Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Someone wise once told Paper Monitor that it's rather hard to write amusingly in newspapers.
One of the minor guilty secrets of Fleet Street is that all manner of whimsical columnists are recruited to write amusingly, but there's often no evidence of actual amusement occurring.
In fact, Paper Monitor often notices, the real humour in newspapers is inadvertent.
Exhibit A is a phrase from today's Daily Mail story on , with the image of him "repeatedly hurling himself into an ornamental water feature". It's hard to explain why it's amusing. It just is.
Another bit of inadvertent smirkery is found in the following nib (news-in-brief) in the Sun. A 43-year-old farmer "is to run his home on energy from rotten apples in Grafty Green, Kent". Er, Grafty Green?
And there's more. The Daily Star's piece on the £86m Euromillions jackpot carries the subheading: "Winner is worth two Kylies". A delightful new SI unit of wealth.