Stephen Fry is my hero

He really is.

Although this obsession only recently started gaining momentum.

It all began with this tweet:

Swoon indeed. I didn't even know he had produced this documentary series. I eagerly read the blurb to my husband, part of which reads: "The series travels the globe as Fry takes viewers on a journey through the thousands of years since man first mastered speech to the cyber world of today ... Revealing how language is used, abused and continues to evolve, Fry's Planet Word looks at whether we are any closer to understanding the most complex activity of the human brain."

"Well, I bet that made your day," said my husband, after I paused for breath.

And, boy, did it! Until I discovered that the documentary - all 291 blissful minutes of it - is not (yet, I hope) available in South Africa. Damn and blast!

The book is, however. And I need them both. NEED them!

And then this too-awesome-for-er-words video appeared by chance in my inbox yesterday, in a newsletter forwarded to me by my boss. I've watched it ten times, and it's playing in my ear as I type. Two Stephen Fry nuggets of gold in one week! What luck!

AND it just so happens that a Top Gear re-run on SABC 3 on Sunday featured none other than the man himself, although I must say that he's better at steering language than he is a reasonably-priced car.


I think the universe is trying to tell me something...

I'm only glad that I have a handful of friends and an awesome professor who get as excited as I do about all things language, grammar and punctuation. It might be a good place to point out that I am in the language business and am also a current language student. No bias, whatsoever, then.

Now you'll excuse me while I watch that video for the 11th time....