Tag: politics

7 Reasons That The Top 100 Girls Names List 2010 Is Not The Least Bit Intriguing

Yesterday, Marc became fascinated with boys. Being a man of sound intellect, he left the girls to me. In fact, he practically urged me to look at girls. And, up until January 29th 2010, I wouldn’t have needed much convincing. Nor would there have been anyone to tell me off for doing so. Things are slightly different now though, which means I need to clarify that I am only looking at 100 differently named girls for your benefit. To be honest, I got no satisfaction from dong so. Here’s why:

1. Political Impact. There are four women in the Cabinet. (They’re probably looking for the gin). There’s Theresa of course. And a Cheryl. And a Caroline. And a Baroness Warsi – who also goes by the name Sayeeda. I have to report that having studied the statistics in detail, there isn’t a Theresa, Cheryl or Caroline anywhere in the top 100 names in 2010 or 2000. Nor is there a Baroness, Warsi or Sayeeda. Which only goes to prove, absolutely nothing.

2. The Unusual. The name Esme is by far and away the most ridiculous on the list, but she was hardly languishing in 2000. She was 171st then and last year made it to 71st. Wow. Now I don’t know any Esmes and nor, I fervently hope, do you. So I wondered if there was a not-very famous person responsible for the minor increased popularity of the name. It turns out there is. She’s called Esme Kamphuis and she’s a Dutch bobsledder who finished 12th in the 2008 Winter Olympics. People are naming their girls after a fairly average bobsledder. That’s riveting.

3. F1. The name Louise has dropped out of the top 100 since its position at number 80 in 2000. It is highly unlikely this is due to ITV’s loss of Formula One coverage in 2008. I very much doubt anyone would have named their daughter after Louise Goodman. BBC’s token F1 female reporter is Lee McKenzie. The name Lee doesn’t appear in the top 100 in 2000 and nor does it appear in the top 100 in 2010. Which only goes to show that for all the impact F1 makes it may as well go to Sky Sports.

4. Alexandra. A safe name; a solid name; a sensible name; a reliable name and some might say, a dull name. And that’s absolutely spot on. The facts tell us that the name Alexandra is just as boring as you (okay, Marc, mostly Marc) had previously supposed. From its year 2000 position of somewhere outside the top 100 it went on a rollercoaster ride in which it plunged to somewhere outside the top 100 in 2009 and then, in a monumental upswing of fortunes in 2010, scaled the list back to somewhere outside the top 100. Breathtaking it is not. Turns out that Alexandra is as dull as we thought it was. Making it the perfect name for my daughter.

5. Noah. I can state categorically that no girl has ever been named Noah. Not even when they played the lead role in the play with the animals and the arc. Fascinating stuff, huh?

6. Roberta. What the hell happened to Roberta? Well, nothing. It was never a good name in the first place and I am pleased to say it has continued in that vein ever since. Here are some names from last year that are considerably more popular than Roberta: Elizabeth, Lucy, Emily, Rachel and Claire. Who the hell knows more Elizabeths, Lucys, Emilys, Rachels and Claires than Robertas? Exactly, everyone. There’s about as much insight here as there is in Wayne Rooney… actually, that sentence stops there.

7. Self-Interest. One of the most boring things about the list itself is that none of my family are on it. I’m not on it – which confirms what I have always suspected, I’m a boy. My mum’s not on it. My fiancée isn’t on it. My aunts aren’t on it. My great aunts aren’t on it. Which has no impact on me at all. And I very much doubt it bothers you either.

July 29, 2011
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Should Tell Your Boss To “Stuff It” And Set Up An Office At Home

Guess what? It’s Saturday. And as is commonplace for such a day, it’s time for Marc and I to hand over the reins again. This week we leave the sofa in the capable hands of French resident Lloyd Burrell. (It’s okay, he’s actually British). In what is a first experience for the 7 Reasons sofa, Lloyd has put it straight behind his desk. You can find out why here. We welcome that. And we welcome Lloyd. Over to him.

If you are like me then working from home has always been one of those big untouchable dreams. But with the advent of the internet, working freelance or going the whole hog and setting up your own business has never been more attainable. Funnily enough my passport to freedom was my office desk. I created an office desk review website where I review home office computer desks and similar office furniture equipment.

If you are thinking of saying “up yours mate” to your boss, but you are having doubts as to whether you should or not, here are 7 reasons you should

1. It beats crack cocaine by long shot. Yes, it will be just the best feeling in the world. You can just let rip, big-time. This is best done in full view of rest of the office so your colleagues can also enjoy the moment, which will actually serve to amplify your pleasure even more. Just think of all those times he’s totally cheesed you off, well now its payback time.

2. To see the look on his face. I could have grouped this in point number one, but I think this one deserves it’s own special mention. You see because you are setting up your own stall, you can go the whole hog. You don’t need a reference from him for another job. You can just drop your load, gloat and enjoy the moment and then its hasta la vista, you never have to set eyes on him again.

3. Slavery is dead. He called it micro-managing. Assigning you tasks to do each day, as if you couldn’t do that yourself based on the assigned priorities, even though he had no idea how long those tasks would take to complete. All that is finito. The ridiculous deadlines, the impossible workload. He’s just going to have to find some other schmuck to prey on.

4. Office politics. Because chucking your job in is actually a double whammy, not only do you get never to see your boss again, this will also be the last time you have to set eyes on your co “worker”. I use the term lightly. You know, the one that has to have her nose in everything you do. The one that only pipes up when people are around so that they can see what a wonderful worker she is. The one that, most of the time, doesn’t know a thing about what she is trying to do but she is very good at looking ‘important’ and making you look like a complete dumb nuts. She will also be history.

5. You won’t have to fake “busy-ness” ever again. You are not the most hard working person that was ever put on God’s earth, so what the hell? Now you can do meaningful things in your work time like surfing the internet, using the telephone for personal calls, going to the toilet for 15 minutes five times in a row, and taking long lunch breaks on a regular basis.

6. Connectedness. Because you are sure that, be it on an intellectual, an emotional or a spiritual level you will connect better with your four legged friend than you would with that ignorant, pathetic, short tempered, foul mouthed, physically repugnant, socially inept, intellectually challenged person/skiver you used to call your boss.

7. Bureacracy. All those procedures and policies that are supposed to make things terribly efficient, make the company more productive and make you more money when in fact it’s just the opposite. It’s all just a sham. You being so passionate and damn good at what you do, all day long you are saying to yourself, “I can’t believe that I work for this (dis)organisation”. Well you don’t have to believe it anymore, because you don’t.

This piece was written from the point of view that your boss is a man, but if it’s a woman – and it’s very possible she could be because there are some real “bossy knickers/bitchy types” out there – these exact same 7 reasons still apply.

September 25, 2010
7 Reasons It’ll Be Great Under David & Nick

Yesterday I watched David and Nick in the garden. I don’t know about you, but I kind of liked it. I felt a sense of profound optimism. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I am deluded. Maybe my sense of profound optimism combined with my natural optimism has made me go completely loopy, but I think it might just work. I think it might just be great under Dave and Nick. And here’s why:

1. It’s In The Names. The meaning of David is beloved. The meaning of Nick is victory of the people. That sounds good to me. Incidentally the meaning of Gordon is large fortification. Which probably explains why it took so bloody long to get rid of him.

2. It’s In The Colours. Anyone who went to school and paid attention when they accidentally knocked over the blue and yellow paint bottles, will know that, when combined, they make green*. You know what this means. The environment. David and Nick are going to save us from Global Warming. Caroline Lucas must be furious.

3. It’s In The Hands. As luck would have it, David and Nick seem to favour opposite hands. As the above shows, David likes his right and Nick likes his left. This means of course that they have two spare hands that meet in centre ground. Genius.

4. It’s In The Hair. It may be May, but that means sod all in this country. The weather is still unpredictable/predictably rubbish. As I have pointed out, yesterday David and Nick were in the garden. The sun was out but it was chilly and a tad windy. Miraculously though, for forty minutes, their hair acted superbly. Not once did either of them so much as touch their coiffures. It was the kind of strong, stable hair that this country so badly needs.

5. It’s In The Wives. Neither Samantha or Miriam – that’s Mrs Cameron and Mrs Clegg if you are not on first name terms yet – seem particularly keen on the limelight. Which is good. Because they have a job to do. Run our country. Don’t be fooled, David and Nick don’t really know what they’re doing. And they are married men. Their wives tell them what to do. So for the next five years Great Britain will be run by a creative director and a Spanish lawyer. Mandelson and Campbell, eat your hearts out.

6. It’s In The Looks. It’s quite useful that they are called the cabinet because that is what most of them look like. And so they should. It’s brains you need in politics, not beauty. The last thing we need is for Theresa May to be distracted by a six figure sum to pose naked for Playboy or for Ken Clarke to get his braces off for the centre-fold of Cosmopolitan. Thankfully – for all our sakes – that isn’t going to happen. It’s going to be all work and no play for David and Nick’s boys. And girl.

7. It’s In The Logos. No one in the world has picked up on this yet. But that is why I am me and the rest of you do interesting things with your time. The Conservative logo is a tree. The Liberal Democrat logo is a bird. Birds like trees. It’s where they live. You couldn’t make this stuff up. If this coalition was destined to fail the Liberal Democrat logo would have been an axe. But it’s not. It’s a bird. And David has let it into his foliage. Bravo.

*Yes, if it is pure blue and pure yellow it would turn black, but that’s the point. It’s a coalition. All purity has been thrown out of the window.

NB: I might not believe all of the above nonsense.

May 13, 2010
7 Reasons 7 Reasons Are Making A Film About The Ash Breathing Volcano

1. The Plot Bit. Think Love Actually meets Planes, Trains & Automobiles (without the planes) meets The Day After Tomorrow. Various people stranded in various places have to find various methods of getting back to the UK for various of reasons. It’ll be a romcom/thriller.

2. The Product Placement Bit. The 7 Reasons team isn’t stupid. We know that slipping in a few products will boost our coffers. That is why Ash’s entire back catalogue will be on display in the majority of scenes. Ashes To Ashes will be shown on all TV screens. Unless it’s in a hotel room where the occupant may choose between Ashes To Ashes, The History Of The Ashes or The Arthur Ash Story.

3. The Cast Bit. All the usual suspects will be there. Hugh Grant. Colin Firth. Emma Thompson. Rowan Atkinson. We’ll find them something to do. We’ll also bring in Colin Farrell to liven up proceedings. He’ll be monk. Though a monk who has escaped from his monastery after being accused of sneaking into the local nunnery of an evening and having his evil way with a couple of habits. The head monk is after him. So is the head nun. The nun isn’t wearing anything. This is not a 3D film.

4. The Political Bit. Hugh Grant will be the leader of the opposition. He has just been in Washington DC (with Gary Barlow) meeting the President – who will be played by either Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington. It really depends who is cheaper. They won’t have a speaking part. Hugh Grant then needs to get home to vote in the election and then pick up the keys to Downing Street from it’s former occupant. Who will be played by Eddie Izzard. His wife will be Carole Smilie.

5. The Romance Bit. Colin Firth is a writer – probably working on something Shakespearean – he has been on a writer’s holiday in Spain and now needs to get back to London because he also has a part time job in Waterstones. He misses out on hiring the last available car in Barcelona so jumps up and down a bit on the pavement and looks angry. A Spanish girl pulls up in her hire car and – in broken English – asks Mr Firth if he would like a lift to London. Col says yes and before you know it they are on a road trip together. We’re not quite sure how the drive will go but they’ll be having a good old snog come Dover. Of that you can be sure.

6. The Sad Bit. Bill Nighy is the owner of a Formula 1 team. He’s stuck in Shanghai after the Chinese Grand Prix. While he’s waiting for a plane in the Chinese version of Starbucks, he gets a phone call from his daughter. Bill’s wife has been in an accident and is in a critical condition in hospital. Bill starts walking home. At the end of the film he is still walking. This is our ticket to a sequel.

7. The ‘He Should Be Dead. This Is So Unrealistic’ Bit. Dennis Quaid is a volcanic expert. He was inside the volcano when it started to erupt. The Icelandic name for the volcano is Eyjafjallajökul, but for arguments sake we’ll call it Volcano Mrs Robinson. So Dennis was inside Volcano Mrs Robinson when she started blowing off. Dennis’ English wife thinks he’s dead. But as this is a film, she is the only one. He’s blatantly alive. Everyone knows it. We wouldn’t have cast Dennis Quaid just to kill him off in the first five minutes. If we wanted to do that we’d have cast Ben Affleck. Anyway, Dennis makes it back to his wife in one piece. Bar a touch of sunburn/frost-bite.

April 21, 2010
Guest Post: 7 reasons I feel at home in liberal towns

We love it when we find other 7 Reasons pieces on the internet, especially good ones. We found this one via Twitter. It’s written by Vince Marotte, who is the Internet Pastor at the Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. He’s kindly given us permission to use it. It was originally posted on his blog, where you can also read about his love of Radiohead and He-Man blankets (he’ll fit in quite well here then).

When I was laying the groundwork for planting a church last year, one important value I had was planting in a city where I fit in. Long story short; the profiles kept pointing to liberal towns. Which I could have told you prior to taking assessments and doing the interviews. On a side note, the church we’re planting is now going to be on the Internet…based in Austin.

In conversations with people back in California and the various other places I have people, I often mention the fact that I really dig Austin because it’s a liberal town. When I say that, I mean it in the most broad sense and I’m not even thinking about politics; let’s face it, when it comes to the issues that actually make the world go around the difference between Democrats and Republicans is nominal at best. Not to mention the fact I don’t subscribe to either paradigm; I’m a Pro-Life Libertarian for what it’s worth, which means I’m more conservative than Republicans and more liberal than Democrats…if that’s possible.

7 reasons I feel at home in liberal towns:

1. Less Hummers. Historically I drive small cars and I can’t stand getting stuck behind monster trucks when I’m going down the freeway. Not to mention the taking up of two parking spots. I won’t say drivers are better in liberal towns…but they do less damage in their Volvos and hybrids.

2. Educated Population. I suck at small talk and I don’t watch much in the way of sports, college basketball being the one exception. In a highly educated liberal town I find it much easier to find people to talk with about things like the Large Hadron Collider, flaws in the federal reserve system and whatever was on NPR this morning. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with blue collar towns…it’s just not my thing.

3. Protestors. I’m someone that thinks the American population needs to take to the streets a little more often; it’s a great way to keep our government in check, because our power to vote doesn’t seem to be working. I can’t quite pinpoint the exact reasons why there seem to be more protesters in liberal towns, but my best guess is that most liberal towns have a generous surplus of college students and a larger single population in general. Married people with kids a far less likely to take the day off work to go protest the WTO, Monsanto, war or whatever.

4. Whole Foods. I love me some Whole Foods. I’m a foodie and a hack chef and I can always count on Whole Foods to have the goods. Not to mention the fact that my family eats organic, natural, grass fed…blah blah blah. It’s clear that Whole Foods targets liberal towns as their market.

5. Local Everything. Liberal towns are good to their local businesses. Educated liberals tend to care about stuff like that where as in conservative towns people have become dependent on Wal-Mart and Costco.

6. The Arts. I love music and art. Liberal towns are really the only place where music and art scenes flourish. Again, this has something to due with the population of single people, and they are willing and able to do the starving artist thing.

7. People Give You the Benefit of the Doubt. At the center of a conservative view of politics is the concept that mankind is inherently evil; whereas at the core of a liberal view is the opposite, that mankind is inherently good. These thoughts are quite often subconscious and not often completely understood by either side of the concepts and there are exceptions to the rule. All that to say the people in liberal towns general give everyone the benefit of the doubt and it creates good energy. I will say that a proper understanding of either view can lead you to think positive of everyone.

Maybe the sociologists out there can help me complete my thoughts?

December 13, 2009