[click to embiggen]
Cartoonist Martin Rowson is a genius!. More of his work may be found in The Guardian.
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
I talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about movin...
After a simply faboo prolonged Easter break - the annual pilgrimage to Essex for plant-shopping, and the rest of the week spent almost entirely in the garden - it's the last weekend before I return to work [albeit briefly, as we're off to Spain again a week tomorrow!], and it's time for a party!
[Indeed, there is plenty to celebrate, as tonight Madam Arcati and I are off to the London Palladium (again - we're becoming regulars) for a gala evening - BBC Radio 2 Celebrates Elaine Paige, marking her 60 year career in showbusiness - and tomorrow John-John, Hils, History Boy and I are going to the Tutankhamun Immersive Experience.]
So without further ado, how about something funky from the summer of 1980 - (gulp!) 45 years ago - to ease our way..? Thank Disco It's Friday!
Have a great weekend, dear reader!
Thursday, 24 April 2025
It's a Diva Day!
Two of our favourite old broads celebrate their birthdays today - Miss Shirley MacLaine and Miss Barbra Streisand. Imagine what kind of birthday party that would be!
Many happy returns, Shirley (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934) and MegaBabs (born Barbara Joan Streisand, 24th April 1942)!
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Totty (and Basil) of the Day
Patron Saint of Cappadocia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Malta, Portugal, Aragon, Catalonia, Sicily and Sardinia, and, of course, of England...
...happy St George's Day to my English chums!
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
The past is your present, the future is mine
Another busy ol' day in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers today, dear reader! Every plant I brought back from Essex [all those pictured yesterday, plus ten new or replacement fuchsias - rooted cuttings from our fave nursery B & HM Baker at Bourne Brook Nurseries] has now been potted up in new compost, and I also dug out and potted individually loads of free ferns that had self-seeded in several big pots up and down the garden, as well as other pottering jobs that needed attending to. Five hours later, I finally packed everything away. Tomorrow is another day...
Back to today, however, and among a raft of ill-assorted names such as John Waters, Lenin, Jack Nicholson, George Cole [whose centenary is is], J. Robert Oppenheimer, Glen Campbell, Aaron Spelling, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Mingus, Dame Ethel Smyth, Bettie Page, Henry Fielding, Kathleen Ferrier, Vladimir Nabokov, Peter Frampton, Donald Tusk and - ahem - Amber Heard, it's the 70th birthday today of the legendary producer/remixer Mr Arthur Baker!
His is an impressive back-catalogue of classics, so, without further ado, here are just a few of them:
I can practically smell the Aramis!
Monday, 21 April 2025
I'm gonna bounce up and down on my spring
Yes! I've returned from a whirlwind weekend with Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex, trawling the garden centres of Essex, and have come back with quite a haul:
Meanwhile, fuck the Pope - we're in mourning for the lovely Clodagh Rodgers...
...and by way of a celebration - and perfect for a Tacky Music Monday - here she is!
RIP Clodagh Rodgers (5th March 1947 – 18th April 2025)
Have a good week, peeps - I will; I'm off until next Monday!
Friday, 18 April 2025
You were looking at me, I was looking at you
Bunny wins
OK - it's not a working day, but some traditions never fade. As the blue skies beckon in a long Easter weekend (and for me, the start of ten days off), it's time to get that party started in style - with one of the catchiest of 1970s dance classics and some show-off Soul Train dancers to boot!
Thank Disco It's Good Friday!
Across the crowded disco room
Through a maze of dancing people
She sits so quiet and all alone
Wanting to get the disco fever
And then she raised her head
Her eyes caught mine
And that was all that I needed
In her eyes I saw the need for love
The warm, soft feeling
'Cause we made
Eye to eye contact
Eye to eye contact (Oh, oh, oh yeah)
Eye to eye contact
(We made) Eye to eye contact
You and me
Contact!
You were looking at me
I was looking at you
You were looking at me
Across the crowded disco room
Oh, your eyes told me the story
My heart was beating like the drum
As I fought my way over
I never took my eyes away from yours
Not even for a moment
What I saw in your eyes made me realise
(You I wanted) Yeah, yeah, yeah
Eye to eye contact
(We made) Eye to eye contact (Oh, oh, oh yeah)
Eye to eye contact
(We made) Eye to eye contact
You and me
I was looking at you
You were looking at me
I was looking at you
You were looking at me
Contact!
Girl don't you get uptight
Just dance
Everything gonna be alright
Just dance
Take a chance
Oh, and dance
I sure like what you got
You sho nuff looking hot (dance)
I sure like what you got
You sho nuff looking hot (dance)
Yeah, come on and dance
As for me, dear reader, I am winging my way to Tottenham Hale to catch my coach to Essex for a (hopefully) fruitful weekend's plant shopping!
"Normal" service should resume after I return on Monday.
Have a good one!!
PS - THIS!
It's traditional.
Happy Easter.
Thursday, 17 April 2025
Of superheroes, gentlewomen, "killer" courtiers, nutjobs, moose and biology
Goodnight, Rose.
Another snippets post today, dear reader...
- Royal gossip news: RIP, David Sassoon, couturier to the Royal Family (and other stars). Apparently, during a fitting at Kensington Palace, he threw open the door of Princess Diana’s sitting room - and knocked over three-year-old Prince William. “Oh, my god, I’ve killed the future King of England,” he recalled thinking.
- Holy handiwork, Batman! Two policemen dressed up as the Caped Crusaders to arrest criminals operating illegal gambling on Westminster Bridge.
- Bereft gentlewomen news: After 140 years in circulation the upper-class equivalent of Cosmo, The Lady magazine has ceased publication. Now where am I going to look for a respectable butler for Dolores Delargo Towers?
- American lunatic evangelist news: Airport scanners turn you gay, according to a self-proclaimed "Christian Nationalist" podcaster in that bastion of common sense, Tennessee. He calls them "gay beams". I call him "sectionable".
- Moose on the loose news: A surprise TV hit show has arrived - bizarrely it is 24-hour coverage of the annual mass migration of moose/elk across Sweden!
- And finally - shock news: A woman is a woman. Doh!
And the weather? Colder than we have been used to, but at least there's no rain on the horizon for the long Easter weekend!
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
It’s so profoundly obvious my music career is over
How it felt to look down on a planet where you're musically irrelevant, by Katy Perry
Being in space, looking down at that swirled blue marble that is the Earth? It really gives you perspective. From up there, it’s so profoundly obvious my music career is over.
Space travel is a blessed thing, a miracle. A rare privilege reserved only for elite astronauts and those with no hits but a world tour to promote. And let me tell you, to realise that in space nobody has heard your 2013 hit Roar is truly humbling.
I’m far from the only person to feel this. Astronauts talk of the Overview Effect – a mental shift which makes them feel more connected to the world and everyone on it. And all I could think was that I haven’t won a Teen Choice award in 12 years.
The fragility of our biosphere, the landmasses freed from the arbitrary boundaries we’ve imposed on them, and the sheer beauty of our planet really brought home to me that I was once considered a serious rival to Taylor Swift, a reality now as distant as another star.
Watching the rays of the sun illuminate the curvature of the Earth, I remembered that my album 143 was universally panned by critics. That my last hit, Never Really Over, topped out at 15 in the Billboard charts. I’m not afraid to say I shed a zero-gravity tear.
The clouds skidding across the sky seemed a galactic taunt, as if the Earth was telling me I peaked with Teenage Dream and that today’s Sabrina Carpenter fans weren’t even born then.
‘You’re right,’ I whispered. ‘My distinct brand of bubblegum pop has had its day. Wearing a bra that sprays whipped cream is passé in the era of Chappell Roan.’
Touching down on Earth, I was forever changed. I was suffused with a new understanding of how fleeting a pop career is. I know now the Sunday Legends slot at Glastonbury is where I belong.
Of course.
[A very funny article by Marina Hyde in The Guardian on the whole sorry débâcle]
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Science? Check. Splendour? Definitely!
"Me and the rhinoceros, we still remember you..."
From The Evening Standard:
Visitors to the exhibition may feel wistful contemplating a period when science was allied with the decorative arts, and it was for general consumption, not the preserve of specialists. Looking at the very beautiful scientific instruments and the marvellously accurate and captivating depictions of plants and animals, you’re reminded that science doesn’t have to be bleakly functional, but we have made it so.
And so it was that Hils, Crog, Madam Arcati and I, enticed by the prospect, trolled off last Sunday to the Science Museum ("middle sister" in the triumvirate of magnificent museums in South Kensington, between the Natural History and Victoria and Albert (V&A)) to see for ourselves...
We were not disappointed!
Excellently curated, the exhibition took us on an appropriately educational journey through The Age of Enlightenment, Bourbon royalty-style, starting with a focus on the three imperial monarchs who presided over this era - Louis XIV, XV and XIV - and the (rival, perhaps?) veneration of the intellectual icon of the time, Voltaire.
In the Salon of Madame Geoffrin in 1755. Reading of Voltaire's tragedy The Orphan of China in the salon of Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier.
Louis XIV, not necessarily remembered as particularly "enlightened", nevertheless oversaw the founding of a Royal Academy of Sciences - and it was the assembled thinkers it attracted who enabled him to construct the ultimate vanity project, the Palace of Versailles. Its gardens alone were an engineering project on a scale unprecedented in the 17th century - the instruments that were used to create the symmetry of the layout, its aspect and the perspective that allowed trompes-l'œil galore to be employed for the titillation of the royal court were all on show, as were maps and illustrations of the mighty water-pumping system ("the Marly Machine") that enabled this isolated glittering folly to be supplied with more water than the whole of Paris at the time. Just to power the fountains! [That the King's minions had to artfully keep switching on and off as the royal party passed by, because the pressure was unsustainable.]
Science flourished at Versailles in a dizzying variety of ways: meticulous study of astronomy - even royal princesses were designing their own telescopes - and of the moon aided the accurate calculation of longitude (essential for a global empire), botanical advancements such as hot-houses permitted exotic foods to be grown (like the pineapple) to feed the aristocrats [less so the populace, bien sûr] and for potential medicinal plants to be studied, developments in chemistry (including Jean-Antoine Nollet’s ornate vacuum device) led to breakthroughs such as Lavoisier's treatise on the existence of oxygen, the refinement of microscopes and subsequent microbiolological breakthroughs led to a "craze" for inoculation against smallpox, anatomical study led to a greater understanding of the physiology of animals and humans (which assisted the progression of surgery; the excruciating five-hour operation to repair an anal fistula - without anaesthetic - that was performed on Louis XIV merited whole display of its own!), and the science of cartography [Oh! The globes that were on show were magnificent!] meant the the Cassini Map of France (also on show) was the most accurate ever. [It was in fact so accurate that it reduced the previously-drawn outlines of the French coast and Louis XIV lamented that it "cost me more territory than all my enemies!"]
From mapping continents and weather patterns for the benefits of imperial trade, and experimental designs for coastal defences to... obstetrics! Whoever would have imagined that in the mid-1700s, a midwife (Madame Du Coudray) would have sewn and stitched a model of a womb and foetus as a teaching aid for the safe delivery of babies?!
Or, for that matter, that taxidermy might have been so advanced that Louis XVI's Indian rhinoceros (from his menagerie) could be preserved with scarily accurate detail that has lasted to this day?
Of course, all this illuminating demonstration of human intelligence, inquisitiveness and ingenuity came with an equally impressive level of exquisite ornamentation. The two absolute stunners of the entire exhibition both happened to be timepieces - of significantly different scale and drama! There was of course that watch - designed for Marie Antoinette, and described rather well by historian Mathew Lyons:
...[it was] commissioned for Marie-Antoinette in 1783 from Abraham-Louis Breguet, who was given an unlimited budget. It has 823 parts, many of them in gold or sapphire. With no apparent financial or time constraints, Breguet kept adding new features, new complications, as he developed them. His work might have been a synecdoche for the court’s indifference to anything that lay outside its world view. How long did it take him to create something that articulated so meticulously the exquisite order and perfection through which the kings of Versailles sought to understand reality? Too long. Marie-Antoinette’s hand would never hold it. Breguet’s work was interrupted by the French Revolution and it would be 40 years before his watch was ready for delivery to a long-dead queen of a long-dead court...
...and then there was the massive and breathtaking Clock of the Creation of the World (designed by Claude-Siméon Passemant), possibly the most extravagant and opulent example of mechanical and artistic technique, with its multitude of functions including the massive golden sun picking out midday on a rotating terrestrial globe with its rays, rising opulently from silver and bronze waves. I was utterly awestruck...
I never thought that I would see such a collection of the treasures of the most decadent royal court in European history in the unassuming iron-girdered, solidly-built, somewhat austere environs of the Science Museum.
But I am so glad I/we did!
Versailles: Science and Splendour is only on until Monday 21st April, so you'd better be quick!
[click any image to embiggen]
Monday, 14 April 2025
Do do that voodoo that you do so well
Oh, here we go again - back to work...
Never mind, eh? It's a short week thanks to Easter, I'll be trawling the garden centres of Essex on the weekend, and I am off all next week, so that's something to look forward to!
We have another raft of birthday celebrants today, including Sir Michael Caine, Albert Einstein, Quincy Jones, Mrs (Isabella) Beeton, Eleanor Bron, Bill Owen (aka "Compo" from Last of the Summer Wine), Johann Strauss I, Billy Crystal, Diane Arbus, Casey Jones, Rita Tushingham, Les Brown, Jasper Carrott, Jona Lewie and the gorgeous Ansel Elgort...
...and it would also have been the birthday of (another) "King of Lounge Music", the creator of the sound fondly known as "exotica" Mr Les Baxter!
On This Tacky Music Monday, here's a perfect way to awake from our dreams...
Have a good week, dear reader.
Sunday, 13 April 2025
Say what? C'est magnifique!
Hils, Crog, Madam Arcati and I are trolling off to the venerable environs of the Science Museum today for their new blockbuster exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour, which promises - among myriad other exhibits - a rare view of such items as the world’s most famous watch, made for Marie Antoinette, Louis XV’s rhinoceros, and a royal portrait of a pineapple!
Just as well we're doing something indoors, for after all that glorious sunshine we have had for several weeks we had our first rain showers in ages overnight, and the prospect is for a spell of more "normal" weather for April [i.e. mizzle]...
To mark the occasion of viewing all that opulence, this!
Mais oui!
Saturday, 12 April 2025
Over sleepy garden walls
I've been working like a Trojan in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers again today, dear reader. [Admittedly, not as frenetically as that queen above!]
The sunshine beckoned me out of bed well before noon - helped, inevitably, by the combined racket of granny and demon spawn next door trying to out do each other in a shouting contest, and the elephantine child upstairs doing what sounded like a Riverdance impression above my head. So, after my traditional coffee-and-fags breakfast, I embarked upon the major task of potting up not one but two clematis in their hopefully permanent positions (one against the fence/trells and the other up a drainpipe) in big tubs, and on tackling two vast pots of Salvia uglinosa I discovered that, despite first appearances, they had rotted away to so few living runners that I bunged them all in one pot (fingers crossed they'll grow).
All that, and a load of pottering, pruning and potting-on besides, and before I knew it the sun had gone over the yardarm, and it was cider time!
News has reached us today that yet another master of "easy listening" music, Mr Nino Tempo (whose duets with his sister Caroline (stage name April Stevens) were a staple of cosy television variety shows in the 1960s) has departed for the Cocktail Lounge in Fabulon - so let's pay him a fitting tribute with his/their greatest hit, shall we?
Oh, that helped soothe my aching muscles!
Friday, 11 April 2025
Do-do-do, do-do-do-do-do
Another weekend beckons provocatively... It's predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far here in London, and the forecast's good for the next few days, too! Wow. Spring's really spoiling us.
Cue the party-planning - and to kick off the celebrations in a most appropriate manner, here's something very sunshiny indeed!
Thank Disco(?) It's Friday!
Have a great one, dear reader!
Thursday, 10 April 2025
The Diva from Doncaster
Heavens! Miss Lesley Garrett, the "Diva from Doncaster" - the first modern opera diva to do "the crossover", landing her own BBC television show in the late 80s in which she gave the audience a potted history of certain pieces of classical music, then sang them, alongside myriad special guests as diverse as Elaine Paige, Renee Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand, Alison Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Ian Bostridge - blows out 70 candles on her cake today!
Gifted with a natural Yorkshire "down-to-earth" manner as well as a beautiful vocal tone, Miss Garrett is rightly regarded as a "national treasure", and lauded for her place in taking opera to the masses (a trend that has continued ever since with the likes of Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson, and of course Classic FM today).
Here are some clips of the lady herself, firstly with two very special guests...
Before she discovered grooming, here she holds her own alongside mezzo-soprano Ann Murray singing the traditional Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms in 1990:
And finally, her solo version of Handel's Tornami a Vagheggiar:
Happy Birthday, pet!
Lesley Garrett (born 10th April 1955)
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Ooh, don’t mind if I do
All rides at UK Universal theme park to be Carry On themed
Every single ride at the UK’s Universal theme park will be based on bawdy films laced with tortuous double entendres, it has emerged.
Construction plans for Europe’s first Universal theme park have revealed that the site in Bedford will be predominantly dedicated to rides based on saucy comedy movies shown on ITV2 every Bank Holiday weekend.
A Universal spokesperson said: “This park will be a celebration of the best of British filmmaking. And it doesn’t get any better than Barbara Windsor’s bra pinging off with a silly sound effect.
“Visitors can look forward to drop towers that descend to the tune of a suggestive slide whistle, and bumper cars that go ‘Ooh, don’t mind if I do’ in Kenneth Williams’ camp, reedy voice when they slam into each other.
“To create a truly immersive experience, every ride will be staffed by frumpy matrons and saucy nurses, and mascots will patrol the grounds dressed as Sid James to meet and greet the crowds. It promises to be a magical, unforgettable day out.
“If it’s a success then there’s always scope to expand. We’re already thinking of opening resorts based on other British franchises like Gonks Go Beat and On The Buses.”
Tom Booker from Croydon said: “I was hoping for punishingly bleak attractions inspired by Threads or A Taste of Honey, but I suppose this’ll have to do.”
Of course.
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Of jewellery, confectionery, awards, whispering and one of the best drummers ever
Utterly divine...
Another snippets post today, dear reader:
- Diamonds are a gay's best friend news: The Cartier exhibition at the V&A opens this weekend - and, among loads of delicious sparklies, features Wallis Simpson's sapphire cabochon panther brooch (as pictured above)! We're now members of the prestigious museum, so can go along as many times as we like - I wonder if they'll let us try on any of the jewellery?
- Non-lethal snacks news: The Scottish-born delicacy Tunnock's teacakes has finally been exonerated by scientists after being banned by the RAF from cockpits for decades for fear that they could explode and cause a disaster!
- Iconic cameo roles news: The woman behind the whispered "Big boys don't cry" line in 10CC's classic I'm Not In Love tells all.
- Luvvies news: Congratulations to John Lithgow, Lesley Manville and Dame Imelda Staunton (among others), who all won "Best Actor/Actress" in their category at last night's Olivier Awards!
- More sickly confectionery news: Manufacturer Cadbury's has unveiled the world's largest - 3ft tall! - Creme Egg. The world asks "Why?!"
- And finally - RIP, a membranophonic maestro: Clem Burke, world-renowned drummer and founder-member of Blondie with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, has died, aged 70. By way of a tribute, a double-bill of the man's finest moments:
Class.
And the weather? Sunny, sunny, sunny! Hoorah!
Monday, 7 April 2025
Crunchy granola?
Bah! Monday again...
Never mind, eh?
Among another cornucopia of fellow celebrants, that include William Wordsworth (his 255th, indeed), Billie Holiday, Sir David Frost, Janis Ian, Russell Crowe, Yves Rocher, Ravi Shankar, James Garner, Ian Richardson, Andrew Sachs, Gorden Kaye, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk, Jackie Chan, Wayne "Trapper John" Rogers, John Oates of Hall & Oates, Gerry Cottle, Francis Ford Coppola, Duncan James of Blue and - erm - Ole Kirk Christiansen, founder of Lego, it would have been the birthday today of that ultimate master of easy-listening music, Mr Percy Faith!
Utterly perfect to cheer us up on this Tacky Music Monday, here's his orchestra's version of a choon originally written by Neil Diamond, with a most bizarrely-choreographed dance routine, to boot!
Have a good one, dear reader.
Sunday, 6 April 2025
C'est la vie dans ce monde
A view up my back passage
Another busy weekend in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers comes to a close - yesterday I demolished two rusty sets of garden shelves and erected a new pair [that Madam Arcati had ordered] in their place, and pottered about pruning and prepping the myriad little pots that will sit on them. Today, while the Madam continued the arduous task of clearing winter clag from under and around plant stands and tidying the rest of the shelving, I almost completed the process of digging out and splitting up the biggest of our herbaceous pots - and the last of the phlox is done [just some pots of Salvias to go, but they're not so urgent]! Almost ready for summer...
Meanwhile, speaking of "sunshiny things", sad news reaches our ears that Amadou - one half of house favourites here, the blind Malian husband-and-wife due Amadou and Mariam [who ascended from their roots in Africa to become huge in France, they went on to support the likes of Scissor Sisters, Coldplay and U2 on tour, and appeared at Glastonbury Festival] - has departed for the "L'Afrique C'est Chic" stage in Fabulon.
Here's my ultimate fave from their back catalogue, by way of a tribute:
Joyous!
Saturday, 5 April 2025
Friday, 4 April 2025
Take me through the darkness to the break of the day
A Friday, in the middle of the most glorious Spring, with a sunny weekend forecast? Yayyyyyyy!
Tomorrow happens to be the 75th birthday of the lovely Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA, so what better way to get the party started than with one of the Swedish super-group's more "club-worthy" numbers [as also featured - in a very different version - last week]?
Thank Disco It's Friday!
Half past twelve
And I'm watching the late show in my flat all alone
How I hate to spend the evening on my own
Autumn winds
Blowing outside the window as I look around the room
And it makes me so depressed to see the gloom
There's not a soul out there
No one to hear my prayer
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Take me through the darkness to the break of the day
Movie stars
Find the end of the rainbow, with a fortune to win
It's so different from the world I'm living in
Tired of T.V.
I open the window and I gaze into the night
But there's nothing there to see, no one in sight
There's not a soul out there
No one to hear my prayer
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Take me through the darkness to the break of the day
Have a great weekend, dear reader - enjoy the sunshine!
Thursday, 3 April 2025
Posing a visual hazard
A man who believes the spring weather gives him licence to wear a Hawaiian shirt has been sternly corrected.Flamboyant dresser Tom Booker has been reprimanded by friends and passers-by for greeting relatively pleasant temperatures with a floral shirt more suited to the tropical climate of a Central Pacific archipelago.
Friend Stephen Malley said: “I’ve not shut Tom down because of his cultural insensitivity. He just looks like a massive dickhead.
“We’re only two days into April. The mercury is slowly inching up to 16 degrees. This is a time for T-shirts under denim jackets, maybe shorts if you’re one of those men and feeling adventurous.
“They’re only acceptable on holiday, during a prolonged spell of sweltering weather or at an office Hawaiian day if you work in a twat’s office. Even then, shirts decorated with little pineapples? Leave them to their target demographic of the closeted and divorced.”
Eyewitness Emma Bradford said: “Tom’s posing a visual hazard. I had to step into oncoming traffic in order to go over and tell him to put a hoodie over that gaudy shit.
“Also, wearing a Hawaiian today is goading the British weather into turning grey, showery and fucking freezing for the next six weeks. Don’t taunt it, you know how it gets.”
Of course.
Wednesday, 2 April 2025
Of Batman, spies, censorship, earth-moving, god-botherers and a Dame
RIP, Val Kilmer, gorgeous star of "Top Gun" and "Batman Forever".
Another snippets post today, dear reader:
- Spy news: Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder tin, a briefcase abandoned by Soviet spy Guy Burgess as he fled the UK, and a desiccated 110-year-old lemon that played a pivotal role in WWI are all on show in a new exhibition MI5: Official Secrets at the National Archives, opening this weekend. I wonder if they have any of James Bond's gadgets on display?
- Philistines news: Paris may be scented by centuries of coffee and Gauloise aromas, but the Paris Metro has banned a poster advertising a new David Hockney exhibition because he happens to be holding a cigarette! "L'Etat nounou", vraiment! ["Nanny State", indeed! in English]
- Never complain about potholes again news: Britain's 'wonkiest road' that was so badly damaged by a landslip during "Storm Eunice" in 2022 it was being used as a makeshift skate park has finally reopened after £5million was spent on repairs.
- False miracles news: Zealots in a church in Indiana who thought red marks on a communion wafer were some kind of miracle have been told it was actually just bacteria from being handled by dirty hands. Hallelujah!
- And finally: Among a slew of birthdays that includes Sir Alec Guinness, Marvin Gaye, Emperor Charlemagne of the Franks, Michael Fassbender, Emmylou Harris, "Adrian Mole" creator Sue Townsend, Paul Gambaccini, Casanova, Buddy Ebsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Serge Gainsbourg, Émile Zola, Linford Christie (who is 65!), Keren Woodward of Bananarama, Pedro Pascal (50) and - erm - Dr. Demento...
...it is the 85th birthday today of darling Dame Penelope Keith, star of The Good Life, To the Manor Born, and so much more besides - including her guest appearances on the Morecambe and Wise Show! All hail...
And the weather? The glorious Spring sunshine continues (even if the wind's a little chilly at times)!
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Got to be a joker, he just do what he please
Now you see it, now you don't...?
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce we announce that the Abbey Road crossing is set to be removed for the foreseeable future - a decision beyond our control. We remain hopeful it can be reversed and will return in the future.” So went the press release from Abbey Road Studios, announcing the removal of the Zebra crossing that featured in that iconic Beatles LP cover.
All is not as it seems, however. Yes - it's April Fool's Day again!
Here's a round-up of some of the bizarre lengths some PR people will go in an attempt to prank the public and, of course, gain their brand some publicity in the process...
Erm - a drinkable Subway meatball marinara sub roll, anyone?
...or how about Branston baked beans lip-gloss?
Personal stylists for your pets, courtesy of John Lewis department stores?
Birds Eye's "Potato Waffholes" - a new product containing the missing leftovers from the holes in their potato waffles?
...or how about a BabyBel waxed sleeping bag?
Did you get fooled by any of them?
No, me neither.
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