Back Again

Well, it's been over six months but I've decided to start writing stuff on here again because I quit teaching and hence don't have to worry about kids looking up Mr. Bradshaw on Google. Also, I'm unemployed and somewhat directionless, career-wise, so I have a lot of time to fill.

In the two weeks since I realised that becoming a teacher was not one of my brighter ideas, I've watched a lot of Peep Show. I won't bother telling you how wonderful Peep Show is, because every self-respecting student will have already done so at some point. What I will point out is that David Mitchell, one of the stars of Peep Show (the little one), has a brilliant internet comedy series in which he spends four minutes per episode being funny and correct about a particular subject. Check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV751g2FCWk&feature=channel

My only problem with this series (and it's really more of a comment than a problem) is that each episode is bookended by two adverts for male grooming products containing 'essential oils'. I don't know David Mitchell personally, but I do feel that he is the sort of person who, if freed from his sponsor's contractual constraints, might well lay into a phrase such as 'essential oils'.
"Essential oils?" his character might disbelievedly exclaim on an episode of Peep Show if Jez had just spent a lot of money on a product containing such oils. "How are they essential? What could possibly be essential about them? Is moisturising your face now considered to be a basic requirement for human life alongside food, water and oxygen? Are there cruel communist dictators who withold male grooming supplies from unwated ethnic groups, in the full knowledge that they contain essential oils?"
Putting aside the linguistic inflation that has caused words such as 'literally' and 'essential' to be deployed in such ridiculous settings, I can't help wondering at the wisdom of twinning a male grooming company's image with that of David Mitchell, a short, plump man who sports the same hairstyle in both real life and for the purpose of playing a sad, uncool, unfashionable sitcom character.

And now I've lost my thread.