Stuff'n'Things

Hi Sam fans,

This morning I’m off to Edinburgh. Follow the banality via Tweets’n'Things twitter.com/tweetsnthings

Hi Sam fans,

iPhones are great aren’t they. My friend Tom has one, he’s been there from the start. Before iPhones he had an O2 XDA and was there from the start of those too. He is the living definition of an early adopter. An early adopter of over priced hardware and poor service. But now his iPhone is broken, and even though he was insured by O2 they are refusing to fix it. Tom is less than pleased and below is his (very amusing) letter of complaint.

O2 – Just do what’s right. This is a man who stares down fascists. He’s not what you’d call a push over:

Dear o2,

Thank you for your reply. It amused me greatly and made me laugh on a day mostly ruined by earlier dealings with the circus clowns who staff your customer service call centre.

Firstly can I thank you for your kind offer of £15 which, if I chose to accept it, would bring me £15 closer to the £400 I would need to find in order to replace my broken iPhone. This would be acceptable if I could use that £15 on a 27/1 dead cert in the 5.15 at Sandown tonight. Sadly this will not be the case as I can’t access the future-predicting crystal ball app on my iPhone. This is because, as you will be aware from my previous correspondence, the phone is not currently operational. So if it’s all the same to you, you can keep your 15 quid which is quite frankly an insult. I have a number of suggestions as to what you can do with it but my polite and amiable nature forbids me from expressing them at this early stage in our acquaintance.

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t’s the end of week one at the festival and the ‘mentalist excel spreadsheet’ – (c) J Studdert 2009 –  is shaping up nicely. See below for average ratings out of 5 (you can get more than 5 – bonus points for being on a critic’s choice or comic’s choice list).

Hi Sam fans,

It is the end of the first week of the Edinburgh Festival and it is time there was a little more science involved. So to help filter out the good from the bad, Tom has devised a sophisticated database (that in no way could be mistaken for a deranged spreadsheet)  to produce a league table of the most reviewed shows in Edinburgh.

It gives an average rating out of five for each show based on the reviews in six daily newspapers. However because we all know that peer review counts more than those of anyone else each show can get bonus points for being recommended by another comic. So now that’s all clear, the first week’s leaders are:

1. Adam Hills: Inflatable 5.5
2. Alun Cochrane Is A Daydreamer (At Night) 5.5
3. Jason Byrne: The Byrne Supremacy 5.5
4. Pappy’s Fun Club: 200 Sketches In An Hour 5.5
5. Morecambe 5.3

See the full list of 87 shows below the fold. I also have a recommendation of my own. The last Amnesty International Stand Up For Freedom show of this year’s festival is on Wednesday. Simon Amstell, John Bishop, Phil Nichol (4.0), Sarah Millican (3.8) are all on the bill so if your are about, don’t miss it. (more…)

Hi Sam fans,

How much of a boob do you have to see before you think to yourself “I just saw a boob?

In this insightful examination of the issue, Holly explores her own definition of the term as well as the modern etiquette of bouquet catching.