Month: December 2005

  • Happy New Year From The RMT’s Bob Crow

    Yes, while Crow suns himself in Egypt, anyone who has to cross London to get to or from a New Year’s Party is out of luck. You might be able to use a train, and there are always buses, but the strike goes on. I’m pretty reasonable about strikes. If I think the union’s have…

  • Dinner For One

    Thanks to Slate for another story on the strangest televisual New Year’s tradition I’ve yet to hear about. Dinner For One is a sketch performed in English by two English actors that, since its first broadcast in 1963, has been repeated as part of the festivities pretty much every year across Germany and much of…

  • Studio 69

    This is the fist Annika Bengtzon book published in the UK, but might actually be the second or third in publishing order in Sweden. Whichever way around, it’s the first in chronological order. Anyway, junior reporter Annikia is introduced in this book working for a fictional Stockholm evening newspaper. She gets randomly assigned to a…

  • Snow

    Well the snow did arrive. Just not enough. And I’ve got to say that I’ve been a bit diasppointed by the sales this year. I think the best bargain I’ve had was picking up number 1 of Movie Musicals to get West Side Story for £2.99. And note that it is in full anamorphic widescreen…

  • Where’s the Snow

    I feel like a kid, but I’m just sitting here waiting for the much promised snow. Where is it? (Free registration reqd)

  • Ed Reardon’s Week

    First of all, if you haven’t already heard it, dash over right now to the BBC Radio Player and listen to last Wednesday’s first episode of the second series of Ed Reardon’s Week. Ed Reardon is quite the funniest creation I’ve heard (or seen) in some time; a writer by trade, although he has trouble…

  • Happy Christmas

    If you’re west of somewhere in mid-Atlantic, then it’s already Christmas. If you’re east of that point and somewhere north of Mexico and south of Canada, then it’s not quite yet Happy Holidays. Unless you’re Target, in which case you wished it was more Happy Christmas than Happy Holidays. To me it’s Christmas. But that’s…

  • Horses in London

    The most serene image of the day was one that faced me on Great Marlborough Street at 7.30 this morning – a line of horses trotting past. I think it must have been the Household Cavalry or something, but it’s really strange seeing so many horses in central London. Where’s a digital camera when you…

  • Intelligent Design – Not So Intelligent

    (OK, that headline’s a little misleading) [Update: I’ve completely changed my mind – that headline is utterly correct] Thank goodness the news has come through that in Dover, Pennsylvania schools cannot teach “Intelligent Design” because it’s really just Creationism. Hey, I’ve no problem if people want to believe the world was made in seven days.…

  • Shopping on Oxford Street

    One of the most stupid things you can do at this time of year is go shopping on Oxford Street. I mean, why would you decide, at this time of year, to go out into the heaving throngs to go shopping in the run-up to Christmas? Here are some random thoughts – good and bad…

  • Fact of the Day

    Which country consumes the most champagne? It’s the obvious answer – France. But which country consumes the next most champagne? You’d think that it might be America. It’s not. It’s the UK, and by quite a hefty margin. Well I was fascinated by this anyway.

  • Inside Films

    There’s a guy by the name of Edward Jay Epstein, who writes a column for Slate called “The Hollywood Economist”. I can’t recommend it enough for getting the real lowdown on that blackest of arts, money and movie industry. You know, all the stuff about various blockbusters that haven’t made money according to arcane Hollywood…