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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
What more could you ask for?
It was only 200 words long but it was the story that had everything.
If you were to dream up the ideal news piece, it would be something unexpected and slightly offbeat.
It would probably concern something basic that had gone wrong, preferably due to lack of care by the powers that be.
People would express anger at their incompetence, doing so in a pithily quotable way.
It may be politically incorrect to say so but the involvement of a photogenic young woman would do no harm at all.
And what could be better than a happy ending to round it alloff?
So the tale of the failed women's showers at Southwell was perfect.
It was sparked off by a heartfelt tweet from Hayley Turner - '@Southwell_Races I smell & it's ur fault!' - who summed it up today by saying: "It is 2012 and it is not like I am asking for a plasma tv and a jacuzzi."
The course reckoned not to have been able to get hold of a plumber as it was Christmas but their man turned up today and sorted things out.
So if you are riding tomorrow and you are female you will not have to go home covered in an unhygienic mixture of fibresand and perspiration.
Some good stories just rumble on, like the controversy over theChristmas Hurdle at Leopardstown and the technical fault that allowed one punter to lay way over the odds about the winner and run up a potential liability of £600million - a sum even the Chancellor of the Exchequer might struggle to lay his hands on.
All bets were voided at the time but the firm announced today it was making ex-gratia payments to those with successful in-running positions struck before the technology went awry - about a minute in apparently - though thatis unlikely to quieten those threatening to sue for non-payment of a too-good-to-be-true 28-1 bet on an obvious winner.
Even more excitement in a press release about the appointment of Nic Christodoulou at RaceTech, specifically the part which revealed that among his responsibilities in his former job at SiS Live were teleport operations.
But just as I thought racing was about to move into the sci-fi world of Blakes 7 it was pointed out I was thinking of teleportation.
Teleport is apparently a computer procedure that allows you to use a single mouse and keyboard to control several Macs.
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