Many fat ladies

The 2008 Olympics started at 8pm (China Time) on 8/8/08 because the number 8 is considered a lucky number by the Chinese.

And by C & A who got married today as well. Not at 8pm but rather earlier in the day. However, the cutting of the cake took place then.

Olympics: the Banality of Branding

What's with all this branding talk on TV. Even the BBC is at it. They no longer talk about the British team or Great Britain but it has to be "Team GB". Will Auntie be flogging t-shirts with that moniker on them?

Not content with ruining this Olympics, the next one is no longer the London Olympics or the 2012 Olympics but "London twenty-twelve". I hadn't realised I was living in twenty-oh-eight. What about all the non-Olympic events scheduled for 2012? What will they call themselves?

The branding culture isn't confined to sport. In insurance, the staid and nineteenth-century sounding Liverpool & Victoria company has rebranded itself "LV" and whatever happened to charming London Zoo? It now calls itself "ZSL", which is short for the distinguished and scientific Zoological Society of London.

Or, is this text-message abbreviation gone mad?