I am *not* middle-aged. Well, not quite.

[major_clanger]

Perusing the Independent on Sunday's list of The 50 most ludicrous Britons who do I find after such worthy entries as Amy Winehouse, Boris Johnson and 'Characters in EastEnders who shout all the time'? Yes, it's 'Middle-aged Doctor Who fans'.

Prosecution: Harmless though such an enthusiasm may appear to be, a fondness for this festival of glitzy impossibilities is a warning sign that you could develop the kind of full-blown dementia so many psychiatrists have noted in science-fiction fans. Watch one too many episodes, and you are embarked on a slippery slope, at the bottom of which is collecting 'Star Wars' memorabilia and building your holidays around attending SciFiComCons at provincial Holiday Inns.

Defence: Sure, maybe anyone over 15 who's interested in sci-fi is a bit suspect, but perhaps these are just parents who have successfully found a bonding point with their 'Who'-obsessed kids. Lighten up.

Time to sack the Defence team, I think!

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Whoops.

[pmcray.livejournal.com]

What are "SciFiComCons"?

[andrewducker]

I assume "Com" is comic.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

I didn't think we used Holiday Inns often any more.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Since by this definition RTD is 'a ludicrous Briton' I am, in this instance, willing to cut the Defence some slack ;-)

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Actually, seems fair to me, as its always been a mystery why anyone beyond their teenage years likes Doctor Who.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

That annoys me too. As does the assumption that an adult must only ever be interested in something because their children are.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I loathe Doctor Who but that still makes me cross.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

What, no mention of D&D players???? Heads will roll...

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Any list of 'ludicrous Britons' that does not include Richard Madeley is deeply flawed.

[redbird]

I trust that whoever wrote that article has never collected anything whatsoever, nor built a holiday around seeing people rather than checking off Sites to See Before You Die.

Then again, I always want to put "people who compile and newspapers that publish lists of ludicrous people" on the lists of the ludicrous, because the idea that this is not merely judgeable, but objectively so, is itself extremely dubious.

[Posted from a chilly holiday destination, chosen so I can spend time with people I met on the Internet.]

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

the FT saturday magazine had a column on collecting; recently the writer talked about setting out to get a sheet's worth of black penny's, getting them, deciding to give up collecting stamps because he had achieved the fun bit and incidentally giving up the collecting column. I thought the story and personal development behind that would be much more interesting than the stamp story alone.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

This manner of irksome nonsense does not deserve the oxgygen of publicity. Sneering technophobic newspaper sneering and technophobic, film at 11.
I think the fact that it has any defence of Mad Mel Phil(l?)ips shows how far the Indy has fallen. As a reader from its second issue (and I remember how appallingly unctious the appallingly unctious local newsagent was that he couldn't get me a first issue) I gave up on it a couple of months ago. I was sad that it fell so far, I won't be sad when it goes bust.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

So, Counselor, what would your Defence arguments have been?

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

As the word ludicrous is derived from the Latin word for games, I would take pride in still being playful and funloving