Wilbur! %&^*&$ Wilbur!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

OK, not very engineering (although they do call boiler fixers 'engineers'.

Am I the only person confused when Wilbur wakes up to be asked if he's having 'that broken boiler nightmare again''? He clearly says 'NO!' but they still try and sell the poor penguin a cover plan…

Now why can't our advertisers have CGI aquatic avian mascots?

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

I think you've been at the sherry trifle again Neil!!

Brian

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

I suppose they need something to make boilers seem more like something novel like animals.

The most novel factual thing about boilers is that it keeps you warm. But they know this, so they try to hold your conscience to ransom by showing you the frightful chill you and your family will endure if you don't get it sorted with your wallet.

Michael W

[Steven VineParticipant @stevenvine79904]

Posted by Brian Hutchings on 20/01/2017 15:21:33:

I think you've been at the sherry trifle again Neil!!

Brian

That's what I initially thought as well Brian! (and who the hell is Wilbur?). But, after a bit of googling I found out that Wilbur was a penguin, and was the British Gas mascot (the aquatic avian). With a bit more thought it all started to make sense and it looked like he was not off his head (I guess it was me not being in the know). We could put this down to those 3D plastic printing fumes he must be breathing in.

Steve

Edited By Steven Vine on 20/01/2017 15:30:56

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I'm confused (no TV) ..is this a tropical penguin or are BT responsible for that antarctic ice crack by heating where one shouldn't?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Sorry, the combination of the sheer volume of engineering-related postings, being stuck in traffic and having to use almond milk in my tea are sending em stir crazy. I can't be bothered to walk to the Co-op (already done a long dog-walk) and the jack-knifed lorry means that a 15 minute trip will become a 1-hour & 15 minute one – the car is almost as far away as the shops anyway!

Wilbur is British Gas's mascot and when I not listening to R4 I'm endlessly hearing his miserable whimpering on Planet Rock and Absolute Radio. And Friday is Gardener's Question Time Day so I always try to avoid Radio 4 on Friday afternoons.

Neil

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

I should listen to 6 music Neil!
Mark P.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I seriously wonder about the makers of adverts and those who commission them.

There does seem to be a race to the bottom as to who can make an advert, the content of which has nothing to do with the product, only the makers name seems to be the message.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I've been thinking that sounds like a No too ever since the advert started. You should switch to Classic FM Neil – same advert but it's more relaxing.

It strikes me they thought they needed an animal mascot like so many other advertisers, then thought penguins have been in films since Pingu, but never thought that the implication is that with their 'heating' results in a cold house fit for the bird in question. A kangaroo would have been more appropriate owing to the association with hotter climates.

Following up the Absolute Radio connection what machine tools would you assign to the time capsule? Adept?

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 20/01/2017 14:27:24:

Now why can't our advertisers have CGI aquatic avian mascots?

Just realised this is a hint for ARC to give him a bunch of stuffed animal toys – particularly cormorants.

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Anthropomorphism! That's where advertisig is at or is going. Make something human-like, use it for ads and it sells more, apparently.

Ed.

[larneyinParticipant @larneyin]

Is it too cynical to suggest that as you are all talking about it the advert has achieved its purpose?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Ed Duffner on 20/01/2017 17:49:09:

Anthropomorphism! That's where advertisig is at or is going. Make something human-like, use it for ads and it sells more, apparently.

Ed.

Larry Lathe and Mickey Mill!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Phew! Radio stations… such a personal thing, with a different solution for everyone.

Planet Rock is aimed at my demographic with eerie accuracy.

Radio 1 might be the home of new music, if the presenters ever shut up long enough for a song to be heard I could make an opinion. Sometimes they accidentally play good music in the evening.

Radio 2 sounds like Radio 1 daytime from when I was a kid (but then I graduated to evening shows like John Peel and Tommy Vance).

Classic FM/Radio 3 are OK in small doses…

I hate all the anodyne stations that have 'FM at the end of their names … Kiss, Smooth – the most challenging thing they play is Simply Red.

Radio 6 appears to be Jazz/World Music. I feel generic 'world music' has no strong identity, it's just a rag bag of music from other nations, some good some no so good, and (unfairly) mentally file much of it as a 'lifestyle choice' with crystals and unicorns… My Jazz tastes are too eclectic for most radio stations. I went through a jazz phase and decided I hated anything resembling New Orleans Jazz and that any pub band who have to put the word 'Jazz' in their name so you know they are playing out of tune/time/duty should be avoided. (Damn another Wilbur advert!)

I do have a big soft spot for folk, but it's a mission to track it down on the radio, fortunately much of the best stuff falls under folk rock.

R4 Extra – the really old stuff (Round the Horne, Goon Show) has its moments but is so dated you can't live with it, and so much Radio 4 comedy is juts recycling the same people over and over and over again (I think there are more actors on the Archers than Comedians on Radio 4)

I have listened to the Archers on and off since about 1986.the Tichenor saga nearly got me stringing myself up, then things started to look up recently except that have added a new crop of 'cheery teenagers'. Perhaps they could an entirely unfeasible but nasty combine harvester accident… but no, they've already used that plot line.

Well that's a completely irrelevant stream of consciousness rant. Please don't let MTM know I'm crazy….

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 20/01/2017 18:51:14:

Phew! Radio stations… such a personal thing, with a different solution for everyone.

Planet Rock is aimed at my demographic with eerie accuracy.

Well that's a completely irrelevant stream of consciousness rant. Please don't let MTM know I'm crazy….

Planet rock is about the only thing I can listen to that compares to my tastes. I love it when alice reads his fanmail in a stupid voice.

MTM will have to be notified that your promotion of this station is leading civilized model engineers down the road of anarchy, studded leather, drugs, booze and graffiti to their bridgeports.

Michael W

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

I nitially thought this topic was about steam loco boilers. I now know it's only the middle word!

One reason why I totally ignore adverts and also a reason why the telly went in the skip years ago.

[Richard MarksParticipant @richardmarks80868]

You Got PLanet Rock! Since they dropped it from Dab radio there is nothing else but repeated same old music and bl–dy ads fortunately I have a decent cd player and amp in my workshop so at least I can listen to quality music.

[Nick HughesParticipant @nickhughes97026]

Planet Rock is still on DAB, have you done a full re-scan?

However TeamRock has gone internet only.

Edited By Nick Hughes on 20/01/2017 21:24:53

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Planet Rock just moved channel, it's still there on DAB.

Sadly in the West Midlands we lost it on FM which went to Absolute Radio (still bearable).

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I have just started to move back in to heavy metal since the price of scrap went up.

I just got £195 for my old fork truck less batteries.

Any of you greenies with solar panels want a good 48v battery pack and charger ? £500 to a good home.

Or even a bad one at that .

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Gardener'squestion time is brilliant, compulsory listening. It completely removes any inclination I had to do any gardening, that's the wife's job!

as to Radio stations, none of them seem to do trad jazz, that modern stuff is just an excuse for not being able to play an instrument, unless anyone knows different of course. Stick to Radio 4, at least a lot of it makes you think.

[OldMetallerParticipant @oldmetaller]

So this is the place for stream-of-consciousness rants? Great! Here goes:

Radio stations…yes, what a can of worms…

I have R4 on in the workshop until, that is, any of the following happens:

• ‘…and now here’s Gary with the sport’.
• Sarah Montague loudly goes ‘Erm, erm’ presumably because she hasn’t thought properly about what she’s going to say when the other presenter has finished speaking.
• Jenny Murray displays her thinly-disguised contempt for men.
• You and Yours…or, worse, Phone You and Yours.
• A bunch of Luvvies start congratulating each other.

Things I like about R4:

• John Humphries.
• The Shipping Forecast.
• Laurie Taylor

Planet Rock…those bl**dy adverts! Aaaarrrgh! And why, when they play Led Zeppelin, is it always Stairway to Heaven or Rock and Roll? They did have some other great songs! And if I hear Freebird again, I’m going to hang myself with an Old Glory bandanna!

Radio 2…no, sorry, I still can’t listen to R2 without being reminded of Sing Something Simple and my mother telling me how Engelbert Humperdink was better than The Beatles…and why do they still have such cheesy jingles? Anyway, in the workshop I wear steelies, not tartan carpet slippers. I make an honourable exception for Mark Radcliffe and his folk programme, but why does that have to be on in the evening when I'm not listening?

Radio 1… No, let’s not go there. Like Neil says, if they shut up for long enough, and played some of the music from the evening programmes in the daytime…

Well, there’s always the CD player…oh, wait a minute, the knackered mini hi-fi that my notoriously-cheeseparing ex-girlfriend threw out of her workshop and that I claimed for my workshop, won’t play CD’s any more. Never mind, I can hear the big, expensive-but-admittedly-ageing hi-fi in the front room from here, the cats will just have to suffer the volume… A quick burst of Frank Zappa is called for, that’ll cheer me up… I know, The Muffin Man, with its unforgettable chorus of-

Girl, you thought he was a man

But he was a muffin

No sounds were heard in the night

As a result of him stuffing

-followed by his blistering solo on (sharp intake of breath) The Hendrix Strat!

-but wait! The expensive-but-ageing Phillips CD player won’t play the song, it just makes that trippy, echo-y noise that reminds me of my misspent youth…

Oh well, take the hint, wash hands and go down the pub.

Craft beer.

What’s that all about, then? Is it real ale? No. Keg beer? It tastes like it. In fact it tastes like a bad pint of Bass but too fizzy and too cold. What's it called? Crystal Gold? More like bl**dy Crystal Meth. Hang on, they’ve switched the telly on. A music channel? No, it’s ***ing football…All conversation ceases as everyone stares blankly at a bunch of blokes running around in shorts, chasing a ball…oh, look! One of them has kicked the ball past another one…why is everybody shouting? My cup runneth over…not.

Ahhh! That’s better!

Regards,

John. Who is hoping for a better workshop day today…hope springs eternal.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Radio was bound to deteriorate once they allowed devolved and regional accents:

"'Ello,'Ello,'Ello and what are you doing, Larry, me lad"

"Baa…I'm looking for Mr Maaagggician, Sir."

It's also very sexist. There isn't a 'Men's hour'

Edited By pgk pgk on 21/01/2017 09:04:42

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

Huh! (Old Curmudgeon mode 'ON'…)

I can't stand listening to someone else's choice of music. Radio 4/World Service is therefore the only one I use. Good collection of CDs though!

However, I like to work in silence. The cacophony in my head is quite enough to deal with…

Geoff

[Author]

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