don't want the exposure that he presumably gives to their brand. The article revealed all in a quote from the company: "We are deeply concerned that Mr Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image...We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans." If you find that incredible (I find the idea of a clothing company having "distressed fans" simultaneously preposterous and wonderful), it gets worse. It seems that Abercrombie and Fitch have offered Mr Sorrentino, and the TV company producing the show, a sum of money to wear another clothing brand.

The thoughts that this set racing through my mind came thick and fast. Would it be O.K. for him to wear any other brand, or would Abercrombie and Fitch specify which one? A competitor perhaps? Is causing distress by wearing clothing an actionable offence? Are there out-of-work-actors and newsworthy reprobates already combing the stores for "aspirational" brands intending to have themselves photographed, then inform the manufacturers, and commit to wearing something else on receipt of a payment? Moreover, isn't an aspirational brand - even one "rooted in East Coast traditions and Ivy League heritage" and "the essence of privilege and casual luxury" - a product that is bought by people with a poor self-image, limited self-confidence, debatable intelligence - or all three - and isn't it therefore, by definition, the sort of clothing that should be avoided because it advertises this to the world and in so doing says the opposite of what you intend? Or am I over-thinking the matter of aspirational clothing? If that is remotely possible!

All of which has little or nothing to do with this composition featuring people and a mural at the Design Museum, London. For a different shot at this location (with a different mural) see here.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 47mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Snow, headlines and blackbirds

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Some British journalists are bone idle and write their stories before the event that they describe has happened. "Exam joy" appears every summer accompanied by a photograph of incredulous, laughing students reading their results from the papers distributed by their schools, accompanied by text that records yet another increase in grades. Similarly, when a fall of the white stuff happens, out comes the headline "Arctic weather causes chaos", though to be fair, journalists sometimes revert to the less pithy (but essentially similar), "Country grinds to halt under blanket of snow." Then follows the inevitable article about how Britain can't cope with a fall of snow that is regarded as minor or routine in other places. Such pieces involve an unedifying mixture of sloth and ignorance.

If these journalists had the slightest familiarity with geography, meteorology or even general knowledge they would know that the snow that falls on the heavily populated areas of Britain doesn't come every year, doesn't come in the same amounts, and is of varying consistencies. Consequently it is not cost effective, nor is it good sense, to have in place the measures that are appropriate in Canada, Norway or Arctic Siberia. Furthermore, the writers of these articles don't appear to have noticed that our island is one of the most densely populated areas of Europe, and that a road blocked by a vehicle mishap involving snow has bigger repercussions than elsewhere. Nor have they realised that our relatively mild, maritime climate invariably results in freeze-thaw conditions around snowfalls, which bring a particularly troublesome set of circumstances that don't apply where snow lays long-term. I can just about forgive the ignorance of the Canadian tourist I heard bemoaning the disruption to flights at Heathrow and disparagingly comparing the snow clearing measures there with those in her country. However, I find it hard to take from people who live here and should be aware of the facts - probably the same people who'd be writing articles about the waste of public money on snowclearing equipment that would lay idle for years on end if our authorities followed the advice of these benighted commentators.

The disruption that the snow caused to the blackbirds in my garden appears to be fairly minimal. This "tame" cock bird found it harder than usual to stand on my kitchen window cill provoking me to feed it some scraps, but otherwise they just got on with the daily grind of foraging. It's clearly harder for the birds when snow is laying, so I've increased the amount of seed, nuts and titbits that we usually offer in winter to help them through this "Arctic Hell" (irony alert).

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On