They're no couch slouches: potato "protesters" outside parliament. Photograph: Michael Stephens/PA
"There's no such thing as a couch potato!" shouts a press release from the British Potato Council.
The British Potato Council is protesting in Parliament Square and outside the Oxford University Press to get the term "couch potato" removed from the dictionary and replaced with the lame alternative "couch slouch", because "In reality, potatoes are a low fat energy source and an excellent source of vitamin C - all essential for a healthy diet."
This non-announcement was embargoed until midnight last night: in case the "news" got out and the lexicographers resigned in horror, having been found banged to rights over their sloppy inclusion of the phrase.
Can I refer the British Potato Council to the definition of the word "metaphor"? What next? Will vineyards start calling for the abolition of "sour grapes" in favour of "slightly tart fruit"?
