My mission statement: "Passionate about rage"

These days one sees various consumer products described as having been made "with passion", or the company in question claims to be "passionate" about its product. We don't want your passion, you poltroons – just an efficient product or service that is reasonably priced. Is that too much to ask?

Halloween versus 'Trick or Treat'

Since when did Halloween become known as 'Trick or Treat Night'? In the past 10 years or so, I have witnessed the rise of 'Trick or Treat', an alien custom from over the pond (ditto baseball caps, McDonalds, and 'crack').

Great Britain has a venerable tradition of Paganism, celebrated on Halloween, but which is being hijacked in place of this 'Trick or Treat' tommyrot - an excuse for youngsters to behave worse than usual (if that were possible), and another (pre-Christmas) orgy of consumer spending.

Bring back the Old Gods!

Intolerability of iPods

Why is it that use of an iPod should render the owner completely deficient in musical taste or discernment? On my daily 'commute', I frequently observe that none of the musical styles emanating from people's earphones are of any worth, such that I would not remotely choose to listen to them(yet am forced so to do, nonetheless).
There is a scientific mystery here! Let our scientists investigate!

Ben Fogle - strutting popinjay

This Ben Fogle character is really a dreadful strutting popinjay, isn't he? Doubtless, many badgers, shrews, dormice and other woodland creatures despise him for poking, manhandling and waking them so regularly for his vacuous TV programmes. One can only hope that one day they will burn this fop inside some sort of Wicker Man.

Tea versus Coffee

The past 10 or 20 years have seen our national drink, the calming, soothing cup of tea, ousted in favour of the nerve-jangling, palpitation-inducing coffee, as a result of the remorseless spread of coffee chain emporia such as Starbucks. Is it merely a coincidence, then, that this same period of time has seen a marked deterioration in the nation's civility and good manners?

"Making a Difference" - hateful, absurd jargon

Does anyone else find that over-use of the phrase "to make a difference" is becoming intensely irritating? E.g. "I applied for the job of charity mugger because I wanted to make a difference".

It seems no coincidence that the rise of this ghastly phrase has occurred at a time when people feel they have less and less influence or power over their daily lives and the world around them, and are thus unable to "make" any sort of "difference".

Plastic carriage people

A journey on public transport today finds oneself plunged into a ghastly, Orwellian/Matrix-style futuristic nightmare. Around 50% of one's fellow commuters are plugged into iPods or similar contrivances, cutting themselves off from the real world and rendering themselves into passive 'pod people'. Before the rise of these infernal devices, commuters would, instead, read newspapers or books, which required the use of active, creative imagination, or which fostered an awareness of the wider world around them. No longer!
Doubtless our politicians, advertising agencies and manufacturers of disposable goods will be happy to see the creation of this army of passive, unquestioning consumer drones.