Pate for the masses?

At such times of glaringly opposite opinion it can be useful to bite one's lip.

This was brought home to me in sharp perspective yesterday while I was admiring a work of art on display at a bar in Wolverhampton.

There had already been a distinctly arty feel about the video desk this week.

That was triggered by my visit to Wolverhampton Art Gallery to take a look around it's new Pop Art exhibition.

In video terms this was an open goal as the striking images were perfect material for my camera.

The technicolour collection, including works by Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Peter Blake, must have reconnected my dormant art antenna because during a trip to The Quadrant Lounge I found myself examining a series of prints hanging on its walls.

Continuing the pop art theme, they were simple reproductions of lines from well known songs.

To be honest they weren't the best examples of sophisticated artistic techinque - no pained fretting about perspective or light for the artist.

But, being a big Marvin Gaye fan, I was drawn to a print which carried lines from What's Going On.

However, my enthusiasm was not shared by another customer who couldn't help airing his own take on its merit.

Straining to see a website address underneath the print I asked a friend: "What is it?"

Quick as a flash the bloke at the next table interjected: "It's complete rubbish, that's what it is."

As his opinion hadn't been requested I couldn't quite see why it was offered - a moment to bite one's lip perhaps.

And therein lies a huge irony as minutes later I noticed he was at the bar asking for a tissue.

Why?

Well, he'd somehow managed to literally bite through his bottom lip.

I can't help feeling there was some poetic force at play - a timely, if painful reminder that he should have been a little more reticent.

Having witnessed this "sign" it's conceivable that I might take a more conservative approach to offering my own opinions.

But how am I supposed to do this in a week when the BBC launched The Underdog Show?

I caught a fleeting glimpse of this on Tuesday night but that was all I needed to become absolutely convinced the licence fee should be abolished.

For anyone fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the programme it is effectively a low-budget, celebrity version of Crufts.

It's also a gross abuse of my hard earned cash.

The whole celebrities singing/dancing/skating/belching format is beginning to look as tired and worn as a pair of Bernard Manning's Y-fronts - but that hasn't stopped our national broadcaster taking another shaving from the bottom of the barrel in a display of massive complacency.

There again this could be someone else's parfait to my avian internal organ.

I just wouldn't want to have dinner with them.