It's Friday....So Patricia Neal Sood Still

Well it is Friday so I'm going to let you in on some of what I got up to this week and linked into what happened last weekend.

As Patricia Neal, who died during the week, starred in The Day the Earth Stood Still it is just cause to show you this which mentions her co-star Michael Rennie in the opening line.



As Mat Bowles who gets my hat tip says it isn't perfect in places but good none the less. But hey as it was the tenth anniversary of H2G2's Scottish Researchers Group last Saturday it is also an excuse to link to something I wrote earlier in another place.

Of course as well as H2G2 last weekend I also combined it with Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, of course not for the first time. His jazzed up performance of the song that merges the two doesn't have the visuals but here is the opening version of the song that goes with the immortal toast.



In my post earlier this week I did mention that the Skye Boat Song was something that Rupert Murdoch didn't own, so I was considering posting a version of it here. After all, Edinburgh's Tattoo is on at the moment, you can hardly move on the High Street and if you are trying to get around at the wrong time of the evening at the top of the Royal Mile or thereabouts forget it. But I thought of something a little more upbeat was appropriate.

I Pity the Fool: Ten More Things that Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Own

Following the success of yesterday's blog post about the bits of Sky that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own I thought I'd better turn attention to the name of the man himself.

• 10. Murdoch is a large, strong orange tender engine and the largest steam engine on the lsland at least in the TV adaptation of Reverend W. V. Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
• 9. Junior Officers in the British Army are nicknamed Rupert apparently because they epitomise the public school values as in Rupert the Bear (see below)
• 8. 9138_Murdoch an asteroid in the asteroid belt.
• 7. The paradummies used by the British in World War II were nicknamed Rupert. Looks like Murdoch isn't the first dummy associated with sky.
• 6. Rupert and Murdock are a pair of Canadian rivers the former one of the largest rivers in Quebec flowing into James Bay and the latter in the Sudbury District of central Ontario
• 5. Rupert Grint, flame haired actor who forever will be in the public memory as Ron Weasly from the Harry Potter series of films.
• 4. Iris Murdoch the late author and philosopher who was bestowed the honourary Doctorate at my own graduation.
• 3. Rupert the Bear. Created in 1920 by Mary Tourtel and appears in the Daily Express which is the flagship of Express Newspapers and not part of Murdoch's News International
• 2. Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock, if you can find him, if you're brave enough to fly with him he is one quarter of the A-Team
• 1. The at the time fictional tenth planet* in the Solar System beyond Pluto as written by Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless. However, just by Mr Murdoch's recent activity maybe a Rupert orbiting the Sun way out there isn't that strange after all.

* Researchers on H2G2 refer to the time in limbo between Douglas's Digital Village running the site and the BBC taking it over affectionately as 'Rupert' in honour of this fictitious planet that nobody could see.

Ten Things that Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Own

Following the news (EXCLUSIVE TO SKY) that Rupert Murdoch claims he owns the Sky© in Skype here are ten things he doesn't own.

10. The Skye Bridge lyrics written by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart. (1859 - 1935)
9. The Skyways Hotel, London or in any other location
8. The Sky at Night still screened on BBC
7. Himmelbjerget also known as the Sky Mountain in Denmark
6. Skypark in Glasgow
5. The Skye Boat song
4. Sky Blue Way, owned by the people of Coventry in honour of their football team.
3. The Minneapolis Skyway System
2. He is not one third of the MPs for Ross, Skye and Lochaber that is our own Charles Kennedy.
1. Last I checked the sky itself was still public property

I would add the movie Vanilla Sky, but would you want to and Sky Movies© probably already own rights to show it.