Having a fag

Having a fag in Kayseri 1, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We were travelling by tram into town yesterday to go to teh cinema to watch Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest, because it was raining and we did not feel like getting wet on our bicycles. The trams here are very modern and have video screens showing mostly adverts but also some snippets of news and weather forecasts - and sure enough it looks liie rain for the next five days, just as it has rained for the last five days. However, with a temperature of around 20 degrees, it is not too cold and every now and then the sun does come out.

Anyway, the video screen was telling us that various Tom and Jerry cartoons are going to be manipulated to remove any sights of people/cats/mice smoking. It said that the British public thought that it was inappropriate to show smoking in a children's cartoon.

Well, I would be interested to know how many of the British people actually think this. If it is more than 10% I would be very surprised. Disappointed too that so many people would have become infected with such politically correct nanny-state nonsense.

And if it is not the British public who think this, who or which organistation, thinks that it can speak for the British public and make such a ridiculous decision.

To some degree, a Tom and Jerry cartoon is an historic document, showing fashions, house interiors, ways of life and playing music from a certain era. To go round changing it, eradicating bits of the cartoon to match the perceived sensibilities of those in charge smacks heavily of totalitarianism of the worst Soviet or Chinese kind. Surely this has no place in the Mother Democracy and liberal thinking! When will they start eradicating disabled people from history? And then maybe gay people? And who will be next?

I do not smoke and I never have. I do not like it - it makes your breath smll, turns your teeth brown and weakens your lungs (hint hint). I do not think that smoking should be encouraged, but I really think it is taking things too far to eliminate such images from old Tom and Jerry cartoons. I wonder if the image of the black maid has already been removed? Anyway, I have decided to put up four pictures of people smoking, from one day's shotting in Turkey to mark this bit of nonsense.

We enjoyed the film, by the way, even though it was a bit longer on speacial effects (again really excellent) and shorter on story than we would have liked. Caprtain Jack Sparrow is an excellent creation and well done to Johnny Depp for having the guts to take the character to such an extreme. And, being a US financed film, of course we did not see a single pirate smoking.