While you were away

We have only been away for a slightly extended weekend, but in that short time what have we missed?

That favourite of busybodies everywhere, the "anti-smoking crusade" took another pathetic turn. As usual The Daily Mash has it nailed.

The British dispute with the way Spain is behaving over Gibraltar continues. Let us hope that means the cost of holidays on the Costa del Sol start to come down - we are planning to get there again next February...

WordPress - the supposed biggest rival to Blogger (although I personally hate their interface) - removed an exposé by a trainee journalist on the vile fascist homophobic group calling itself "Straight Pride", supposedly as a response to a claim over US copyright law, and is now battling accusations of censorship.

We must have been awake on Monday night, but somehow managed to completely miss the massive Perseid meteor shower that was apparently visible over Europe and the Northern Hemisphere. If one of the bars or the sauna in Amsterdam had a glass roof I suppose we might have caught it.

Worst of all, we lost not one, but two of our most beloved divas here at Dolores Delargo Towers...

On Thursday, the night before our flight when we were staying with the boys in Essex, the lovely kooky-eyed portrayer of many an "outsider" role - and camp icon (if, for nothing else, her roles in Airport and Trilogy of Terror) - Miss Karen Black departed to Fabulon. Here she is singing in her own inimitable way; with an all-girl grunge band, of course:

Karen Black & L7 - Bang Bang

And then on my actual birthday - although we wouldn't have noticed, as we never switch on the news or read a paper when we're away - came the very sad news of the death of Miss Eydie Gormé (who I only recently featured on the occasion of her husband Steve Lawrence's birthday)...

Eydie Gorme & Trio Los Panchos - Piel Canela / Sabor a Mi / Granada

[PS Miss Gormé features as our latest exhibit in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp]

RIP both.

Now we're definitely back to reality.