alexist

One of the things I really, truly love about Britain is the BBC. (OK, I could live without one or two of the Middle East correspondents, and the patronising tone sometimes used when reporting about America... but otherwise...) So the corporation's current plans of death by a thousand cuts depresses me. Newsnight should not be cut. Documentary strands should be protected (I believe One Life is going, and another was rumoured to be ending after its next run; I can't remember which, though This World?) For me, the whole point of paying a licence fee (£130 a year for those of you who don't live in the UK) is so that the BBC can focus on its core values (as Lord Reith said, "to inform, educate and entertain") and NOT be subject to the whims of the market.

I would be happy to see BBC3 go. It shows nothing that is a) worthwhile and b) not already shown on BBC1 or 2. BBC4 is difficult. I love a lot of BBC4's output and the argument that it should go because no one watches it is nonsense (the BBC's job is to cater to everyone, and a race for ratings is often a race for bland mediocrity). The accusation is that it's now a ghetto for all the highbrow things that BBC2 used to show, and these programmes could easily return there. My fear is that if BBC4 were axed, they'd simply cut the amount of high quality factual output, rather than show it on BBC2. (Death by 1000 cuts is coming to BBC4 as well: they're cutting funding for Storyville, which is possibly the best documentary strand on television.)

I'm American, and I'll defend a lot of our TV output (and point out that we do have PBS as well as Fox), but I love the BBC. I love the sheer variety of it. I love that BBC radio doesn't play the same 20 songs over and over again (except Radio 1, and that's because 16 year olds want to hear the same 20 songs over and over again, and I can be an old fogey and turn to Radio 2.) I think £130 is pretty damn good value for money, and maybe Wossy is overpaid but really, firing him is not going to solve the £2bn deficit.

I'm pretty powerless to do anything (lead a legion of Paxman-lovers to Broadcasting House?), but man, I'm depressed.

This week's New York Times review of Alice Sebold's new novel, The Almost Moon, is cruelly funny.

I read the first linked chapter. You know it's not going to be a good book when the first paragraph contains a bad-fiction-writing-competition-winning simile.

Not on the "to read" list, then.

Put Aliza up in a ruck tied tibetan (this means that instead of tying the ends around your waist, you thread them back through the straps). It was actually a pretty decent job though the cross under her legs wasn't perfect. Anyway, I successfully cooked and vacuumed with her like that.

Only problem: She occupies herself by pulling on my ponytail. Methinks I'll have to go back to pinning it up.