h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Snork either would work!

Joking aside, why does Thinking Aloud get used in the comparison? Is it because it's a discussion rather than a magazine format?



Those little online eyes of yours are very disconcerting ...

I can tell you why that poster used it in the TFTD thread, is that what you meant?

Don't worry about the eyes, they aint lookin' atcha!

Yes, please do tell; from what I can gather, it's a chestnut.

No, the eyes just follow you round the room, as it were with just a hint of raised eyebrows

It is a chestnut, or perhaps a hardy perennial. Somebody raised the issue that TFTD was not called 'religious thought for the day' so why did it only include thoughts from a religious perspective and the clear counter to that was that 'Thinking Allowed' wasn't called 'Sociologists Thinking Allowed' either, despite the programme being exclusively from a social science perspective.
if you have read the thread you will know my view on the whole TFTD question already: ie it is quirky scheduling.

Stop following me round the room with your gaze!

Huh, you flatter yourself!!! Those are not my eyes following you ... have you pod checked the vicinity lately? Let me know if you need help (I'll be busy elsewhere)

I agree that TFTD sits rather incongrouously in the Today schedule. Presumably (thinking aloud!) it was originally scheduled to catch those who were heading off to work at 08:00. Knowing that they'd had a little God slot to bless themselves before they left the house, as it were. IIRC there's an earlier Prayer for the Day or similar, which goes out around about the time of the Shipping Forecast?

But as long as its' tx time remains constant, I think TFTD may also serve an unlikely purpose: as an alarm call (think of it as a pre-8 o'clock pips alert) for those who need to be out of the house just before 08:00; for those averse to its' content/concept, it provides its' own incentive to get the working day underway!

Certainly I can go from comatose to hissing at the radio in a picosecond if AA is on.

Oh, look out I think the aliens have reprogrammed your pod detector!

Snork ... occasionally I do listen to TA (and not TA, if you see what I mean) and grin at the amount of mental masturbation that is being broadcast

Uh-oh initials overload indicator triggered.

Check procedure: AA=Ann Atkins, TA=thinking allowed, not TA=not The Archers.

See, a pod nipped in while we were worrying about the eyes.

OK, Ann Atkins, ta. Why the Hissing Sid response?

There's a not very good joke (maybe a wee ironic twinge) about TA/ta ... it's just that I can't make the connection just yet (and nor will you, you had trouble with a dodo).

You mean you /don't/ hiss when AA comes on? I'm shocked.

I'm asleep when AA comes on ... wow, you're way more shockable than I ever dreamed.

Eek!

Oh no, is it a pod ... or a mouse?

No I was just in shock.

I bet you can deal with AA because you are not as irritable as I am in the morning before coffee.

I can do a fair impression of cranky in the morning but I rarely get that far as I'm pretty well brain dead at that uncivilised time of day.

Not for nothing did my team at work give a a Snoopy mug which read 'I think I'm allergic to morning' (which I still have) and later someone found the matching poster which was presented to me, beautifully beribboned. When I got home, I found that Snoopy's eyes had acquired long eye lashes, and just the hint of a smile had been added. It was on the back of the linen cupboard door for years (sleepy, bedding - geddit).

The day has to start very, very gently; I don't really start to function until the afternoon.

What effect does coffee have? Do you wake up sluggish and it kickstarts you, or are you immediately awake and just plain grumpy? (I assume everyone knows well enough to keep their distance at that time of day).

Here have some Rescue Remedy for the shock - no, this is the litre size without the Bach additives \__/ see, it will be alright ...

Thanks. I'm awake and picking holes in the TFTD contributor's view immediately but I need coffee to mellow me and get me through to the evening.

To mellow you? ... (tendency to swoon)

How would you cope if TFTD was removed from the scheduling? Would your day start with a whimper rather than a bang?

Has any TFTD contributor ever (without worrying about who/when/why) ever failed to live down to your expectation but being not as bad as you were expecting?

(oh dear, one rhetorical and three real questions)

They are a mixed bag actually. I remember when Lionel Blue used to do it and it was a hoot, but Jonathan Sacks is leaden. AA is my bête noire and she never fails to deliver on the living down front. Gets me seething enough to pop the kettle on.