It's just bitchin'

I read a Guardian article recently where this guy took up the challenge of going 21 days without complaining about anything - not world events, not the weather, absolutely nothing. I don't know what it gained him, because he didn't venture on an actual opinion. Guardian lifestyle writers are always self-deprecating from the start because that's how they do humour, and even if they're meant to be carrying out a "social experiment", they always, always end it ambiguously, leaving you wondering if there was any actual point to the article. Me being me, my wondering is always augmented by (probably disproportionate) irritation. What can I say, age doesn't seem to engender saintly patience in me. My point - yes, I have one, to mine own satisfaction! - being that there is no way that I would take up a challenge like that. Cynicism and bitching are the only plus points I see in getting older, so I won't be giving them up in a hurry, or ever.

Down the Guardian path...

I don't remember if misleading headlines were quite such a part of mainstream newspapers when I was I worked as a sub-editor. Today Facebook highlighted a post from the Guardian which said that Usain Bolt might be stripped of an Olympic gold medal. This was so shocking that I went straight to the Guardian website to see if it was a real news item (simply because I like the Bolt, dammit, and I did not want this to be real, and I was hoping to NOT find anything in the Guardian!). But there it was, the news item.

However... it turned out, on reading past the headline, that the gold medal in question was the one from the 400m relay in the Beijing Olympics, not the current one. On reading a little further still, it turned out that someone in the Bolt's team had failed a drugs test, not the Bolt himself. And if that person was stripped of his gold medal, then it followed that the entire team would forfeit their gold medals too - and that was the only way Usain would have been "stripped" of any of his gold medals in any Olympics so far. Yet the Guardian - supposedly a mainstream broadsheet and not merely a shamelessly unethical tabloid - made it seem like Usain Bolt had failed a drugs test personally! 

I LOATHE being taken in by lying bastard headlines approved by some faceless little worm who is obviously a poor excuse for an editor and has never heard of journalistic ethics. Yes, I understand the concept of clickbait, and I normally stay away from shit like that especially if it's from the Sun or the Daily Mail or other unethical tabloid but - like I said - this was about Usain Bolt, people! 

I can only say that The Guardian is pretty much the UK's Times of India. 

What's wrong with drinking plain water?

The number of women (and men too, I'm sure, although I've mostly seen only women) who give their babies, toddlers and young 'uns fruit juice or cola or soda to drink when they're thirsty is quite, quite amazing. Why they don't just carry bottles of water for them beats me. It's cheap, it's good for you, it's easily available and safe to drink straight from the tap in this country... so, what's wrong with drinking water that's just - you know, water? Not flavoured, sugared, coloured, fizzy or any other variation. I can't help feeling that these people are simply, unnecessarily setting up their children to have lifelong bad habits when it comes to hydration.