"Welcome back, you're on CNN Sport. Ed: you have some news for us, I hear?"
"Well, more a case of no news, Dave. There has been a rumour flying around that the much-travelled Tannin is upset with his new avatar."
"Yes, so I heard, Ed. The streets of Bagdad are alive with it. Anything to it?"
"Actually, no, Dave. It seems that it's just yet another case of Tannin opening his big mouth trying to make a joke - a post about not making a post - and having it misinterpreted."
"Same old story, Ed. He does it all the time."
"Faid so, Dave. He's notorious for it. In fact, I understand that he sees himself as a bit of a bull in a china shop and had quite a chucke at it."
"But speaking of avatars, Ed, there was a move afoot to come up with a new and better one for us. Anything happening there?"
"More bad news, Dave. Seems the studio is cost-cutting again and we have been told we will have to make do with the old one for a bit longer. They've laid off the entire avatar department."
"That's a shame, Ed. It's a particularly boring avatar, in my opinion, and long overdue for replacement. It must be older than your underwear."
"Umm ... yes. Ahhh ..."
"Maybe we could put it to our viewers?"
"That's disgusting, Dave!"
"No, no. I'm talking about our avatar."
"Like have a competition or something?"
"Yup. Call it something fun and exciting like ... er ... Ho about 'The New Avatar for CNN Sport Competition'?"
"Ahh, I think the name could use a little work. But sure. Let's do it. The viewers could send in avatars and win a prize. For first prize we could have ... er .... Are there any prizes, Ed?"
"Nope. Studio's cutting back on the prizes department too."
"Right. Well, it must be time we took a break for some messages. We will be right back after ... er ... there don't seem to be any messages. We'll take a station break."
Which is sort of the whole point of this, eh?
