The BBC
Several decades ago I worked at the BBC, and one of my jobs
was helping to compile a digest of the latest press cuttings for the Board of
Governors and general BBC departments. I
imagine that, at least, there is very little cutting and copying done now-
probably directly scanned into an on-line file somehow.
Mad Eye Moody
Anyway, back in the day, my colleagues and I cut out
articles, and used cuttings sent from a cuttings agency on just about anything
to do with the BBC. These cuttings were brought to our office by uniformed
messengers- one of whom had an uncanny visual and vocal resemblance to
Professor Mad-Eye Moody- alright – without the funny eye! (Oh, I don’t know,
though). ‘Here’s yer cuttings, lads! ‘ He
used to say, handing them over to us.
Anyway, needless to say, there were lots of scrap cuttings and pages of
newspapers that were not used for distribution.
Fish And Chips
Whilst of course,
maintaining a highly efficient editing and information service, we did have
another file or two of newspaper pictures and articles we kept, for our own
amusement. All gone now, I'm afraid, as don’t forget that generally,
newspapers only exist for a few days before they end up wrapped around the fish
and chips.
Skateboarding Dogs
All this was at a time when, as far as I can recall, the
Internet was only a gleam in the eye of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. However, we
quickly established a fat file of cuttings of nothing more serious than pictures
of people with funny haircuts, newspaper typos, skateboarding dogs etc. And with silly captions we added to pictures.
Silly Pictures
So, next time, dear reader, you are looking at outlandish
pictures on the Internet, raise a glass to the some of the pioneers of silly
picture daftness- funny thing though, I don’t remember any cute kitten
pictures!
But for silly pictures of the finest quality, you need look
no further than:
http://www.pinterest.com/Bluecarbungle/enter-at-ye-own-peril/
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