1 June 2012 (Friday) - Gabrielle Birchak

A sad thought - - today was the day of the funeral of the man who designed the Chopper. Anyone who's of a certain age will remember *the* bike to have. Long before mountain bikes and BMX were the rage, the Chopper was the bike to be seen riding. It looked rather like a Harley Davidson, but without the engine. Mine was blue. I loved it. I'm amazed they have never made a comeback. But the designer died recently, and they buried him today. It must be wonderful to be able to leave something that was so popular.

I wonder if anything I do will be as well remembered when my number is up.

Today was the first Friday of the month, so in a novel break with tradition we had astro club. An excellent talk on the planet Venus, an excellent talk on the night sky. The club goes from strength to strength,

And talking of things astronomical leads me on to someone who used to work for NASA's jet propulsion laboratory - Gabrielle Birchak: actress, comedian, political commentator. She seems to be cropping up everywhere at the moment. The official Website of Gabrielle Birchak is well worth a look - it gives you a flavour of what she's about.Have you seen her on You-Tube? Gabrielle Birchak on YouTube is very good. Give her a try. Possibly not everyone's cup of tea, but then what comedian is?

I've come to be rather impressed by her. There's no denying that I'd rather gone off of stand-up comedy lately: there should be far more to it than just putting on a smug grin and leering at the audience. Just lately that seems to be the formula employed by most comics. But not Gabrielle Birchak.

Seeing her perform has restored my faith in the stand-up comic. With one or two more like her on Comedy Central the channel might be worth having again.