[sumo] [non sumo] Doreen on the Beeb

[Doreen Simmons]

Right!  Thanks, Ishidozan.

I got a call from the producer at 10:50 Saturday night, agreed to do 
the intereview, gave him some outline of my thinking on the subject, 
and he said he'd ring around 3:30 Sunday afternoon to confirm the time. 
On Sunday he said he'd like me to do it from their studio -- which put 
a different complexion on the job. I've done both phone interviews and 
studio interviews for the Beeb over the years, but having to spend an 
hour or two traveling for the sake of a 10-minute interview puts on a 
lot of extra burden. At least this time the studio was nearer,  in the 
new NTV Tower, just a step away from Shimbashi Station -- but I spent 
nearly 15 minutes trying to find the business entrance to the Tower 
(which has entrances at two sides and on three levels, and I started 
out on the family entertainment side and wrong level; by the time I 
made contact with the young woman in charge I was slightly tired -- and 
distinctly stroppy -- but still good and early for the interview).

What flummoxed me towards the end of the interview was a question about 
a 'training tour to Mongolia' which, the interviewer assumed, was to 
recruit more Mongolians! I knew that an official  visit was planned but 
believed it was a koen, but I couldn't figure out where 'training' came 
in;  they already have enough Mongolians for the present! Today I see 
that the word is used in the Kyodo report of the Kyokai announcement, 
so presumably it's a mistake by somebody who's never translated sumo 
before.

Doreen, relieved that today (Monday) is a public holiday, so I can 
catch up on a lost Sunday afternoon. I could really get used to these 
three-day weekends...

On 2008/02/10, at 21:40, William Stanford wrote:
>
> [delurking]
>
> Hi all
>
> Just now catching up on a few days of the list, while at the same time 
> listening to the BBC World Service, suddenly there was Doreen being 
> interviewed re the 'bad' heya.
>
> Doreen managed, very nicely, to turn the largely negative tone of the 
> questions to a positive look at Sumo in general...
>
> Go Doreen!!
>
> Ishidozan

Doreen Simmons
  jz8d-smmn at asahi-net.or.jp