DID you know it was seven years ago this week that Ronnie Pickering became an internet sensation?
What do you mean who?
Ronnie Pickering.
Still no wiser?
RONNIE PICKERING!!!
Yes, seven years ago local man Ronnie Pickering wrote himself into Hull folklore when a video of him angrily confronting a moped rider went viral on YouTube.
The road rage incident included highlights such as Ronnie asking the other motorist if he knew who he was and challenging him to a bare knuckle fight at a bus stop all while Pickering’s female passenger stares straight ahead through the windscreen seemingly blissfully unaware while he is going ballistic beside her.
The incident, filmed by the moped rider on a GoPro camera attached to his helmet and later uploaded to YouTube, happened back in September 2015 and made an overnight sensation of Ronnie, from Hull’s gritty Bransholme housing estate.
The phrase, “I’m Ronnie Pickering” was as popular then as “You have no authority here Jackie Weaver”, the famous line from the Handforth Parish Council Zoom meeting which became a viral sensation during lockdown.
The Ronnie Pickering episode was edited into countless other versions including my favourite, where Ronnie’s comments were added to film of Liam Neeson in Taken outlining his “particular set of skills”.
The original film is here if you want to watch it. I’ll warn you now there is some choice language involved.
I even had the idea at the time to invite Ronnie Pickering to appear as a guest at a lunch I was putting on at The Foundry restaurant in Leeds.
I wasn’t expecting him to give a speech on Roman history or Greek mythology, but I thought it might be quite funny if he burst into the restaurant while I was making the introduction and picked a fight with me while I wound him up by asking him who he was.
It got to the point where I got in contact with someone in Hull who said he knew him and I got a call on my mobile which started with the words: “This is Ronnie Pickering.”
I resisted the opportunity to ask: “Who?” and entered negotiations to bring the viral sensation along the M62 to Leeds.
He seemed a little perplexed by the interest that his YouTube appearance had garnered and wanted to bring a boxing manager along with him to the event which left me slightly perturbed.
In any event it never happened and I’m not sure whether that was because I lost my nerve, decided it wasn’t a great idea in the first place or Ronnie had second thoughts and didn’t fancy cashing in on his notoriety.
But it seems that even seven years on Ronnie Pickering is finding new found fame on social media platform TikTok which wasn’t even invented when the incident first took place.
Now TikTok users have created a host of video clips of his few minutes of YouTube fame which have been viewed millions of times.
Grandad Ronnie, now 61, may now feel like changing his mind about exploiting his notoriety.
Perhaps I should offer my services as his agent.
I wonder if he remembers me?
I’M DAVID PARKIN!!!
:::
A BBC employee of my acquaintance tells me that the new purpose-built hi-tech studio for the BBC News flagship shows at 6pm and 10pm cost £10m.
It is the one where the host, such as Huw Edwards on the 10 O’ Clock News, rather than traditionally sitting behind a desk, can stand in front of a big screen of video or graphics.
At the end of the programme they walk over to the screen which is split up with live images of regional newsreaders around the country.
I quite like the format and can’t get uptight about the cost, but maybe that is because I haven’t read the Daily Mail or the Daily Express for some time.
Where I have been offended by this new studio is when it comes to the weather forecast.
Previously we only saw the top half of the weather presenter next to a map of the UK.
And that only allowed us to see a couple of sartorial faux pas by the male weather forecasters such as buttoning both of the buttons on their suit jackets and having far too big a tie knot for their shirt collar.
Now with the new full length format we get to see them from head to toe.
One weatherman I viewed last week was wearing a black suit with not just both buttons fastened but shod in a pair of scuffed brown shoes with toes that turned upwards.
Disgraceful.
I think tailor par excellence James Michelsberg needs sending into the studio to wave his sartorial wand in the direction of the weathermen.
In fact I could imagine him unfurling his elegant black umbrella with wooden handle and parachuting into the studio Mary Poppins-style.
He loves a theatrical flourish, does Michelsberg.
:::
I WAS reading a guide to using a new work tool called Trello, the other day.
It describes itself as “the visual work management tool that empowers teams to ideate, plan, manage, and celebrate their work together in a collaborative, productive, and organized way”.
Typical American blarney but what struck me most was the use of the word “ideate”.
As far as I was aware it isn’t a real word.
And if somebody asked me to “ideate” with them I’d give them a slap.
But subsequent research informs me that this word, meaning the ‘formulation of ideas’, is actually quite an old word.
It came into English in the 1600s, mostly as a term used in discussing Plato’s philosophy.
But that doesn’t make it right to use.
And apparently it has been voted one of the worst jargon words in business, along with its cousin, ideation, as in “Let’s have an ideation session.”
What’s wrong with just saying: “Let’s have a meeting to think about this”?
But then you could say that about some other phrases that have become well used in the business world.
Instead of saying, “Let’s go after the low-hanging fruit, say, “Lets go after the easiest sales targets first.”
Or rather than “reaching out” to someone, you could simply “get in touch” with them.
And one of the most hated phrases in business, according to several surveys, is “circle back” which means in English, “let’s talk about it later”.
Also worth a mention is its closely related jargon phrase “take it offline”.
Experts say that “take it offline” is a slightly sharper, more annoyed, “circle back”.
Which, if you’ve ever been in a meeting and heard somebody use it, really means: “I don’t have time to talk to you now. Stop bothering me.”
:::
I’M away in West Wales next week breaking in my new hiking boots on small sections of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path.
Hopefully those sections that are nearest a pub.
So the blog will return in two weeks time.
And I aim to return from Wales ruddy cheeked and breathless, either from walking its coast, or from too much time in the pub.
Have a great weekend.