29/4/01 - I now have another reason to drink more tea: 

"A new test that measures the effects of food on the stability of DNA has found that ordinary tea is the most beneficial element of the British diet. You could almost say that tea-drinking is in our genes."

29/4/01 - The South Yorkshire Curry Guide: 

"... without doubt the worst Indian food I have ever tried to eat, looking like warmed-up decomposing grass clippings,with a taste to match ... (Gulshan)"

"Problem: The look and feel of most U.S. corporate sites is very similar due to inbreeding. If they do it at Microsoft.com, that must be what a professional corporate site is supposed to look like, and then all sites look like Microsoft's site (or Amazon, or Ebay, or...) 

Solution: Stop sleeping with your cousin. Look elsewhere for design inspiration. Introduce some new web design ideas into the mix. Fresh meat, new blood for the design gene pool."

29/4/01 - Swedish design that's not Ikea: 

28/4/01 - I don't think I'll be testing this: 

"An expert in the English language is backing appeal court judges who ruled this week that telling a policeman to "fuck off" was not an offence."

"My hen laid a haddock, one hand oiled a flea, 
Glad farts and centurions threw dogs in the sea..."

28/4/01 - Save the pig! 

28/4/01 - The nostalgia gets ever closer: [warning: NYT registration] 

"Get Out Your Shoulder Pads: The 80's Are Here"

28/4/01 - Life imitates The Simpsons: (via The Nutlog) 

"A replica of Michelangelo's masterpiece David has been covered up after complaints in Florida. The anatomically correct original is considered a masterpiece, but a copy has caused controversy outside a shop in Lake Alfred."

"Helen: You've got to lead our protest against this abomination! [shows newspaper article] 
Marge: Mm, but that's Michelangelo's David.  It's a masterpiece. 
Helen: [gasp]  It's filth!  It graphically portrays parts of the human body, which, practical as they may be, are evil."

26/4/01 - Get your sushi T-shirt here. 

26/4/01 - Get your latest Mountain Goats .mp3 here: 

"The Mountain Goats 
Going to Georgia 
recorded live at Munchies, 
Pomona, April 15, 1993"

26/4/01 - Mmm, Yorkshire recipes: 

"Yorkshiremen might be noted for their fussiness about Yorkshire Puddings but, believe me, that's nothing to the perfection they demand in their curd tarts - although any less than perfect tarts seem to disappear just as quickly!"

"One upon a time, in January of 1967, I had a dream. Not a daydream, or a fantasy, but a real dream in my sleep. Actually, it was more like a dreamlette - about an aging door-to-door grocer named Jack in a small, turn of the century village, who was as mocked by the children as he was taken for granted by the town folk... 

Little did I know, that this innocent "dreamlette" would turn into "The Teenage Opera," which soon twisted my fate into a real life opera far more dramatic and plot filled than the musical one could ever have been."

"Hire ugly actors with bad teeth. This complaint is a classic, but it's still true: American actors and writers seem reluctant to show weakness or ugliness, even though imperfection is often sexy and sometimes funny. In the British This Life, reluctant lawyer Egg has an offbeat appeal; in the American First Years, the actor just comes off as a gormless idiot who dresses weird..."

25/4/01 - An air-conditioning company called Stiff Nipples.  Appropriate I suppose.  The writer learns something handy: 

"I now know that if I'm ever in India, I should be wary of taking an air-conditioned taxi. Charlie says that he's heard that more than a few Indian cabbies top up their leaky aircon systems with cheap, highly flammable LPG gas (you can buy cars powred by it here!), rather than expensive refrigerant. It works. The only trouble is, that in the event of an accident - hardly a rare occurrence - the cab explodes."

"By pint number three, years of pub experience were starting to show. Luke put his lager away with ease. Harriet was struggling. "You have to burp all the time, it makes room for the beer," he advised. Harriet, a white wine drinker, was looking green about the gills."

25/4/01 - The Guardian gives out its customer service 'awards': 

"Most constructive excuse 

Step forward those familiar faces at Time Computers who collected a reader?s faulty computer then lost it. He discovered that its finance company could not cancel its credit agreement until it had heard from Time and Time refused to get in touch until it had examined the computer. Which it had lost."

"Sheffield "A city working hard to reinvent itself. Galleries and parks are being spiffed up in the centre and attractions pegged to the industrial past are well worth a visit ... England's fourth largest city is a lively place with an exuberant student population""

"The book even includes traditional jibes about the weather, warning visitors to "expect rain at any time". On the plus side, say the authors: "Tourists tend to enjoy the traditional English breakfasts (the Scottish and Welsh variations can include such horrors as black pudding) because they don't eat such things often at home. If they did they would die.""

In that vein, some weblogs that have caught my eye since I actually made an effort to respond to the new weblogs that appear with frightening regularity. 

Sore Eyes - British, Northern, you can't go wrong, although I wish it showed up as updated in SHF
As Above - British with a nice layout 
Dr. Menlo Blogs from Space - always great pictures and perhaps my largest ever referral 
Reutellog - at last, a Dutch log I can read 
dangerousmeta - for all your New Mexican needs (and treats us Netscape 4.75 users nicely) 
jamespo - another British one