Tag Archives: Twitter

➤ OMG! George and Fadi trigger what the Telegraph calls a “marmalade-dropper” over breakfast

George Michael,Fadi Fawaz,holidays,Twitter
❚ THIS TIME THE DAILY MAIL got there first, shock, outrage! Pop singer George Michael’s boyfriend Fadi Fawaz posted a picture yesterday via Twitter of the pair cuddled up on a sunshine holiday, with the caption, “Isn’t he the cutest?” Minutes later George responded with a second snap saying “Yes he is :)”

The star then tweeted to say: “Oh and by the way everyone, if u are wondering why Fadi is the one sending you the pics lately, it’s cos I jumped in the decking pool with my iPhone in my shorts pocket yesterday.”

If we scroll further back in the boyz’ Twitter accounts we’d have seen several holiday snaps in recent days. With one pin-up of his favourite chunk of beefcake, who is a leading hair and beauty stylist in London, 48-year-old George tweeted the comment: “Sun, sand, and a bit of this doesn’t hurt either.” Earlier, George posts another pic of the carefree couple, saying: “This is an oldie from Venice, we clearly have no idea the paps were there, I look way too happy.”

George Michael,Fadi Fawaz,holidays,Twitter

George replies with a second snap: hunky boyfie to the fore

The boyz are yachting and jet-skiing at an undisclosed location George reveals is in the “southern hemisphere” and is a “bit classier than Club Trop, and the drinks are far from free”. It is, he adds, his first real holiday in many years, and “I might remind the media that my ‘new man’ is in fact the same man they photographed me with at Nobu… in 2008!”

The Mail report reminds us that the 80s superstar is continuing his recovery after narrowly escaping death only weeks ago during a serious bout of pneumonia. George’s tweets confirm this: “Even my tracheotomy scar is healing nicely in the sun — was looking a bit Bride of Chucky for a while.”

He also announced: “People, I’m excited… just finishing a ballad that I think is going to make you think my eighties self has been re-born, which I suppose it has in a way.” As for resuming the tour that was cancelled because of his illness, he told one fan: “Realistically I can’t see my vocal cords being being ready till the summer.”

➢ Read the full Daily Mail report plus comments

Dear Sir! Daily Mail readers are, as we know, unshockable. Comments beneath the romantic pictures posted online include:
❏ “Go get a room gm. Spare us please” — the Lady, who prefers dogs to SOME people
❏ “Old man with a toyboy. YUK!!” — Alan, Sussex
❏ “George has finally found the love of his life… A guy who looks like himself.” — Realist, Coventry
❏ “I have always thought that George Michael & Sir Elton John would have made a lovely, great couple. Both excellent musicians, in their own niche. Both lovers of children & animals. Good luck to them all.” — Pamela Hutton, Sydney, Australia.

AND NOW FOR SOME MUSIC: GEORGE’S LATEST SINGLE HE WAS PROUDLY TWEETING ABOUT

… AND BOYFIE FADI’S FAV SONG (BY FAMED
LEBANESE LEGEND)


❏ Fadi tweets “My fav song of Fairouz” — Music facts: Nouhad Wadi Haddad, also known as Fairuz/Fairouz which means “Turquoise”, is a 76-year-old Lebanese artist widely considered to be the most famous living singer in the Arab world.

LET’S NOT FORGET GEORGE’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE


❏ Dec 23: “This has been the worst month of my life.” George Michael gives an emotional and breathless press conference admitting his 
life has been hanging in the balance as he battled pneumonia in Austria. Unbelievable American newspaper headline immediately before his recovery: Radicals Condemned for Praying for George Michael to Die

❏ Dec 13: A couple of weeks earlier George had been bearing up by compiling a playlist of his all-time favourite Christmas songs, top of which was his own December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas), “Written with my best friend, David Austin”.

THAT VOICE, ONLY ONE MONTH BEFORE THAT


❏ Life goes on…

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➤ Spare a thought for the Sad Apostrophe who’s putting on a brave face at Twitter

SadApostrophe, Twitter, Waterstones,Franks,grammar

Waterstones,grammar,apostrophe,logos

Three logos in as many years: >2010 classic font and grammatically correct, 2010–12 contemporary font and illiterate, 2012< classic font, illiterate but digitally expedient. And this shop sells books.

❏ A press release dated Jan 11 declares: “Waterstones, the UK’s largest high street bookseller, has today revealed a new logo for the company. It reinstates the much-loved Baskerville serif font with a capital W and no longer features an apostrophe. James Daunt, Managing Director of Waterstones said: “Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling.”

Waterstones, Sainsbury's, McDonald's, logos

Gramatically: one wrong, two right

➢ Waterstones is sparking outrage among some of its customers — Harry Wallop at The Daily Telegraph
John Richards, the chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society said: “It’s just plain wrong. It’s grammatically incorrect. If Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s can get it right, then why can’t Waterstones? You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English.”

The change is also a slight to the founder Tim Waterstone, who set up the company more than 30 years ago, though long ago stopped having any involvement. Mr Daunt further explained the change in logo: “It also reflects an altogether truer picture of our business today which, while created by one, is now built on the continued contribution of thousands of individual booksellers.” Many on Twitter pointed out that this explanation made no sense, because if the new logo really was meant to reflect the contribution of many, it should include an apostrophe after the S.

SadApostrophe, Twitter, Waterstones,Foyles,grammar
➢ No apostrophe? No catastrophe — David Marsh at The Guardian
As many shopping centres boast a Tesco, a Morrisons, a Sainsbury’s, a Marks & Spencer, a Waterstones and a McDonald’s, it is hardly surprising that many young people, and greengrocers of all ages, find apostrophes so difficult. But however much the Apostrophe Protection Society huffs and puffs about it, these businesses are not going to change their orthography so we might as well get used to it and fight to save apostrophes where they are really needed: to aid communication and avoid ambiguity. The example in the Guardian style guide is:

❏ my sister’s friend’s books (refers to one sister and her friend).
❏ my sister’s friends’ books (one sister with lots of friends).
❏ my sisters’ friend’s books (more than one sister, and their friend).
❏ my sisters’ friends’ books (more than one sister, and their friends).

SadApostrophe, Twitter, Waterstones,grammar So if anyone tells you we don’t need apostrophes, they are wrong. Another tip: always carry a large felt-tip pen and bottle of Tipp-Ex with you to add apostrophes to signs where appropriate and remove them from plurals. It will make you feel much better.

➢ Rules concerning the use of apostrophes in written English “are very simple” — The Apostrophe Protection Society

➢ Express your consolations to SadApostrophe on Twitter

SadApostrophe, Twitter, Waterstones,ToysRUs,grammar
SadApostrophe, Twitter, Waterstones,ToysRUs,grammar
➢ How Oxfam is challenging the bookselling giants and which unwanted authors we are dumping after Christmas — “Out of the 700 Oxfam shops in Britain, 140 of them are bookshops. Oxfam sells 11 million books a year and are its second highest-selling items after clothing. The charity store has become the biggest second-hand bookseller in Europe, and the third largest general book retailer in Britain” … / continued online

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➤ After the looting, the London clean-up has started in Hackney and Clapham

London riots, Clapham, Dan Thompson,clean-up,yfrog,Twitter

Photo posted at 2pm by Lawcol888 on yfrog: “We’re ready in Clapham and Vauxhall”

Dan Thompson, London riots, clean-up, campaign

Dan Thompson: appeal by radio and Twitter

❚ DAN THOMPSON, an artist, writer, photographer, explorer of Worthing in Sussex has called for everyone with a dustpan and brush to get out on the streets of Britain today to lead the clean-up after three days of rioting and looting.

➢ Follow Dan Thomspon on Twitter @artistsmakers

➢ Comment at yfrog on the Clapham clean-up photo

➢ 10am video statement by Clean Up London at Twitvid after overnight clean-up of Hackney

➢ Search your Tweets with #riotcleanup hashtag

➢ “Get real, black people!” — Fearless street speech last night by Hackney woman has already clocked 1m views at Twitvid

riot police, UK

Riot police in London today: "appropriate force" will be used

STAY AT HOME TONIGHT AND ‘GIVE US THE STREETS’ — POLICE CHIEF

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police, told Radio 5 Live today: “The police will respond robustly and we will get the streets back.” 16,000 officers will be on duty in London tonight and will respond robustly to troublemakers and with appropriate force. Londoners are asked to stay indoors and give the police space in which to operate.

The Times, Evening Standard, London riots, August 9,front pages,newspapers

➢ Live riot map: being updated with every verified incident by Guardian Online

London riots, London map

London riots: three-day overview at BBC Online

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➤ Bin Laden raid becomes Twitter’s CNN moment

Osama Bin Laden’s compound,Pakistan, Google maps
➢ Search for “Osama Bin Laden’s compound, Pakistan”
on Google maps

Sohaib Athar, ReallyVirtual, Bin Laden raid, Tech Crunch, Twitter

Sohaib Athar aka ReallyVirtual

➢ BBC NEWS REPORTS: The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden was revealed first on Twitter. An IT consultant, living in Abbottabad, unknowingly tweeted details of the US-led operation as it happened last night. Sohaib Athar, 33, wrote that a helicopter was hovering overhead shortly before the assault began and said that it might not be a Pakistani aircraft.

He only became aware of the significance of his tweets after President Obama announced details of Bin Laden’s death. Mr Athar’s first posting on the subject came at around 1am local time (9pm BST). He wrote: “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).” Minutes later he was tweeting: “Go away helicopter — before I take out my giant swatter :-/ ”

Osama Bin Laden ,helicopter raid,Tweet,Sohaib Athar,
➢ Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent, BBC News: I turned on the radio at 0700 this morning and heard the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I immediately picked up my phone and tweeted this fact — only to be bombarded with messages saying this was now very old news. In the age of Twitter you have to be online all night to keep up with events.

“Twitter just had its CNN moment,” as one American website put it, comparing this event with the first Gulf War, where millions suddenly woke up to the fact that cable news was the place to observe a war unfold in real-time. Such is the power of this network that it has become the key resource for older media trying to stay ahead of events.

➢ Tech Crunch reports on the man who for two hours unwittingly live-tweeted the raid on Bin Laden — and reveals a local claim that it was “training accident scenario”

Barack Obama, situation room, White House, Bin Laden raid,Hillary Clinton

Straight out of Sorkin’s West Wing — Barack Obama and his national security team watch the mission against Osama Bin Laden unfold in real time in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Vice President Joe Biden far left, Hillary Clinton seated right. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

➢ Bin Laden raid video ‘sent from helmets’ to Obama

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