"Life can indeed imitate art, at least in Norwich. The BBC has had to apologise after the second on-air swearing incident in a month involving Stewart White, presenter on its Look East regional news show. Just weeks after viewers overheard a video editor shouting "get on with it you fucking dick" as White interviewed a county councillor, the hapless presenter last week fluffed his lines and said "bugger". It was a performance to warm the heart of Alan Partridge, banished to the 4.30am slot on Radio Norwich after decking the BBC's "chief commissioning editor" with a turkey."

13/8/02 - From the Grauniad's Informer:

"IN THE GUARDIAN TOMORROW

* In Parents: the scheme giving single mothers contact with men"

12/8/02 - From a review of 'A Guide to English in the 21st Century':

"Practices also change. We laugh today at Dr. Johnson's efforts to eliminate such new words as fun and clever. And we know that when Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes in a honeymoon letter, "After two months of uninterrupted intercourse he loves me better every day," she's not nominating Robert as the Billy Bob Thornton of his time."

12/8/02 - Law exam questions based on the plots from cartoons: (via Boing Boing)

"B. (6%) 
Julius Hibbert, M.D., is an avid collector of comic books. His favorite supplier of comic books, Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, has been having difficult financial times. The store?s sole proprietor, who we will call "Comic Book Guy," agrees to let Hibbert invest in the business. Hibbert agrees to invest $50,000 with the following conditions (1) the store will incorporate, (2) Hibbert will receive 51% of the new corporation?s common stock, (3) the store will continue to do business as "Android?s Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, and (4) Comic Book Guy will manage and operate the business. Comic Book Guy is agreeable to this arrangement provided that Hibbert take of the incorporation process. Hibbert?s $50,000 investment is spent to renovate the store?s interior.

Hibbert drafted incorporation papers but never mailed them to the secretary of state. In the ordinary course of business, Comic Book Guy replenishes the store?s inventory by placing a $5,000 order for more comic books. Android?s Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop is unable to pay the invoice. Discuss the personal liability of both Hibbert and Comic Book Guy for the $5,000. Assume the relevant jurisdiction is governed by RUPA and the MBCA."

11/8/02 - Steve Coogan in the NY Times.  Includes a little taste of the new Alan Partridge series:

"In one recently taped episode, Partridge shares his views on religion. ''I don't see heaven in the sense of fat babies with wings playing compact harps for other fat babies with wings,'' he blares out, before his voice turns unusually cheerful. ''But I do have a strong sense of hell, where people who have been mean to me personally will suffer terribly. And that brings me joy.''"

11/8/02 - A page on graphical user interfaces for websites.  Unfortunately it could do with taking some of the lessons to heart.

I do like Senator Harman's Virtual Office.

11/8/02 - Socialist music and speeches, including Lenin and Trotsky.

11/8/02 - A very nice guide to Billy Bragg based on the London Underground map.

A handy tube map that's to scale.  Thereby avoiding the Bill Bryson problem:

"As Bill Bryson pointed out in his book Notes From a Small Island, an out-of-town visitor using Mr. Beck's map to get from, say, Bank Station to Mansion House would quite understandably board a Central Line train to Liverpool Street, transfer to the Circle Line and continue for another five stops to Mansion House - and emerge 200 yards down the street from where he started."

"The other problem with Mr. Beck's alternative London is that the station names are so enchanting and fanciful that above-ground London, beguiling as it may be, can't live up to their suggestion. As you rumble through the dark, dank bowels of the city, your mind conjures up the fairy-tale world of Elephant & Castle, Swiss Cottage, Chalk Farm and Pudding Mill Lane."

Mr Beck is Harry Beck, now available as a trading card!  Does he trump Eric Gill?

Another version of the tube map, 'The Great Bear' by Simon Patterson:

11/8/02 - My current setup for replacing Audiogalaxy.  WinMX plus OpenNap.

11/8/02 - If there's a musical about Greggs there should be an opera about Lily's:

"Girl meets pie...girl falls in love with pie...pie dumps girl...girl eats pie! Jam-filled journeys through pastry..."

10/8/02 - A better link on the second series of Footballers' Wives.  It sounds like it will be as ridiculously tacky as last time:

"Producers of Footballers' Wives have defended a storyline in which Gillian Taylforth's character gives birth to a hermaphrodite baby."

10/8/02 - In Boing Boing's guestbar: Geek Girls: How to Tell if You Have a Crush:

"...
4) Incessantly checking e-mail--even checking your "deleted items" folder for missed messages. Maybe he's already e-mailed, and your in-box filters have just gone haywire, or he's inserted four-letter words in the subject line that triggered a spam filter.

(5) You keep IM turned on and "available." 'Cause sugar, you are.
..."

10/8/02 - The Sight and Sound Top Ten best films of all time. Citizen Kane? Check. La Règle du Jeu? Check. Tokyo Story? Check. 8½? Check.

10/8/02 - Hurrah, Footballers' Wives will return for a second series.