And a potted history.

28/10/00 - Sheffield pubs that serve Old Peculier.

The Old Queens Head.

Not many is it!

28/10/00 - Some handy guides to pubs in Sheffield.

From the Real Ale and Cider Society. (Yay, The Red Deer!)

From Swineherd Unlimited.  They have the SuperTram pub crawl which features The New Barrack Tavern:

"Next Stop Bamforth Street (don't worry about all the pubs you passed on the way we'll get back to those later). Walk down Bamforth Street until you come to The New Barrack Tavern on Penistone Road. This was Sheffield CAMRA's pub of the year for 1998 and runner-up as Yorkshire Regional Pub of the Year. Plenty of choice, Abbeydale, Barnsley and several guest beers plus a wide range of imported bottled beers. This is also a good place to stop for a meal."

28/10/00 - My choice of mobile phone melody?  Kraftwerk's 'The Model':

"+e+ca+c+e+c+e+f+e+ca+c+E+D+e+ca+c+e+c+e+f+e+ca+c+E+D"

28/10/00 - Who is your favourite Powerpuff Girl?  Take part in the poll on wenchlog.

28/10/00 - If you're ever in Banham you have to go to the Cider Shed.

28/10/00 - Famous jazz photograph. (vis sysfail)

(I wonder if sysfail is the only Finnish weblog?)

There is a great documentary on the circumstances surrounding the photo, A Great Day in Harlem.

28/10/00 - That's one lucky pig.

27/10/00  - Someone has stolen the source code to Microsoft Windows!

"The attack was discovered by security staff on Wednesday and was being investigated by the company and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The hackers were thought to have had access to source codes behind Microsoft's software for three months and could have stolen blueprints of the firm's Windows and Office products."

And a more comprehensive list with all the candidates.  Winona LaDuke and Ezola Foster?  Not that I recognize some of the others but they had the silliest names!

They're on the Nader and Buchanan ticket respectively, it seems.

26/10/00 - Women and the Nobel prize.

26/10/00 - Interesting NY Times piece on dying languages on the web.

26/10/00 - Nice Flash game, 'Who Wants to be a Beckhamheir?' (via Haddock)

26/10/00 - The Rugby League World Cup starts on Saturday.  Of course the BBC has the much anticipated 'Ireland vs Samoa' while Sky Sports has to make do with 'England vs Australia'.

A view on  England's chances:

"So, England's chances are minute, at best. Only a splash of Long brilliance could give us a chance of crossing the try line. I don't know who to cheer for, the team is awful and a disgrace to British rugby league. I wanted Kear [the coach] at Saints twice, but now I don't, not on the evidence of this team selection and his decision, by all accounts, to ask players of the calibre of Chris Joynt to sit out or move countries. It seems our only chance is if the Australians don't stop laughing."

"PORCONTROL sets out to install a switch in an Australian piggery, and link it via the internet with a traffic light in Europe"

25/10/00 - Another new Yahoo feature, the Buzz Index.

25/10/00 - After all the fuss over Golota quitting in the Tyson fight he may have had a good reason:

"Heavyweight Andrew Golota, who quit against Mike Tyson after the second round of their fight early Saturday morning, suffered a concussion, a herniated disc in his neck and a fractured cheek bone, his doctor said."

25/10/00 - Interview with Ricky Tomlinson.

25/10/00 - Tallahassee is noted for its trees, but maybe not for long:

"Tallahassee residents traveling east on Park Avenue may be surprised to see the wooded area near Governor's Square mall thinning out. Workers in yellow construction vehicles are clearing the way for a new shopping center that will feature retail stores and restaurants."

25/10/00 - Ahh the memories:

"But on Sunday, projectionists at the ABC and at the Odeon at Anglia Square will screen films for the last time as the cinemas each fall victim to the city?s modern multiplexes at Riverside and Castle Mall. It will virtually signal the end of the era for old-style cinemas in Norwich. The ABC, which opened as a cinema in 1922, is poised to be turned into a nightclub by an Essex businessman, while the future of the Odeon, which opened at Anglia Square in 1971, is not known."

25/10/00 - A fantastic photo.  I love the whole idea of this, especially as the guy can't move his car until they finish fighting the fire:

25/10/00 - Gratuitous pig link.

25/10/00 - Listening to 'Hot Buttered Soul'.

Other searches led to a nice selection of music guides.  To be completely funky it seems one would need James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Parliament , Bootsy Collins, Curtis Mayfield, Ohio Players, War, Staples Singers, The Isley Brothers and The Meters.  Seems very reasonable.

Another site that might get more visits, Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews:

"We listen to the lousy records so you won't have to"

And veering off wildly, a Japanese site call 'hot buttered soul'.  Which for some reason has a couple of nice photos of Taos, here and here.

25/10/00 - From the Guardian's 'funny old world' section:

"Residents in Pontardawe, near Swansea, have complained to the local council about a pothole so big that a motorist almost hit a sheep sheltering in it during bad weather.
Western Mail, 23.9.00"

"And it's terrible. Startlingly badly written, with no apparent understanding of what drives people or how people relate or talk to each other, it is a book of gigantic, hopeless awfulness. You read it to a constant, internal muttering of 'Oh - God - Thackara - please, don't - no - oh, God, just listen to this rubbish'. It's so awful, it's not even funny. There is not one decent sentence in the book, nothing but falsity and a useless sincerity. It may be the very worst novel I have ever read."

"Everyone has a book inside them - sadly James Thackara's escaped"

"Voight coscripted, coproduced, and tries out his Al Pacino impression in this embarrassing, implausible comedy about two losers who con their way into a suite at the MGM Grand with a plan to win big at blackjack. Remsen's performance as a wily old card shark is the only bright spot in this utter catastrophe. Shot in 1980; unfortunately, it recovered."

I put together a whole bunch of links:  the screenplay, a review with some small pictures of the characters, various pictures, a long article discussing all aspects of the movie, another long synopsis, an excellent summary of all the characters (with pictures), and another Freaks page with pictures of cast and crew.

There is also a page dedicated to one of the main characters, Johnny Eck.  And one about the man behind it all, Tod Browning.

The final movie in T.C.M.'s Tod Browning season is next Thursday, Miracles for Sale.

21/10/00 - The Ann Widdecombe Shrine.

21/10/00 - Schoolkids refuse to watch TV:

"Two Perrysburg students disciplined for refusing to watch a classroom television news broadcast are being supported by two national anti-media groups.."

21/10/00 - I knew they existed: fluorescent tattoos!

21/10/00 - The Sun solves The Crime of the Century:

"SOCCER star Les Ferdinand has confessed he was in a gang that wrecked the Blue Peter garden 17 years ago."