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Found my glasses on the morning walk - right in the path just inside the field. A bit frosted up, but amazingly no one had stepped on them.
Our neighbour noticed that we had a wasps nest in the brickwork of our house so today a man came over to deal with it. I fancifully imagined that he might get up on a ladder and somehow removed the nest and the wasps and take them to a wasp farm. But he just got a long pipe and pumped gas through it and aimed it at the hole. He told me that the particles would stick to the wasps and the nerve gas would kill them. And the nest would be destroyed as the wasps would head to protect the queen, surrounding her with their poisoned bodies which would then kill her.
It was a little bit Game of Thrones and more brutal and slow than I might have thought. But to be honest, if this meant there weren't wasps buzzing around right by my bathroom then I was cool with it.
The kids watched on from the garden. I told them that the gas would just put the wasps to sleep for a hundred years, at which point they'd wake up and go about their business, but it would be someone else's problem.
Confused wasps flew around by their old home, not knowing how to get in any more, unaware that their queen was about to succumb to nerve gas.
That will teach them to mess with me.
Loads of things happening at once today gave the possibly false impression that things are happening. But maybe they are. If I can remain Covid free for the next 8 days I will be recording a TV show too.
The new book was officially announced this morning and is already available for preorder (and the preorder of the audio book, read by me, will be up in the next couple of day)
You can order from other places than Amazon, though it is super helpful for the future of the book if it can do well for pre orders at the major retailers. So if you’ve enjoyed the International When’s International Men’s Day? Day shenanigans then I hope you will order the book. There’s a lot more to it than that one question by the way. I had some personal revelations writing it and I think it’s a funny and interesting read.
Here’s the press release
The Problem With Men Press Release
Richard Herring’s new book to examine International Men’s DaySphere have acquired The Problem with Men: When is International Men’s Day – and why it matters, from writer and comedian Richard Herring. Editorial Director Rhiannon Smith bought World rights from Avalon.
For the past nine years, Richard Herring has been answering sexist trolls on International Women's Day when they ask 'when is International Men's Day?' in the mistaken belief there isn't one. If only the trolls had learned to use Google they'd realise that there is an International Men's Day – it's on November 19th.
In his new book Richard expands on his Twitter discussions and tackles some of the big questions surrounding the problems of toxic masculinity – for women, but also for men. With Richard's signature humour and insight, The Problem with Men is a book for anyone striving for an equal society, all year round.Sphere will publish in print, eBook and audio in November 2020
Author biography
Richard Herring has enjoyed phenomenal success as a writer and performer and is an innovator in the world of podcasts. Persistently placing in the Top 10 UK Comedy Podcast chart, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast sees him interview top comedians in front of a live audience, with previous guests including Sir Michael Palin, Dawn French and Grayson Perry. He has written and appeared in a number of critically acclaimed plays, is a frequent guest on television panel shows, and regularly tours as a stand-up comedian.
Smith says, ‘I’ve always been so impressed Rich’s hard work and amazing charity efforts in highlighting the issues around asking ‘When’s International Men’s Day’. His writing about equality and dismantling toxic masculinity is as brilliant, insightful, and of course, humorous, in book form as it is in 280 characters. It is such an important subject, and great to see it explored from a new perspective.’
Herring says, ‘I have been trying to stop men asking “When’s International Men’s Day?” on International Women’s Day for over a decade now, but to no avail. So I am hoping that with this book I can finally encourage men to put their efforts into actually celebrating International Men’s Day instead (it’s on November 19th, by the way). It’s been eye-opening for me to investigate why men are this strange mixture of over confidence and over sensitivity and what drives this knee-jerk reaction to anything that challenges the status quo, even though most men would be beneficiaries of change. Hopefully it all means I never have to answer that one question ever again.’
Tonight we watch Will Ferrell’s Eurovision film which has a few funny moments (enjoy the biscuits), but is ultimately a bit pointless, as Eurovision is beyond parody. I also found it hard to get into the reality of it when the two leads are shown as roughly the same age as Abba win the contest in the early 70s, but then look like they have a 20 year age gap as adults (in reality they are 11 years apart). Ferrell is 4 days younger than me and thus in the modern day would be more or less playing his age, but his maybe sister should also be in her 50s. Not that the film follows logic, but it’s just a bit upsetting to see the disparity between male and female actors again. Rachel McAdams is very good in the film and deserves the part, but it might have made more sense to have the children watching a performance from the 90s and both being in their 30s. Obviously Ferrell is the box office draw (not that it’s on at the cinema) and is a funny guy, but why not have a funny woman in her fifties in this film too?
