EastEnders and the 'Beale-L-T'

It looks like the Eastenders EastEnders crew has been having some fun with language.

The cafe in the BBC soap opera is owned by a character called Ian Beale. And instead of the traditional BLT, Ian's cafe offers a 'Beale-L-T'.

I've even managed to get a screengrab from the BBC's iPlayer as evidence:



The Beale-L-T seems to include a burger, but I can't quite read that first word in brackets. Anyone?

Workplace outing

Recently I overheard this piece of office humour:

Colleague A: "We need a workplace outing."
Colleague B: "OK - your magazine's gay!"

(For those who don't get the joke - 'outing' can mean either "an excursion" or "the disclosure of the undeclared homosexuality" (both OED). I'm not sure whether the former meaning is widely used outside British English...)

Should I buy a Fokin teapot?

I went to the Chinese supermarket recently to buy a teapot, but couldn't decide between a Fokin teapot or a Fukang teapot. What do you reckon?




And yes, I am very immature.

Yao Guai Bear!

I've been playing the game Fallout 3 on my Xbox 360 for a while now, and I've recently started encountering a deadly bear-like creature called the Yao Guai. Here's one:


That's a strange name, I thought - but as the game's back story involves a war between China and America, I assumed 'Yao Guai' either meant something in Chinese or was chosen as a meaningless 'Chinese-sounding' name.

It wasn't until a couple of days later, when I was thinking about the likely pronunciation of 'Yao Guai', that I realised the name was probably a humorous reference to the much friendlier Yogi Bear. Oh, the wit of those game developers!

By the way, my Xbox 360 gamer tag is jdlondon, if anyone wants to add me as a friend.

Thieves shoot truck driver with Taser

This week one of our publications is running a story about a truck driver who was attacked by thieves. They shot him with a Taser, bundled him into a car, dumped him nearby and stole his truck.

In its original form, the story concluded: "The driver was shocked but otherwise unhurt." This was perfectly accurate, but I had to change the wording to avoid the unintentional pun. Otherwise our readers might have thought we had no sensitivity or tact at all...

There's no place like ohm

While I'm mostly retired I do take on the odd subbing job and today encountered this rather sweet unintentional pun:

Amperage and voltage commands are set in the same way as the analogue interface, providing easy integration into current operations.

Time for a terrible magazine-related pun

After my post earlier in the month, the burning question is: who would like their Asphalt Now?



And no, it's not one of our publications!

(Thanks to our web editor for this truly awful pun.)

Feeling puntillious: Shakespeare

This post was a race between my esteemed colleague and me as the following snippet, culled from a column in New Scientist magazine, was sent to both of us by a fellow galley slave in the adjacent engine room:

Sign spotted at a camping shop in Beverley, East Yorkshire: "Now is the Winter of our Discount Tents". No doubt they're designed to withstand a Tempest – as long as the guy ropes are nice and Titus Andronicus.

PS: What did the barman at the Globe say when Will Shakespeare misbehaved? "You're barred!" Homophonic levity... JD will be impressed.