The Bugle - Was Stonehenge an ancient tax dodge?
Episode Date: April 13, 2008The 24th ever Bugle podcast, from 2008. Written and presented by Andy Zaltzman and John OliverThis is a classic episode from The Bugle, to support us, and to keep the Bugle alive and free of ads, plea...se visit http://thebuglepodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Hello, bugleers. Welcome to issue 24 of the bugle. The world's leading audio newspaper for the week beginning Monday, the 14th of April, 2008.
This is only the third ever issue of the bugle whose digits add up to six following issues 15 and 6.
With me and his ultimate in London and in glorious New York City, John Oliver.
Hello, Bueglis. You are lucky I'm still here after that mathematical opening.
I've already given me a bit of a headache.
I just think these historical moments need to be commemorated appropriately.
Numbers are not my friend.
As always, some sections of the B bugle go straight in the bin this week, a men's health supplements
with features on your left kidney, cell or save.
Is it possible to have too many pairs of sunglasses?
And an audiobook of Dr. Wickenham's Stoop's bestselling tone, chances are it's 80% terminal,
the Hyper-Condry axe guide to sneezing.
Also rejected from the bugle this week, a free audio tattoo, a lifelong snippet of sound that plays over and over again from a concealed
speaker underneath the skin on your arm. Here is your free audio tattoo.
I love mum! Yes, it's only audible when you take your shirt off, but still, it might
sound cool now, but do you really want a faded version of that blaring out when you're 70?
Top news story this week, Olympic Flames. The relay of the Olympic torture around the globe
has kickstarted a new global game, as
each nation tries to find new and more imaginative ways to find the Olympic flame and put it out.
See Andy, the cynics were all wrong, the Olympics can bring people together.
As you watch the scenes of chaos around the world, you find yourself thinking, we're
not so different.
We all want the same things, we all want to see people
get into some flame-based mischief and the Olympics has brought the world closer and it hasn't even
started yet, this is going to be the best and the funniest games ever. Yes, the procession of the
Olympic torture and the world has provoked a series of fiaski, London proved thoroughly married
being award the 2012 Games by abiding by the age-old and imprecetrician of dealing with displays of political dissent with heavy-handed
incompetence. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister dismissed allegations that he avoided a
human rights spat with China over the matter because Britain could not afford to
jeopardize our economic relations with them. Of course, not, he said, giggling
nervously and shuffling from one foot to the other. What? Those multi-billion-pound
economically critical relations?
No, no, nothing to do with them.
Where did you get that idea from?
Oh look, a squirrel.
You don't often see them at this time of year.
So, whose idea was it to run the Olympic flame
around the world as a symbol of hope?
Well, this really actually began as a self glorification exercise
for the 1936 Olympics in Germany.
Uh oh.
That's right, that one.
This was all Hitler's idea.
I'll tell you what Andy, that man couldn't get anything right.
This had to be one of his very worst ideas.
Did he have a single good idea in his head?
I shall take it back, he had a very good tip for scrambled eggs.
But it's buried in the middle of mine camp, just after something pretty racist.
What was that, splash of milk, low heat? And dash of paprika. But it's buried in the middle of mind camp just after something pretty racist
Was that splashing milk low heat and a dash of paprika?
What? He's a madman. He's a madman. It should have been clear then as soon as that was published
Gordon Pannett's now said that he won't attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing
Which prompted the leader of the liberal Democrats who is rumored to be a man called Nick Clegg to accuse the prime minister of a U-turn. Now in terms of things that our politicians really don't want to be seen to
be doing, U-turns are second only really to genocide. And Britain has a proud history of refusing to
U-turn, which arguably reached its height at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, ironically when the British
400-meter champion Renton Woll from Scotland was leading at the 200 meter mark
But then refused to do a U-turn around the bend for fear of appearing weak
So he spranted straight off the end of the track through the photographers into the advertising hoardings
Then picked himself up carried on running in a straight line through the crowd up and over the back of the stadium and plummeted to his death
Whilst accusing the eventual race winner Lee Evans of the USA of being spineless and of quotes
Caving into the demands of the track.
Absolutely.
And he was right.
That was a victorious death.
Now, all of this is nothing new, though, Andy.
The Olympics has always been a political pin yarder smashed around to reveal its sweet
treats.
It has long been the target for political boycotts.
In fact, the Barcelona Games of 1992 were the first to be boycott free since the Rome games
of 1960. Clearly no countries were big objectives to bullfighting or donkeys being thrown off
churches. And full boycotts for nations began in 1908 at the, well hold on this can't
be right, London games. What? What have we ever done to anybody, Andy? Who had a grievance with us then?
Oh, I see. It was the Irish athletes. Angry at Britain's refusal to grant independence.
Luckily, that was all sorted out quickly afterwards, and there have been absolutely no problems
whatsoever since then. And even the US team staced a protest against
destroying those games. When the captain of the American team refused to dip the stars and
stripes to King Edward VII at the opening ceremony, saying, this flag dips to no to go to the game just during those games. When the captain of the American team refused to dip the stars and stripes
to King Edward VII at the opening ceremony,
saying, this flag dips to no earthly king.
And at this tradition continues to this day,
and is actually set to be quite an interesting little side story
when we host the games in London in 2012.
Dip your flag to the Queen, Yankees, dip it.
It's interesting on the subject of Boycott's John.
At a vigilant San Francisco coinciding with the Olympic
Tort protest, the 1984 Nobel Peace Champion and Gold Medal winner in the 1986 Albert Switzer
Humanitarianism Competition, the fully qualified Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
He urged world leaders not to go to the games in Beijing and he said, for God's sake, for the sake of our children, for the sake of their children,
and for the sake of the beautiful people of Tibet, don't go,
which structrupping slightly unfair on those Tibetans who aren't beautiful.
It's almost as if the press can only get an angle on it if there's totty involved.
Tutu continued,
tell your counterparts in Beijing that you wanted to come,
but looked at your schedule and realized that you have something else to do.
Now that is really taking the hardest possible line on human rights. Confronting it, head on.
Dear Mr. Wen, thanks very much for my invitation to your games. Unfortunately, I'm mending my unicycle that day and my wife has got a crochet class
and we've got cabinet yoga in the afternoon so I can't make it. Love Gordon Brown, PS, I think I've made my point.
But I think John Papsd is what really happened
at Moscow in 1980.
The Americans didn't boycott the games.
They simply remembered that they were supposed
to be helping Jeff move a chest of drawers
into his daughter's room.
And in 1984, the Eastern block countries
didn't boycott the LA games in a tit-for-tat reprisal.
It was simply that they couldn't come
because their grandmother had died. Honestly, again.
Did Archbishop Tuto provide any other readymade excuses for people?
He didn't say, but I think it's kind of a classic British response to an awkward situation.
It's not to confront a head on and accuse the Chinese of appalling human rights abuses,
but just make up an awkward excuse and smile politely and shuffle off.
So I think Tutu isn't really an honorary Brit.
South Africa have been banned for the longest due to that being extremely racist incidents.
You know, that little apartheid blip which lasted 46 years.
But maybe this is Britain's best chance for medals in 2012, Andy.
We need to act in a way which will antagonise so many countries.
And cause such widespread boycotts,
they will be left competing just against ourselves and maybe the Swiss.
Well, I think we're doing pretty well at that, aren't we?
Yeah, if any, we'd kept Tony Blair, I think we might even be on course for that.
So the Olympic torch is still on its way
on this 85,000 mile journey.
And I mean, what have we had so far?
Well, in Britain, we tried attacking children's TV presenters
and tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher.
In France, they outmaneuvered policeman on rollerblades
and managed to put it out three times
before it was carted away on a bus.
And in San Francisco this week, there was total chaos. After being
lit, the torch was ushered quickly into a warehouse, where for two hours there were rumours
they did it completely vanished, having been smuggled away by boat, car, bus or jet ski.
And it was at this point that it started sounding like a bad James Bond film. But the bar has been
raised now. A security gets tighter, people are going to have to get more imaginative to forget to it.
Argentina is the next stop, and any bugle that are in Argentina should mobilize now. Get thinking. Put it out!
The China also planning to parade the torch through Tibet, which is really taking the piss.
is really taking the piss, right click. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH thinking a 43 billion pound arm's deal with Saudi Arabia. I should bloody hope there's some corruption involved. You know, well, something like that,
passing off legally, that would be far too dangerous.
Well, I mean, this really does cast a very unpleasant shadow
and the otherwise spotless reputation
of international arms dealing.
Are there no heroes left anymore?
These people are role models to us
and they've let us all down.
What are youngsters gonna do who wanna grow've let us all down. What are youngsters
going to do who want to grow up to be arms dealers? What are they going to think now?
That's very sad. Apparently the serious fraud office had dropped the case after the Saudis
essentially said, see that nice little war on Terry you've got going on at the moment.
Be a shame if that got damaged, wouldn't it? Come, Prenda. And it's reassuring to know
that our allies in our heroic campaign to provoke spread
then partially remove terror are so steadfast and unconditional in their support.
I think there's really going to be a very hearted modern democracy and freedom, and I for
one John would lay down my life for the right of big arms contractors and Saudi oligarchs
to conceal their own private business deals from the prime eyes of the gutter courts.
If these companies and individuals can't commit large-scale commercial naughtiness in the
privacy of their own arms deals, then none of us can. Is that a world
you want to have to grow up in? I actually want the sold arms to the Saudis, John.
Did you?
Yep. I was as young and needed the money. But of course, it backfired eventually, so I was
captain of the school netball team, and I benched a Saudi prince who'd been really out
of form for a while. Of course, five minutes later, the Saudi ambassador to my school had me pinned up against the
bike sheds threatening to undermine the already fragile Western economy. So it just goes to
show you make your bed, you better be prepared to lie in it with whoever you've made it with.
You got in over your head, Andy. That was your slightly more militaristic version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. T-Cakes scandal now. The UK Treasury is facing a $3.5 million bill because of VAT wrongly
placed on marks and spences T-Cakes. Customers had paid VAT on them for 20 years before a European
court this week ruled that they were cakes and not biscuits. I can't believe it Andy,
the government lied to us. First Iraq and now this. I don't know who to trust anymore.
Well I think it's one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history John and thankfully
if belatedly it's now in put right by Europe's heroic sweet food accreditation division.
For 20 years this poor little t-cake has been caught in horrific halfway house. It thinks
it's a cake, it's sold as a cake, but it's treated like a biscuit.
In many ways John, this was worse than the Birmingham 6, the Gilford 4, or even the Birmingham
and Gilford 10.
Because millions of people probably hate these cakes.
That's millions of people, completely unaware that in doing so, they themselves were contributing
to Britain's darkest shame.
It's like I half remember Primo Levy wrote Andy, they came for the scones and I did not
like scones so I did not speak up.
Then there was no one left to speak up with a tea cake.
It was something like that, I don't really remember.
But people around the world should not underestimate quite how seriously British people take
tea cakes.
They can feel you'll be a revolution over this.
I would not be the least bit surprised if by the end of this week the Queen's head is impaled on a spike
outside Buckingham Palace. If they keep pushing us, we will snap. There's a historical
precedent for this. Marianne Twinett said, let them pay VAT on teakakes and we all know
what happened to her.
Markson Spencer's the retailer of the wrongly in prison cake said that the ruling endorses
its position that the teakake was a cake not as these completely unproven allegations suggested a biscuit.
And I think Marks and Spencer's approved John, that's when you have a crucially important
belief like that, you have to fight for it all the way.
Absolutely.
They're heroes.
And it's also important to tie up court time with stories like this as well. Yeah.
Special Bugle Feature section now, archaeology.
The big old A,
but no one quite understands why it was ever built.
Stonehenge and the first major excavations for nearly 50 years at Stonehenge
have been taking place Stonehenge or as I like to call it the
jewel of the A303. Oh what a road, what a road Andy. Stonehenge is a 5,000 year old mystic
stone circle but in many ways I prefer standing in the middle of Stonehenge and looking at the
A303 and thinking how did they do that? How did they build such a road? So hopefully these
excavations will help us find out what an earth this silly collection of stones was supposed to be for.
Two of the top ranked stone hench experts in the British rankings are leading the dig. They
believe that the skeletal remains of ill people found at the site, suggest that the hench or stony
was a kind of neolithic NHS drop-in center. If proven this would make it Britain's second most obsolete medical facility, after the
unusable birthing pool at St George's Hospital in Tuting.
One theory they hoped to look into was that the large blue stones were said to have healing
properties and that people would come from miles around with their sick relatives to be
cured.
And in that sense it could well be that Stonehenge was the first NHS hospital.
Large queues, impressive in theory, but increasingly ramshackle and responsible for many, many deaths.
There are other theories as to what the world's oldest but fun case mid-summer night club
was, in fact, supposed to be. One, an impractical calendar, two, a multiplex-drewed cinema,
three long-term prank by the prehistoric guys and girls to make us think they were
weirder than they actually were. Or a tax dodge. How else do you explain the complete lack of paperwork for such a massive building project?
It stinks, John. It stinks.
It really does. They were very corrupt druids around there and very corrupt.
In the early 20th century Stonehenge was bought for £6,000 by a guy called Cecil Chubb
as a present for his wife.
Hold on, hold on, hold on a second. That sounds like a complete lie.
No. Is that really true?
I found this out on no lesser source than the internet.
Who did he buy it from?
I don't know.
This whole story is falling apart of the scene.
No one called Cecil Chubb own stone heads.
I did. No. It's a fact.
No. That's not a fact.
Right. I'm going to get Tom to did, no, it's a fact. No, that's not a fact.
Right, I'm gonna get Tom to look it up.
It's another fact off.
I'm looking it up as well now.
Cecil Chobb, there's no way, no way.
Oh, Wikipedia.
So Cecil Herbert Edward Chobb first baronette,
is that the guy, the last private owner of Stonehenge,
which he donated to the British government in 1918.
So there you go, John, would you like some mayonnaise with your humble pie? It still doesn't say
we bought it from. It doesn't matter, John. The fact is he bought it for £6,000 as a
present for his wife. Now, I think she must have thought that he either really loved her,
really hated her, or was having a really strange affair. But I think also with Stonehenge,
perhaps if these prehistoric dundaheads have spent less time moving massive bits of rock
from Wales to Wiltshire, and more time learning how to organise themselves militarily,
they might have had a better chance of stopping the Romans when they eventually invaded a
couple of thousand years later. It's very much the millennium dome of its time, John,
because for all eternity people will look at it and wonder what the hell people were thinking of when they built it
and no one will ever truly know.
I just cannot stop thinking about the fact he bought it for his wife.
Yeah.
There is absolutely no way, one, she saw that coming.
And two, that she wanted it.
No way.
Guess what it is.
I don't know, Cecil, you've bought me some pretty weird things in the past.
I don't know, have you given me a kind of cliff hunt property? No!
It's not a scarf! It's not a scarf, although no, you've said it, I think that might have been easier.
Because I do need a scarf, Cecil, and I did drop hints saying how much I would like a scarf. I know, I know, but what I thought even more,
which he'd like an inexplicable 5,000 year old circle of stone.
Other archaeology news and prehistoric shit
could offer a clue to the origin of Americans,
14,000 year old pieces of crap.
Our promising to reveal how the first humans
made it to America, the fossilized turds
referred to as a human coprolite to avoid offending people who don't believe that defecation
should have been allowed to happen before the invention of the flushing toilet.
Suggest that America was populated by people originally from Siberia, which with hindsight
makes the whole Cold War look like a petty family squabble.
That's right, fossilized feces from the US cave may solve the riddle of how and when
humans came to the Americas, or it may solve the riddle of which kids snuck into the cave
to take a dump last week.
I wonder, whoever it is 14,000 years ago, Andy who dropped this now legendary doose,
looked down on it and said, a legendary doose. Look down on it. And what? And said, what? A legendary doose.
If you use terminal did all that, you're going to lose your passport.
I wonder the person who dropped it. Look down and said, that is going to make
scientists very excited in 14,000 years time. Before his friend said, what are
scientists Barry and clubbed him today?
Apparently they also found the fossilized remains of a cryptic crossword half finished. More exciting archaeological finds on
the site of the London Olympics, they found the ancient well of skepticism and
which still works apparently and also somewhere underneath the Olympic site is
the Olympic money vortex sucking money into it like a lonely vacuum cleaner
drinking a milkshake. Your emails now and possibly the most spectacular email ever sent to the
bugle from a man whose name we can't quite decipher it could be will or it
could be Indy or it could be will in Indy. He writes this addressed to John and
myself as oily and schmaltz. Do you think, you know, if we ever hit the Jewish circuit, John, that could be quite a
good double-acman.
That sounds like a great 1920s double-ac.
Hey, oily, why'd you say schmalt?
This gentleman writes, just what do you think you are doing?
Are you humorists or is attempted humorical behaviour?
Question mark.
First law of clowns embody fundamental truths in your satire, embittered deconstructive The memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the memorial of the clones. That's New York Times. It's only momentarily musing, apparently. And that only in brief spots when truth is accidentally encountered. Could be a horoscope. Then shame an embarrassment
set in. Wow, what a disappointment he continues. I heard your webcast, number 22, and thought
it had promised. But on reviewing past episodes, I see you are cranky, muddled, hateous, satire,
business as usual. Your USA audience, the ever shrinking NYT crowd and nearly extinct radio America snarks
Maybe enough to keep you in beverages at the local NYC political circle jerks
No, I don't I don't live in New York, John. Is there something you've not been telling me about?
Well, you can up to all of Thursday night. Yeah, just general circle to yucking. What are you doing on Thursday?
But what about returning home to the UK?
He continues, do they have satire under Sharia law?
What?
No, they don't.
That's the answer to the implicit in the question there.
Let me get this straight.
You actually have some kind of potty,
prinsel, dismal, duke or something who crossed dresses
as an Bedouin calf-down flapper?
What?
I don't believe anybody could understand that sentence.
Is that where jihadists keep their satire under their skirts?
What's the latest beheading joke out of East End?
It's like a Lewis Carroll nonsense poem.
I do find humour in the behaviour of typical Eurocrutins
who off the wrecking their own nations
and participating in mass cultural suicide,
suddenly emigrate to USA for shelter,
but seem to want to continue the spread of their mentally debilitating disease.
Is that me?
Yeah, I think that's you, John.
I think that's you.
That is a heckle.
One hell of a heckle.
I suppose if you ask a Crettin, he don't know he are one.
And he concludes, wouldn't you rather grow up to be real philosopher comedians, rather
than remain bummed-well in trouser fleas.
The socialist hate cheese is rich in protein but lacks essential brainbuilding vitamins. Andy, I don't think we're accepting this email in the spirit it was intended.
That kind of leftist mental death is a sorry road. Next you'll be arrested looting shops
or scrolling graffiti on train sheds during imagined builderburg conferences
No, I won't now stop it and be good boys. Try funny from Will Indy. Oh, Will tell you what Andy
It says something about the general standard of emails we get to the bugle that even the hate mail is enter technical
If I doubt I doubt he is, because he's clearly angry.
Well, if you are listening to this, please send another email.
I think it might be a coded distress signal.
Maybe he's been kidnapped.
To be honest, that email has rendered all others redundant.
It's like the monkeys following Jimmy Hendrix.
Okay, in which case, we will just move straight on to Hotty's from history, which of course
began early in the Bugle's life as an off-hand remark.
Because now developed an unstoppable momentum of its own to become one of the defining topics of conversation around the world.
And we've had some spectacular nominations this week, including what appears to be a concerted campaign to nominate Tyco Brahi.
I don't know if I pronounced that right. The 16th century astronomer. This came from Richard King, who writes dear
Bugle people, Alchemy Astrology, voluminous pantaloons and massive moustache like a woolly boomerang.
Very nice. You're thinking about Tyco Brahi, aren't you? The man was a 16th century A-list celeb, mixing groundbreaking horizon expanding thought leadership with a gold prosthetic nose.
Oh, it's good. It's good. The man had a dwarf caught Jester,
almost as an afterthought. He also owned an elk.
To my mind, he could have been a complete manter,
and he still have qualified for Hathi from history status,
consider him nominated.
I mean, it's what a confident finish,
but I tell you what, I cannot see any way
in which a man with a gold prosthetic nose and a pet
elf does not become April's Hothi for history. It's gonna be tough. It's almost worth just giving up and saying no, nobleman called Mandarup Parsbjörg. He had this duel in the dark, John.
Why? Why? I don't know, John. He spent the rest of his life wearing a prosthetic nose
made from silver and gold. Well, I tell you, I'm nominating him. I will back
that nomination up. Admit it, at least. There's some difference actually in Alicons account, says it was not an elk,
but actually a moose. And this moose was apparently killed, falling down the castle stairs
after drinking too much beer. So thanks for your hotties nominations, do keep your nominations
coming in to the bugle at timesonline.co.uk. And I will round up the rest of them in the
next bugle blog when I have time to do so.
Which frankly at the moment is looking like it might not be this weekend and the cricket season
is beginning. So realistically, October.
Sports now, British tennis, already reeling from the news that no British male player has
won a major title since 1936 has been further rocked by starting revelations that terrorists
plotting to blop airplanes played tennis whilst finalizing their plans.
This is the last thing the tennis world need.
This is disgusting news, John. It's appalling. Absolutely appalling that tennis should allow terrorism
to take place on its courts.
tennis fan Ellsworth Kramer was one of many people
protesting outside Wimbledon, mistakenly thinking
it should be the headquarters of the Law and Tennis
Association.
And he was disgusted.
He said, I haven't heard of any of these players.
And yet they were plotting to bring death and destruction
to thousands.
It makes you wonder what Tim Henneman's been up to all
these years.
He's played loads more tennis than those other guys.
Henneman has strenuously denied any links to domestic or international terrorist groups.
Nor would he be drawn on what political cause he would be most likely to take up arms and
sacrifice himself for. Other friends suggest he had some sympathies with Cornish independence.
Masters Golf now and in the annual Masters fancy dress competition at Augusta last Tuesday before the major tournament started
Tiger Woods surprisingly lost his title when the seam on the tunic of his punches pilot outfit ripped as he played out of a bunker at the fourth
He then tried to have a spectator crucified for taking a photo during his now revealing backswing at the fifth
Phil Mikkelton was awarded second place for his attention grabbingly realistic Jane Mansfield costume
Mikkelson was awarded second place for his attention grabbingly realistic Jane Mansfield costume, but was beaten by Spain Sergio Garcia, who finally proved that he can win on the major
stage by playing 18 holes dressed as the Taj Mahal.
And US writer Cutplay Scott Verplank blamed his disappointing first round on, quote,
a temporary cessation of the laws of physics.
Verplank claimed that he had incurred the wrath of Zeus by refusing to sacrifice
his dog to the retired ex-Greek gods before the tournament, and that the King of Olympus
had punished him on several holes as he shot seven bogus in a five-over-par round. The
furious former Canadian open champion said afterwards, why does he want my dog anyway?
He'll probably just turn himself into a stick and make her fetch him. Pervert, this
has gone on too long. The USPGA has to stop ancient
diodes from ruining my rounds. It's a farce. And if it's not true, the plank sue us.
That is an invitation. Although, that would be great publicity, getting sued by a scot
for plank. See you in court for plank.
Motoracing and Des Lockfield beat Mickey Strumpe away from the lights at the junction of
Jug Street and Mithrid Eighty's Road in Frappcaster England. One bystander accused Lockfield beat Mickey Strump away from the lights at the junction of Junk Street and Mithra and 80's road in Frappcaster England. One bystander accused Lockfield 19 of moving
before the green light, but since no penalty charge to notice was forthcoming from the
DVLA over the next six weeks, the result stands. Strump, age 73, was unaware that he was
in the competition. Lockfield's navigator and girlfriend, the 17-year-old mentally
crage, was impressed.
And in Formula One, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Brazilian driver Felipe Massa took his
sixth career victory, although public interest was slightly diminished by the fact that he
had never been involved in a German-themed orgy with five prostitutes.
Louis Hamilton had a disappointing result struggling at the start of the race, then smashing
into the back of Fernando Alonzo, and he finished out at the point, but escaped too much
press criticism for his performance on the grounds that he had never been filmed acting out early 1940s German non-holiday
camp S&M fantasies in a dungeon whilst being the son of a prominent fascist.
Upon such threats, our reputation is made and broken.
And if there are any buglers thinking it seems like you might have missed a major story
last week when if someone say connected with some kind of motorsport was caught in some kind of let's say
sex scandal regarding I don't know off the top of my head now Nazi Germany maybe
had that story happened I doubt that would ever happen but if it did happen it
seems like that would be a great story to talk about well had that happened and
had we maybe last week recorded
Gleefully a long section about it, just hypothetically talking now and maybe had
that happened we would have been told to take it out on legal grounds. Maybe. That's what I'm just
thinking. That's probably what might have happened, had that event happened and had we
gleefully recorded something about that event for 15 to 20 minutes.
But it didn't happen so this point is moot.
And finally results, cycling downhill one uphill nil.
Now the audio cryptic crosswords it's approaching the end of this.
What? What? Hold on, now you got hold on. You've got my attention now.
Is that true? There's still a few weeks to go, John.
What's few? Three? I don't know.
For you, there's a lifetime to go before you really understand
crosswords and hence life. Interestingly, we had an email from Andy in Atco
who tells us in last week's Audiocryptic Crossword,
I blacked in one of the audio boxes so that my answer would fit into the space
provided. Is this within the rules? Are we looking for the solution
or will A solution to the puzzle's suffice? Well fact Andy, and well done for taking part.
But I'm afraid I must apply strict rules. There is only one solution to this crossword.
I'm very much a Audiocryptic Crossword fundamentalist. I believe that my answer is right, and everyone else is wrong.
And if they get the wrong answer,
they will burn in hell for eternity.
Meanwhile, here's 18 across.
And in fact, this calls back to a comment John made
earlier in the show about the apartheid era.
It's 12 letters long, split into three words of five,
one, and six.
And it really goes to the hearts of the political troubles facing South Africa.
A messed up sham in South Africa leads to an opening to do some vandalism.
Have you got it?
On the crossword atheist Andy, you can put me down as a non-believer.
Pugal forecast now and Sunday just gone was the London marathon. My forecast for that retrospectively, John,
is that someone skinny will have won it. My forecast is, and this is a bit more
and outside, someone in a rhino costume will have won it this year.
Also good luck retrospectively to my friend Tim, who's running in it.
Yeah, good luck retrospectively, Tim. I hope you win and you know if you if you don't win
I'll pursue you around London with a big loser sign
So that's it from issue 24 of the bugle to keep your emails coming in to the bugle at times online.co.uk
particularly if they are
Baffling bar horses of abuse
We do appreciate the friendly emails that you do send in.
But frankly, something like that is always going to be more entertaining.
It's a special, special treat.
Bye!
Cut out!
you