26/1/02 - Biggest laugh-out-loud line in a 'serious' movie?  I vote for this from When Night Is Falling:

"Petra:  Camille, I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire."

26/1/02 - A great article about Marmite: [warning: NYT registration] (via qwertyuiop)

"Utilitarian it may be, but there are problems. Kiss someone who has just eaten Marmite, and you'll think you were licking paint."

26/1/02 - Tom Tomorrow has a weblog. (via Anita's LOL)

26/1/02 - Are YOU clever enough to crack the Patricia Cornwell website?  The result is not worth the effort.  The Flash version is especially hideous.

24/1/02 - It's the latest craze, Googlewhacking, but it has its roots at the dawn of Internet time (well, 1997), Society Against One Hit Wonders on AltaVista / A Fabulous Search Engine Game.

20/1/02 - Ninety-nine percent of weblogs:

19/1/02 - Bret Easton Ellis or one lying m***********?

19/1/02 - I watched a fascinating documentary of Channel 4, No Going Back.  The series is about various families who pack up and move on to new lives.  Wednesday's episode was no 'Year in Provence' though.  The Gaskin family decided to move to an island on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua.  (That should have been a warning, had they not read the book or seen the movie?)

From the start it was obvious they were ridiculously underprepared but what started out as just arguments, money shortages and unwelcome visitors (drug smugglers), turned into gunshots, kidnapping and death.  It was fascinating stuff.

These are some of the articles on the affair in the local press, in Spanish I'm afraid.

There is still a webpage for the island, Janique; no one has updated it for a while:

"A major UK television company is making a documentary about our family move to Nicaragua. It will show the making of the resort, from the planning stages to the grand opening and whatever happens after that! We hope that either you will be one of our first divers and get in on the action, or alternatively, that the programme will inspire you to come and dive with us at Janique."

19/1/02 - A great archive of concerts, including the Mountain Goats and a reformed Spacemen 3! (With no Jason Spaceman of course.)

19/1/02 - Fascinating article on British sitcom spin-off films, a select few of which the BBC decided to punish us with over Christmas.  Ah, the good old days:

"Coarse and anachronistic, the film version of On the Buses sees Stan and his repellant colleague Jack (Bob Grant) scheming to "put a stop" to a liberal company policy that allows the employment of female bus drivers... On the Buses soon became the most financially successful 1971 release at the British box office, outgrossing even Diamonds Are Forever. This may say a lot more about British society than it does about the merits of the picture, but the returns could not be argued with."

Wear this T-shirt and puzzle Americans:

19/1/02 - Too porky for rumpy:

"REX the sex-mad pig is being put out to grass — because he is too PORKY. The 36-stone stud, who can romp with 25 sows a week, is so fat he squashes them. After fathering 1,500 piglets, farm boss David Heugh reckons Rex could injure one of his mates.

David, 60, said last night: “Rex has filled his trotters for years servicing the sows morning, noon and night. But now his weight is a problem and it’s time for someone younger and slimmer to take over.”"