Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: August 2007

The order of the bath

Earlier this year, Views reported (see Views for January 2007) that our webmaster, Dr Colin Hicks, had been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his services to science. We would like to assure Views readers that the following competition has nothing whatsoever to do with that august order. (No pun intended)

Instead, as a distraction from the wintry weather plaguing the country, we offer you a Summer Special Competition. Can you provide a suitable caption for the photograph below? We offer some suggestions to get you started…

1. Baptismal SWAT team reach North Wales - you bring'em, we dunk 'em!
2. Two man team drains sea into bath
3. Hotel souvenir hunters leave bathroom un-usable

Click to email us your entry for the
Summer Special Competition

In fact, the bath in question was 'liberated' from a skip in North Wales in order to play a vital part in our forthcoming 'The BIG Top' holiday club in Teddington. For news on how and why it gets used you will have to check the pages on The BIG Top website later this month...

In the meantime, its good to see that innocent humour is alive and well. No animals were harmed in the taking of this photo, no minority groups were offended, and no foul language was used. In fact, it was just a group of Christian people having a good laugh together. Jesus was not averse to using humour himself. His stories are peopled with pompous Pharisees, paranoid millionaires and wise fools. He even draws verbal cartoons of people with logs in their eyes in order to make a point about hypocrisy.

Whilst you are thinking up your caption - ponder this. When was the last time you had a truly good laugh? - a laugh which made you feel good and which was not at anyone else's expense. It's often said that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. What sort of shape is your laughter muscle in?