It's been a good week for … tooting
It's been a good week for … tooting
No-one likes to be left in the car while the grown-ups pop out to the shops. So 18-month-old Fern took matters into her own hands to vent her pique. Home alone in the car, she climbed into the driver's seat and sounded the horn hard for 15 minutes.
Did I say "took matters into her own hands"? Actually, I meant paws. Before you call the social work, I should clarify that the feisty Fern is a dog.
The attention-loving boxer is now, predictably, an 8000-hit online star after being filmed by passers-by leaning back in the driver's seat with her left paw resting on the steering wheel and repeatedly pressing the horn. If the window had been open and her right elbow resting on the door frame, it would not have seemed amiss. Fern is one cool dude of a dog.
Her owners, Graham and Fiona Haddow, from Liff in Angus, say they had only been wandering around the shops in Broughty Ferry for five minutes when they heard the faint sound of a car horn. Thinking little of it, they decided to browse an art gallery. But on returning to their car 15 minutes later they were surprised to see a large crowd gathered beside it. Fern had quite an audience and she was definitely top dog.
It's been a bad week for … spelling
Gemma Worrall, a 20-year-old beauty salon receptionist from Blackpool, is almost as famous as Fern following her own 15 minutes of dubious online fame. After watching a news programme about the unrest in Ukraine, she decided to join the debate. "If barraco barner is our president, why is he getting involved with Russia, scary", Worrall tweeted.
Politics is not her strong point, she admitted, but within 12 hours, her comment had been retweeted almost 7000 times and screenshots of her words were appearing on TV news shows worldwide.
Her notoriety continued all last week, with heavyweight commentators, including The Independent's Grace Dent, lining up to defend her against middle-class pedantry. In the Daily Mail, Woman's Hour's Jenni Murray pointed out Worrall's instinct that a Western leader shouldn't be getting involved in a dispute with Russia is "not stupid at all". All the same, added Murray: "Maybe next time she will be wise enough to keep her opinions to the confines of the beauty salon."
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