From the Man in a Shed, via James Higham: OK some sort of guidelines were asked for so here goes: For the whole of the week 27th July participants will mostly issue daft and silly posts. ( Moon made of cheese type stuff – or even some genuine left wing moonbattery that may be true [...]

I’ve been tagged in a slightly odd meme by the irrepressible Matt Wardman: The assignment: Your phone, exactly 139 words explaining why it is your phone, and a hero. Here goes… This is my phone. I use it to wake me up, email, text, Twitter, TwitPic, surf the internet, blog, read, write and even, to [...]

Tom Harris has a question: I have a question (well, three questions, actually): How many have you seen, how many do you already own on DVD (or video) and how many haven’t you seen? Take two points for every film you own and have seen (only one if you own it but haven’t got round [...]

One of the least attractive features of the current presidential campaign in the USA has been the scaremongering around Barack Obama. There have been allegations, which are just about understandable, if asinine, that he is some kind of dangerous socialist. What I have found rather more worrying is the branding of Obama as a Muslim. [...]

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. A headline in a British newspaper, perhaps apocryphal, in the 1940s about a severe fog that made it impossible to cross the Channel ran “Fog in Channel: Continent cut off”. Unfortunately, none of the papers saw fit to run this classic headline. xD.

Luke Akehurst has tagged me in the ‘what were you doing when you heard about…’ meme. Here we go… Princess Diana’s death – 31st August 1997 Summer holidays, waiting to go back to school. Dad woke me up and we watched things unfold on the television. Margaret Thatcher’s Resignation – 22nd November 1990 I would [...]

Norm Geras (not to mention Simon Thomas and a Random Jotter) are trying to do an A to Z of books they’ve read. Here’s my effort: a – Jorge Amado – Gabriela, Cravo e Canela b – Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 c – Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness d – JP Donleavy – [...]

The Winchester Whisperer has tagged me with a meme about household management – what tips can we pass on? WW has successfully used a stone cat as a mouse deterrent. I have three suggestions: If you have just spilt red wine on the carpet, white wine is good for removing the stain. Red wine should [...]

I have stumbled and mumbled my way onto a meme on Chris Dillow’s website – top ten songs beginning with a letter of the alphabet. I’m choosing the letter ‘B’. 1. Brown Eyed Handsome Man – Buddy Holly and the Crickets2. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel3. Blue Suede Shoes – Elvis Presley4. [...]

Ashok has started an interesting meme – what neglected issues should US presidential candidates address? The one I would go for is an area that affects most other policies – federalism. I think that the US systems is based on the federal government not having many competencies. Whether this is right or wrong, it is [...]