29/12/99 - I've been trying to track down the reason why Americans use knives and forks in their distinctive way i.e. cutting food then transferring the fork to the right hand to eat.  Is it due to solidarity with an early patriot or is it more prosaic?

29/12/99 - They don't need Title IX in the UK to have women in sport.  What an enlightened country.  (via email)

29/12/99 - The only opinion that really counts, John Peel's Festive Fifty.

29/12/99 - A picture I would like to see:

"OFFICIALS at a Premiership football club are red-faced after a mix up on the team's official Christmas card... [T]eam changes meant the picture used was out of date before the cards were printed. Harnessing modern technology, however, the printers simply cut the heads of the two new players from other pictures and pasted them on to the bodies of the players they replaced.

They failed to spot, though, that in the doctored picture midfielder Neil Redfearn's white face had been superimposed over that of black player Darren Moore."

29/12/99 - Wired has an article on this century's most spectacular technological failures.  (via YAWL)

I had not heard of the John Hancock Tower (page 2) but here is a piece describing exactly what went wrong.  I hope I. M. Pei learnt his lesson before designing the Louvre entrance.

29/12/99- Another British based weblog, Barbelith.  And his parents live in Norfolk, small world:

"I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid conversations about politics, because I know they always end in arguments, but my mother insists that Tony Blair is an elected dictator resolved to consolidate his power. I frankly don't know what to say in response to a comment like that..."

29/12/99 - With Myra Hindley (the most evil woman in Britain © The Sun) back in the news I tried tracking down the notorious portrait done with children's handprints and displayed at the Sensation exhibition.  This article has the picture (as well as some of the others):

29/12/99 - For a friend, David Warner as the Evil Genius in Time Bandits:

There is supposed to a website entitled 'Dying the David Way' but it seems to have disappeared.  His death in The Omen was great.

He is also in some new movie called 'Shergar', a famous racehorse that disappeared, supposedly kidnapped by the I.R.A.  Anyway after reading the précis the movie sounds really stupid:

"Kevin Doherty (Tom Walsh), the orphaned son of a jockey who dreams of emulating his father, finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot to kidnap and kill Ireland's greatest racehorse.  Driven terrorist Gavin O'Rourke (Mickey Rourke) and his second-in-command Dermot Concannon (Andrew Connolly) steal Shergar away to a remote farm owned by Eammon Garritty (David Warner), where teenage runaway Kevin is hiding.  Though initially elated at being charged with the horse's keep, Kevin is horrified when he hears of Shergar's impending execution and races the horse to freedom.  Only one step ahead of the unrelenting kidnappers and the authorities, Kevin alters Shergar's appearance."

29/12/99 - In a desperate attempt to keep out the unions (God forbid people should get a decent wage, or benefits) Wal-Mart has banned charities from soliciting donations inside their stores. (via Bird on a wire)

29/12/99 - What a great Christmas gift.  (via email)

29/12/99 - CNN has an article on the ever popular mullet.  And in another sign of the impending Apocalypse there is now the Gucci mullet:

29/12/99 - There has to be some comment that can be made about the names of these ferrets but I can't think of it.  (via ArtsJournal)

29/12/99 - When I read this at Arts Journal I thought "Wow":

"Branson Missouri is considering trying to buy London's Millennium Dome when 2000 celebrations are done. Variety 12/29/99"

"Richard Branson is reportedly in talks that could lead to a bid to buy London’s Millennium Dome..."

28/12/99 - Interview with Jane Goodall.

28/12/99 - No comment is really needed.  (via 0xdeadbeef)

28/12/99 - This is so sad:

28/12/99 - Private Eye has its Hackwatch Awards for 1999 in the latest issue (not online).  This only gets an honourable mention for 'Most Sensitive Flower' but it's still pretty bad:

"...The declared purpose of the Nato action is to stop the persecution of the Albanian Kosovars, yet Nato delights in revealing how ethnic cleansing has increased disastrously since the air bombardment began.
...
One of the pleasures of living in England in the past was that one never had to endure any of the hardships of an Albanian refugee, but now it is possible to get a glimpse of their sufferings by the simple device of purchasing an expensive ticket from Great Western Trains..."

28/12/99 - The latest issue of Bad Subjects has some great stuff.  An article by John Marr of Murder Can Be Fun.  An interview with Tom Frank of The Baffler.

There are some MCBF articles here or you can also visit the MCBF library or buy it from ObscureStore.

The Baffler's website is pretty crap but this is a good source for links.

27/12/99 - If you used the Presidential candidate selector then you can vote for your matching candidate.  (via MrBarrett)

27/12/99 - The P.U.-litzer Prizes, eight of the worst media 'achievements' of 1999, including:

"MONOPOLIZING THE NEWS AWARD -- The New York Times 

The day after Viacom -- the movie, cable TV and publishing powerhouse -- announced plans to purchase CBS and become the third-largest media conglomerate in the world, the New York Times devoted seven articles to the proposed takeover. But there was no space to quote a single critic about the threat to consumers or to democracy posed by this concentration of media power. There was room, however, for quotes from various upbeat Wall Street analysts, and for a reporter's reference to the bygone era of the 1970s: "In those quaint days, it bothered people when companies owned too many media properties.""

27/12/99 - After spending Christmas with a Southern family I thought I'd better brush up my knowledge of British Christmas customs.  In time for New Year there is more here on "first footing" and the Southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas as the first meal of the year.  In my family the first person through the door had be dark-haired and carrying coal.  To ensure this my brother (who has the darkest hair) would have to leave the house before midnight via the back door, taking the bad luck with him, and then come in through the front door after midnight.  Of course this meant that he had to stand outside in the cold while we all celebrated!

27/12/99 - Very useful resource, a calendar of events for up to 90 days in advance.  Today is the anniversary of the birth of Johannes Kepler and Louis Pasteur.

27/12/99 - This doesn't seem tasteless at all:

"AN international endurance competition in which several thousand contestants will carry heavy wooden crosses to "commemorate" Christ's crucifixion has been attacked as "exploitative and tasteless" by Church leaders."

24/12/99 - If you're really bored you could always watch for the Messiah.  (Or Santa.)

24/12/99 - If you've followed the London mayoral election you may have heard about Malcolm McLaren standing.  Here's his own site.

24/12/99 - If you get bored this Christmas you could always try the Telegraph's Millennium Arts quiz or the staggeringly difficult King William's college quiz.  The Grauniad has a whole bunch of Christmas links.

23/12/99  - This review of the Art exhibits at the Millennium Dome doesn't paint a pretty picture, but at least the author lays his cards on the table.  (via ArtsJournal)

"Lets be honest, I also came to sneer and to be all superior about the entire New Millennium Experience. Admonitions that cynics like me should shut up or ship out get my goat. But I had some hopes, despite the official spin...."

23/12/99 - Another Dutch weblog which has links to TWENTY other weblogs under the heading Netherlands.

23/12/99 - Start the New Year with a bang.

23/12/99 - CNN had the cheek to call this 'news analysis'.

23/12/99 - Another piece on the Star Wars Holiday Special that is getting attention:

"And just when you think this video couldn't hurt you any more unless it popped out of the VCR at high speed and hit you straight in the face, Carrie Fisher begins to sing. Yes, she sings. And for a second you'll think, "Hey, they're dubbing her," and then you'll think, "No, if they were dubbing her it would sound better." "

23/12/99 - It's a cheap laugh maybe.  (via Tangents)

Another site utilizing the subtle(!) differences between British and American English:

"Jo's Completely Factual and Not At All Juvenile Guide for Americans Visiting Britain"