Gutter Press

Ahh, this image works so many ways today. It's a bit like the one I posted yesterday Forgotten and Decaying and another last week Discarded and Forgotten. Lack of originality or personal style? I've not yet decided...

So what way does this image work?

Well firstly I'm reading a biography of Winston Churchill at the moment. I was inspired to get it for Christmas from my parents a few years back by a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms, but I've only just got round to attacking the rather enormous 980 page volume. I've scarcely scratched the surface of the 20th century yet, but still he has become a hero of the Boer war, escaped from captivity as a prisoner of war, published 4 books, become famous as a war correspondent, and been elected as an MP. He's only about 25 too - it makes me feel thoroughly inadequate... What is so curious to me is that his early life is more than enough to justify considerable fame, but whole generations will never look back further than WWII...

So how does this connect to the picture. Well if you go big - you may make out an advert that made me laugh out loud this morning on the bus. It has a picture of Hitler giving the famous straight armed salute, and Churchill giving the equally famous V for Victory (he's clearly a marketing expert - spot on messaging). The caption in the advert is "SCISSORS BEATS PAPER" - think about it... Yes, they are trying to make out WWII was nothing more than a game of scissors/paper/stone between Hitler and Churchill. It's just as well Churchill went for the V (scissors) rather than a clenched fist (stone) which would have been wrapped by the flat handed Nazi salute (paper). The advert is for a book I think...

Another reason this seems appropriate is that in the twittersphere/blogosphere today is aflame with indignation at the excesses of the gutter press. Putting Danni's little faux pas into the shade is the horrible piece of gutter nonsense in the daily mail. I'm not going to link the article or mention the journo as they don't deserve the airtime, but this splenic rant does a good job of discrediting the piece and this great spoof is worth a read if you want a chuckle. Of course, the indignation of the twitterati is a bit ironic given how much horrible nonsense is published on the web...

Hmm, I seem to have written an essay today...

Normal (sketchy) service will probably be resumed tomorrow...