The Acknowledgers

This is just the briefest of interim blogs before the proper ones start again next week!

It’s a simple, but extremely grateful 'shout out' to those celebrities and/or well known folks in the public domain who have kindly taken the time to interact on some level with BerryLogs and me on Twitter over the years.

I’m not knocking those who haven’t though, as I would guess that when one has millions of followers, as some of those famed people have, a soppy little blog which briefly mentions the subject in question is probably not high on their priority list!

That said though, I should probably give a special mention to a TalkSport DJ. For the best part of the last decade I’ve listened to his show and agreed and disagreed with his views in largely equal measure. But I can’t even attempt to interact with him on Twitter. Why? Because he blocked me in error and has ignored my efforts to change this status!

Never mind – I’m sure I’ll live!

So thank you to the following, in the most shameless terms of name dropping I could ever hope to portray!!

From the World of Sport:

Riddick Bowe 

Gary Lineker 

Craig Mackail-Smith

Kazenga Lua-Lua

Nicky Forster

Adam Virgo

John Byrne

Robyn Schönhofer

Bianca Westwood

Dick Knight

Dave Beckett
Keith Hackett

Andy Naylor

Andrew Hawes

Johnny Cantor
Steve North

Leon Knight
Bob Wilson

Paul Camillin

Ian Abrahams
Gary Stevens

Darragh MacAnthony
Chris Waddle
Dame Kelly Holmes
Joe Bennett
Jason Cundy

Chris Eubank

Steve Sidwell 

Inigo Calderon
David Stockdale

Tim Prendergast
Colin Murray

John Barnes

Jim Rosenthal

Sebastien Pocognoli

Laura Woods

Kevan Brown

Ally McCoist

Brian Horton

…and of course celebrity Brighton fan Brett Mendoza!

From the World of Music:

Carol Decker

Cheryl Baker
Les McKeown

Joy Valencia
Mike Stock
Roy Wood
Jona Lewie
Natalie Appleton
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Paul J. Medford
Kate Nash
Nicole Appleton
Tess Henley
Midge Ure
Kevin Rowland

Paul Young

Alex James

From the World of Entertainment/Misc:

Fern Britton
Kim Cattrall
Amelia Frid

Harry Goaz

Faye McKeever

Jason Watkins

Lorraine Cheshire

Carl Rice

Beverly Rudd

Emma Samms

Sarah Gorrell

Nicholas Hammond
Lizzie Cundy
Gail Porter

Dom Joly
Dan Gasser
Tony Blackburn
Mike Read
Madchen Amick

John Challis
Claire Goose
Jane Horrocks
Angela Douglas
Noel Edmonds
Anthea Turner
Sir Roger Moore
Gaby Roslin
Dame Joan Collins
Sarah Greene
Mark Hamill

Samantha Fox
Chanel Cresswell 

Joanne Froggatt
Laura Tott
Kyle MacLachlan
Anneka Rice
Dean Andrews
Jeremy Sisto
Ewen MacIntosh

Max Rushden
Art Hindle
Ralph Brown
David Arquette

Lucy Speed

Steve North

May you all continue to have time on your hands to talk to your fans!

Belief.Love.Spirit

XxX

Sweary Lineker

The Grannies favourite in the making Gary Lineker got into a bit of trouble recently for using the F-word on Twitter when expressing his sheer excitement and disbelief at his team Leicester City destroying the historically more mighty Manchester United.

'So what?', you might be thinking. In actuality, Lineker was only doing what billions of other people - football fans or not - do every day... in some cases in every other sentence.

Certain media outlets though found his comments to be inappropriate, given that there is no age censorship effectively in place on Twitter. Blimey if they thought a couple of F-words from Lineker were bad, they REALLY haven't been on Twitter that much!!!

The Telegraph story

Lineker himself laughed it off. After all, if you can't swear in joyous context after such a rare moment of sporting exhilaration, when indeed can you?

The real story here though is the impact of the F-word itself.

As a child, it was an absolute no-no at home.

I'd heard it at school from my friends who had older siblings... and subsequently I told my younger brother to "F*** off!" when I was about 6 years old. I didn't get told off too much, but my parents made it clear it was not a word to use full stop as it shows a 'lack of intelligence, when other words are available.'... and many people still feel the same way about it - which is nice.

Anyway, in spite of my friends continual use of it, being a compliant sort, I did not.

Imagine my parents shock when I dropped the C-Bomb when I was 8 or 9... again my little brother was the recipient (I loved him really)

This time though it was explained to me what it meant and the offensiveness it carried. Soon after I got told about the birds and the bees, and all became clear.

If anything it put me right off!

Funnily enough though, I remember the very few times I heard my parents say the F-word and I always found it very unpleasant. Some things you just shouldn't hear from your mum and dad I guess?

As times have moved on, the use of such top drawer swearing on TV has changed massively. Yes you'd hear it in some films after the 9pm watershed, but on mainstream TV? Not much - and often certain words were dubbed.

Readers of a certain age might recall watching Die Hard get ruined by Bruce Willis exclaiming "yippie-ki-yay, kemo sabe" - not quite so impactive as the original quote. I doubt Joe Pesci would have had a career at all, given the dialogue in films such as Casino and Goodfellas. Man if ever a guy knew how to swear impactively, it's him!

On TV though, people like Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse used to delightfully mock such dubbing:

Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse - Badfellas

But as we moved into the new millennium, it slowly crept in to regular broadcasting - and not only TV drama and Big Brother (which must take much of the blame/credit) but even on chat shows too.

It became less shocking as it became the norm, and I guarantee that whatever network you watch TV on tonight, you will hear the F-word as a given and a rule, rather than an exception. And in 10 years, whether you like it or not, the C-bomb will be of the same status.

"No f***ing chance!" I hear you say...

I blame Canada.