The Y? Factor

As regular readers of The Merchants' Tale will be well aware, I am a big fan of talent shows, Pop Idol, Britain's got Talent, Nancies etc. For some reason, however, I have never really got into The X Factor and after last weekend's offering it is right off the viewing agenda because:

a) Simon Cowell has gone soft and is letting through contestants, especially groups of siblings who, even to my untutored ear, simply cannot sing in tune. Message to future wanna be's - if you have no talent, whine, wheedle and weep for long enough and you will succeed.

b) I cannot bear to hear another self-deluded 16 - 25 year old announce that "singing is my whole life", "It's all I've ever wanted" and, worst of all, "If I don't get through, my life will be over!". It's bad enough from the 45 year olds.

But then I am the mean old mother who refused to let my very talented daughter leave university to attend BIMM (Brighton Institute of Modern Music - or something similar) and insisted she got a teaching degree instead.

On a slightly different (but not entirely unrelated) topic, a friend of mine who works in primary education told me she was non-plussed to witness a lesson where 6 year olds were being taught about "Rhyming Couplets" (pronounced coo-play). My astonishment was two fold as the vast majority of the 11 year olds whom I was recently employed to "supervise" would not have recognised a rhyming couplet/coo-play if it had sprouted wings and flown off the page to hit them smack between the eyes. The novel pronunciation was a total mystery, especially in a town where a ladies fashion emporium of my fairly regular acquaintance is almost universally known as "Bonn March".