GAA fans are freaking out about rule changes, the Thais are running amok and Baz Ashmawy is probably going to get shanked in prison. Pure Agro.
Picture of the Day: From bad to worse in Bangkok. Not a good time to take the missus shopping for fake designer handbags.
A Red Shirt anti-government protester walks with his arms up in a street near Ding Daeng intersection through the smoke of burnt tyres and debris in Bangkok on May 17, 2010. Thousands of protesters in the Thai capital defied a deadline to leave their fortified encampment despite the threat of a crackdown after street clashes that left at least 35 people dead. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images).
Tonight’s Telly
Pick of the night: Baz’s Extreme Worlds, RTÉ Two, 10.25pm.
Baz Ashmawy will be doing his best Louis Theroux impersonation tonight in the series, Extreme Worlds. Tonight, he finds himself at a rodeo event in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The maximum security big house holds 1,400 baying lunatics who for two days every year are permitted to participate in the world’s only ‘behind the walls’ prison rodeo. It’s going to be a rough ride for Baz. Heh, heh.
Sporting highlight: Charlton Athletic v Swindon Town, Sky Sports 1, 7:30.
There isn’t a huge amount of top-table sporting entertainment on the go tonight, but there are some athletes with it all to play for. The second leg of the League One Play-Off Semi-Final between Charlton Athletic and Swindon Town kicks off tonight at 7.30pm.
It’s been a tough few years for Charlton who not that long ago were holding their own in the Premier League. Since then though, the club has dive-bombed into the third tier of English football. Now however, they have a chance to turn their fortunes around – romp home against Swindon and they could soon be a season away from the top flight.
More TV: Derren Brown Investigates, Channel 4, 10.00pm.
Derren Brown of Trick of the Mind fame travels to Holland with a blind lady to investigate claims made by Vyacheslav Bronnikov, the founder of a psychic programme which he reckons can enable people to see without using their eyes. Unfortunately, Bronnikov is also a bit of a wing nut who happens to be set on world domination. So that’s a magician, a blind bird and a megalomaniac. Sounds like an idea for a sitcom.
Live Like JOE… Take to the streets!
The economy is in free-fall, unemployment is going through the roof and the weather has been mediocre so far this summer. There is only one thing for it – stop shouting at Anne Doyle when the news she gives you on RTE gets your goat, and take to the streets! The Greeks and the Thais are willing to wreck the gaff when things don’t go their way so JOE reckons we should be out there doing the same.
So daub a clever slogan on the back of a Cornflakes packet, wrap a scarf around your face and go start a revolution! Just try not to break anything. And clean up after yourselves if you make a mess.
Mood Swingometer
Today we’re feeling… irked.
So the GAA’s new hand-passing regulations were on display yesterday. We had the feeling things might get ropey when it was revealed that refs went into the dressing rooms just before throw in at the Kerry v Tip and Derry v Armagh games to give the players a quick crash course in acceptable hand passing technique. Might have been an idea to make sure they were all up-to-speed the rules of the game sooner than ten minutes before they were due to take to the field.
Kerry v Tip suffered with a few stoppages for unfathamoble hand-pass infringements while action in the Derry v Armagh game was pulled up so many times the match was a virtual write-off. The players, managers and match commentators were irked by the rule-fiddling, and so is JOE. I swear to God, if this messing fecks up the Championship there will be murder!
Ciaran Whelan has had his say on the contraversy in his exclusive JOE.ie column. Click here to read his thoughts.
