Re: The Fermi Paradox and SETI Success

On Aug 16, 5:29�pm, "Tiny Bulcher" <alycid...@btinternet.com> wrote:

�us cw�� Mike Dworetsky:

"John Wilkins" <j.wilki...@uq.edu.au> wrote in message
news:1ilrq26.1onruocqfasbhN%j.wilkins1@uq.edu.au...

Tiny Bulcher <alycid...@btinternet.com> wrote:


<soaps overloading the grid>

I thought it was the commercial break in /Coronation Street/ that
was the main offender?

Not for many years. But I am disappointed that Brits still watch East
Enders, and not, say, Cobbers...

Neighbours is broadcast regularly in the UK. �We haven't seen
"Cobbers".[query: existence]?


Bulcher's Second Law of T.O.: any cultural reference you do not
understand will be either Terry Pratchett or Monty Python *. In this
case it is the former, ref. 'Johnny & The Dead', where it is the
fictional equivalent of 'Neighbours', and watched by everybody.
Including dead people.

* Unless you are Ray, when it will be a quote from the Bible.


In whose hands much of the bible is unrecognisable.  But the _Cobbers_
reference was obscure to me, and I like the book in question a good
deal.  I suppose that Terry Pratchett chose to Tuckerise _Neighbours_
in order to have a free hand with his version - I forget if it comes
into _Only You Can Save Mankind_ as well.

I see we are broadcasting over several newsgroups, so a quick
glossary: these are series dramas somewhat of the "soap opera" genre,
but sometimes taken more seriously than that term usually mplies.  In
_Neighbours_ it's unusual for anything very serious to happen and the
focus is mostly on young people, _Coronation Street_ is about domestic
life, and _EastEnders_ has quite a lot of violent or criminal
behaviour: it's not unusual for a character to be shot.