24/4/01 - Ooh, ooh, buy a Fifties-style trailer. (via Footprints)

24/4/01 - The 2001 Baddies, awful fashions in ice-skating (as if there is good fashion in ice-skating): (via Footprints)

24/4/01 - Another Sheffield weblogger, Blog me Joe; unfortunately too young to go to blogmeets.  And unfortunately not updated since November.

24/4/01 - Great quote from the thrift-list:

"I found this passage in "A Manual of Etiquette" and thought I'd share it:

"The Giving of Names"

"The Saxon names of Ethel and Edwin, Edith and Alfred, Bertha and Bertram, Alfreda and Arthur, Bessie and Herbert, are descended to us from English ancestry and are always attractive and pleasing... Do not disfigure your sweet little girls with the names of Hepsey, Betsey, Mehitable, Deborah, Jerusha, Arzina, Experience, Patience, Nancy, and Resignation; nor your bright boys with those of Obadiah, Jehiel, Zerubbabel, Zadel, Jedediah, Jeremiah, Abiram, Phinehas, Jehuran or Chedorlaomer, when you can substitute others which are so far preferable.""

"DISNEY, often a hotbed of artistic licence, has set a new £50 million thriller in the mountains of Norfolk, England's flattest county."

"I catch a cab, reveal my scam to the driver and ask if he was convinced. He is astonished, and demands to see the padding. 'Blimey. When I saw you running across the road like a fairy elephant I thought, "She's a big girl. I hope my cab can hold her."' 'So you were fooled?' 'Yeh, I thought, "Fat bastard". Ha ha.' I laugh, but I'm thinking, 'Bastard.'"

"I hit Versace, Gucci and Prada and instantly realise none of the womenswear is going to fit. 'Do you think Prada will ever do an outsize range?' I ask a sales assistant the size of my arm. 'No,' says the assistant with the same patronising smirk she would use if anyone asks, 'Do you think Prada will ever do a range of quiches?'"

"Images of strange & beautiful vinyl record sleeves from all times & places."

It's an old joke, but for everyone who wants to see the back of Tracey Emin: 

This is the nearest she has to a home page. 

22/4/01 - From Roger Ebert's review of the new Tom Green movie: 

"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."

"They include The Bonny Labouring Boy, by Harry Cox of Catfield, Knapton’s Walter Pardon and A World Without Horses, Now is the Time for Fishing, by Sam Larner of Winterton, and English Country Music, featuring Billy Cooper of Hingham and Walter & Daisy Bulwer of Shipdham."

22/4/01 - It seems there's going to be a large celebration of Japanese culture for the next year. 

22/4/01 - A fundraising event for the Sheffield Socialist Alliance featuring John Hegley: 

"My doggie don't wear glasses" 

my doggie don't wear glasses 
so they're lying when they say 
a dog looks like its owner 
aren't they

"Late at night, with rain gently tapping on the window, owls hooting in the distance, just turn your dial to Radio 4 and feel yourself being transported by the soothing tones; and imagine the ships at sea, cutting through the waves, the sailors huddled up to the speakers listening for news of storms on the horizon."

"Mrs Annison's letter, also on p.692, about the BBC's treatment of the Bells on Sunday broadcast helps to put things in perspective. The tens of thousands of bellringers in the country are regarded by the BBC as a minority interest group and therefore bellringing has been excluded from prime listening time."

22/4/01 - Stylish AND functional: (via My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)

"Shoes of The Fisherman® sandals act like oversized rubber stamps, leaving the message JESUS LOVES YOU"

"What kind of person is your typical Mountain Goats fan? 

"There really isn't a typical Mountain Goats fan," he admits. "The three biggest Mountain Goats fans in the world are nothing like one another, though that didn't stop two of them from wearing identical blue-and-white gingham shirts to a San Francisco show without ever having consulted with one another about what they were going to wear. They just picked out the same shirt to wear to the show. It was kind of scary.""

22/4/01 - New Philip Larkin: 

"TWO novellas written by Philip Larkin, which depict lesbian romps at a girls' school and an Oxbridge college, are to be published for the first time."

"1979 President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a rabbit. At least that is what he claims. Cecil Adams of Straight Dope later tries to clarify the matter: "The rabbit incident happened while Carter was taking a few days off in Plains, Georgia. He was fishing from a canoe in a pond when he spotted the fateful rabbit swimming toward him. It was never precisely determined what the rabbit's problem was..."

20/4/01 - Article on Black Box Recorder, one of the rare albums I've bought at full price in the last year. 

20/4/01 - De-stressing rabbits: (via Grauniad weblog) 

"All of which has brought the 21-year-old masseuse, wearing big white bunny ears and a gold kimono, for a demonstration at A Likely Story bookshop in Old Town, where she is explaining to a couple of rapt children that she massages rabbits as part of an effort to make them calmer, happier, more affectionate and trusting animals."

Part of the upcoming May Day celebrations. 

20/4/01 - Last five Napster downloads: 

Neil Young - Southern Man 
Loop - Mother Sky 
The Southern Jubilees - There's A Man In Jerusalem 
Jim White - A Perfect Day to Chase Tornados 
The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby

20/4/01 - I'm steadily working through Q's buyers guides, seeing what I'm missing. 

20/4/01 - Nuclear strike on central London?  No problem just make sure you have plenty of tea: 

"Addressing the issue of evacuation centres, it stated: "It is assumed that all centres will hold sufficient stock for the first tea-making.""

19/4/01 - A description of Sheffield circa 1832.  There are whole bunch of interesting genealogical resources relating to Sheffield at this site including this: 

"A Note of the names of suche Persons wh did weare Hatts ~& not Cappes in Sheffeld Churche contrary to the Statute in that behalfe made the xixth daye of Maye Anno Dni, 1577."

19/4/01 - Nice piece on the restoration of the Lensic Theatre, Santa Fe. [Warning: NYT registration] 

19/4/01 - More music. 

John's top ten funk and groove hits on vinyl. 

Reviews of Northern Soul collections on CD. 

19/4/01 - Battle of the British sci-fi women, Trillian vs Servalan. It seems the BBC costume department is underfunded when it comes to female cast members old British sci-fi shows. 

19/4/01 - In the spirit of methylsalicylate, is Anne Robinson really Dieter from Sprockets? 

Idea suggested by this article.  Generally OK but I can't agree with this: 

"Thus the success of Weakest Link, a game show that captures the national longing for the Queen Nanny, Margaret Thatcher, to return from the wilderness and bully everyone back into shape."