Alert reader James Elliott, editor of Classic & Sports Car, noticed with interest our coverage of the launch of Bullit last week. “It’s either a legal matter or the launch gaffe of the century,” he says. “But the Steve McQueen film they have named their magazine after is, of course, spelt Bullitt. With two Ts.”
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Guest attack puts TTG editor back in Welsh worryland
Dog wonders whether John Welsh, new editor of Travel Trade Gazette, might think twice the next time he’s asked to speak in public, after seeing an e-mail that has been doing the rounds at CMPi.
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Welsh, alert readers will recall, had made some rather provocative remarks about his previous editorship at a Periodicals Training Council awards event. Property Week, he suggested, was “shockingly boring” when he joined, and he enjoyed the challenge of turning round titles that are “particularly shabby and tired”.
Some of his former colleagues, it’s safe to say, were a little disgruntled.
Particularly a former editor, Penny Guest, who unleashed a withering e-mail attack of her own.
Welsh, she explained carefully to him and a few others, was a “mediocre journalist” whose knowledge of the property industry was “laughable”, but who now seems to “believe your own hype”.
She went on: “What disgusts me is your lack of loyalty – to me and everyone associated with that ‘shabby and tired’ magazine that managed to pick up PPA, BSME and IBP awards and nominations quite easily. (Just remind me again what awards you’ve managed to get?)” Noting that she had been concerned about his stress levels when he began as PWeditor, Guest added: “I’m so glad that you’ve overcome this basic insecurity to become the puffed up, arrogant little man that we see today.”
And just in case he dismisses her concerns as those of an embittered predecessor, here’s something else to bear in mind. Guest is married to a director of CMPi -publisher of TTG and PW.
Piers’s grammatical error of judgement
Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan was recently on Five’s The Terry and Gaby Show and was given a grammar test by Lynne Truss, the author of the punctuation book that strikes a chord with every pedantic sub-editor across the country – Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Morgan came third – after Gaby Roslin (who came first) and actor John Gordon-Sinclair, a fellow guest on the daytime show.
He was asked to punctuate the following phrase: “The princesss dress is not looking its best lets phone Harrods and ask for the ladies department.”
Among other errors, he made the unbelievable blunder of putting an apostrophe in “its”.
He’ll not go far, that lad.
Footy brings down language barrier
From the Eastern Daily Press’s football coverage of Billericay Town v King’s Lynn in the FA Trophy: “After 60 minutes, it was 2-0 to the Linnets when a fine piece of interpreting ended with Richard Woodrow beating goalkeeper Jerome John to score.”
It’s good to see linguistic skills getting the recognition they deserve on the football park.
Or did the copytaker just mishear “interplay”? Those Norfolk accents can play all sorts of tricks.
Just kidding itself?
The evening Leader swept the board at a major awards last night and was crowned overall title of the year.”
So the North Wales Newspapers’ title told its readers last week, going on to explain how it had claimed 13 of the gongs at a glamorous event attended by “more than 200 people from as far afield as Welshpool, Rhyl and Ellesmere Port”.
But what it didn’t quite get around to mentioning was that the major awards in question were only open to titles within the group – and the 200 in attendance were all staff members.
Radio rockers: Rollin’ Clone Mick Jagger look-a-like, Brazil and Parry
Number one contenders
As unlikely contenders for Christmas number ones go, this takes some beating. TalkSPORT presenters Mike Parry and Alan Brazil have found themselves roaring into the, er, rock’n’roll reckoning as a result of what Parry describes as a “half-hour gag that’s got completely out of hand”.
As he often breaks out into song on his breakfast show, Parry was challenged to perform with the Stones tribute band The Rollin’ Clones at Lingfield Racecourse. He duly wailed his way through Paint It Black, a performance he admits was an “absolute fiasco” – a verdict echoed by The Sun’s report of the meeting, which it said had gone very well “except for that fat prat Parry”.
But next thing he knew, a company called Red Letter Days had put him and the Clones into a recording studio (Roll Over Studios, no less) to record it as a single. But after initially pressing 100 copies, demand has been such that a further 3,000 videos and CDs have been cut.
Such is the speed of sales, that Parry reckons enough are being sold to put it in the top 50 already – and that’s without any sort of proper distribution. (If your record collection is really that bad, go to www.talksport.net for details of how to get a copy.) Bizarrely enough, you can already get odds ranging from 33/1 to 200/1 on it becoming the coveted Christmas chart topper.
It’s a long shot – but not as long as Kelvin MacKenzie getting a Christmas card from Rajar, Dog reckons.
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