I will never talk to a journalist again
A few years back I was wandering around the shops in the centre of Bristol during my lunch break when I was stopped by a man waving a microphone in my face, “Excuse me sir, do you know what ‘APR’ stands for?” To which I replied “Annual Percentage Rate”. The man who I now recognised as one of the reporters from the local news team then followed up with “but do you understand the difference between ‘nominal APR’ and ‘effective APR’?” I explained that the ‘effective APR’ took into account the monthly compounding of interest whereas the ‘nominal APR’ did not. The reporter gave me a withering look and finally asked if I thought the average consumer understood such terminology, to which I replied “I have no idea, but probably not”.

That evening I was watching the local news and they were running a story about how evil credit card companies were using complicated jargon to confuse people and swindle them out of their hard earned cash. They then cut to their roving reporter who was asking the average man in the street whether they understood such terms as ‘nominal APR’. What followed was a montage of the usual carrot-crunchers they find for this sort of thing, furrowing their collective brows and exclaiming that they “hadn’t a clue”. Right at the end of this montage of Bristols finest minds was my very self, confidently stating “I have no idea”.

I was about to shout “Cunts!” at the telly, but my mobile started beeping away as text messages were received from friends and fellow accountants. Here is a collection of the ones I can remember:
“Don’t ask ME, I’m just an accountant”
“Me lose brain? Uh-Oh!”
“Ha ha you spacker!”
“Step into my office. Why? Cos you're fucking fired!”
“It stands for Am Probably Retarded”
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 14:33, 11 replies)

You should have sued them

( le brian, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 14:41, closed)

I have discussed this with various legal type friends
and none of them took it seriously.

I saw the funny side. Eventually.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 14:46, closed)

Big phat complaint
Which one was it?
Cos the lovely Ms Lovell would never let anything like that happen these days :)
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 15:47, closed)

Asses.
That is all.
(mariam67, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 15:50, closed)

Reminds me of the "It'll Be Alright On The Night" clip
Where they accost some bloke sunbathing in Russell Square (close to UCL of course) and ask him whether he understands science blah technobabble science blah technobabble kind of thing.

To which he replies, "Yes, I'm a particle physicist".


Classic.
(Capo, Thu 11 Jun 2009, 23:41, closed)

I remember that
I think he was asked if he knew what "Low level ozone" was.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Fri 12 Jun 2009, 11:15, closed)

Now thats fucking funny...
I'm sure any of your clients would've fucking loved to have seen that on the idiotbox.

Ha!!! *click*
( SpankyHanky, Fri 12 Jun 2009, 10:35, closed)

It was a worry
luckily it was never brought up
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Fri 12 Jun 2009, 11:19, closed)

Good God
Someone being mis-represented through editing? On the news? I will write a letter!

Quality story though, clicked!
( Rookie You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel, Fri 12 Jun 2009, 11:26, closed)

i've said it before and i'll say it again
i really really love you, colonel!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Wed 17 Jun 2009, 23:22, closed)

Aww shucks
*Blushes*
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 18 Jun 2009, 10:20, closed)