Of porn, a giant egg, Loki, Dali, "Super-tot" and Zorba

Move over "The Lionesses", it's Global Tiger Day!

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• We're a nation of porn addicts news: There has been a massive "spike" in downloads of virtual private network (VPN) software, as the government has introduced strict age verification with ID to watch your favourite kinks played out on screen. Prudish bastards! The kids they're ostensibly trying to protect will already have cracked that one ages ago, and it's just the grown-ups that are trying to catch up...
• Foodstuffs that are alien to Americans news: The world's largest Scotch Egg, created just around the corner from us in North London by two foodies who share recipes online, has been recognised by Guinness World Records.
• Death to all vermin news: Meet Loki, the new "official hawk" of Westminster.
• Hello, Dali news: A "lost" work by Surrealist artist Salvador Dali, bought for £150 in a house clearance in Cambridge, has been valued for sale at auction at £20-30,000! I think it looks like some kind of dreadful rash, to be honest.
• The Indian Heracles? news: Instead of being scared and screaming when a deadly cobra started coiling around his hands, toddler Govina in the Indian state of Bihar bit its head off, killing it instantly! Wonder what he's going to be like when he grows up? Tough, I'd imagine.
• And, finally: Sharing the day with the likes of Theda Bara (140), Clara Bow (120), William Powell, Sally Gunnell, Diane Keen, Wil Wheaton, Simon Nye, Geddy Lee, Sigmund Romberg, DJ Carl Cox, Dag Hammarskjöld, Andi Peters, David Warner and - erm - Benito Mussolini...

  ...it's the centenary today of the birth of Mikis Theodorakis! Who? I hear you ask. His most famous work is rather recognisable:

Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates in Zorba the Greek

And the weather? Still grey.

Kala Christougena

For some in the Greek Orthodox Church, today is actually Xmas Day - so, by way of a nod to our Julian-calendar-adhering-chums, on this Tacky Music Monday we're cheering ourselves up on our way to work with a glass of Ouzo and...

...Nan Mouskouri, of course!

Nana Mouskouri - Danse Le Sirtaki

Don't try this at home, folks, unless you've moved all the furniture.

Have a good week, dear reader!

Greece is the word

The nation of Greece said sorry to the European Union with a present of an enormous wooden horse.

Left outside the European Central Bank in the dead of night, the horse has now been moved into the ECB’s central lobby where it is proudly on display.

A gift tag attached to the horse, which is surprisingly light for its size and has small holes along the length of its body, suggested that it should be placed in the bank’s vaults overnight to avoid it being targeted by thieves.

Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, said: “How nice of the Greeks to acknowledge the trouble we’ve been put to on their behalf with this wonderful horse, handmade and so large it could hold a dozen double-decker buses.

“The card with it, which had a teddy bear dressed as a 'hobo' on the front, explained that Greece made us this because they don’t have enough money for a present, which brought a tear to my eye.

“However, unless they can somehow find billions overnight then austerity measures must continue.”

Oddly, Greek representatives in Brussels have hinted that they may soon be in a position to settle their debts and have puzzled the French and German banks that hold their loans by asking if there is any discount for cash.

The government of Spain has reacted angrily to the gift, accusing the Greeks of trying to bribe the ECB and redoubling their own efforts to weave a gigantic sombrero-wearing straw donkey.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

More on the Greece/EU "settlement".

Opa!

The adorable Nana Mouskouri - one of the world's biggest-selling female artists in history - is 80 years old today. I bet she looks no different now (she never seemed to age).

The über-sexy-in-his-day George Chakiris (he of West Side Story fame) was 80 years old on 16th September.

Heavens.

To make us feel a bit more jolly as we brave the rain again to head to the delights of the office, on this Tacky Music Monday here they are dancing together(!) to a little Greek number called Siko Chorepse Sirtaki:

Nana Mouskouri & George Chakiris - Siko Chorepse Sirtaki

Have a good week, peeps!

Nana Mouskouri (born Iōánna Moúschouri, 13th October 1934)

More Nana here, here and here.

Nana-rama

Another birthday this weekend, and more of what we like to call "Sunday music". Many happy returns (yesterday) to house fave here at Dolores Delargo Towers (and the world's biggest-selling female solo artist!) Miss Nana ("respectable spectacles") Mouskouri!

To open this little tribute, Nana and her chums give us a little Greek dancing lesson, with the song that (with new English lyrics) became Never On A Sunday - how appropriate, some may say!

Nana Mouskouri - Ta Pediá tou Pireá/Never on a Sunday

Here she is duetting with Julio Iglesias on Grande Grande Grande (better known as Dame Shirl's Never Never Never):

Nana Mouskouri and Julio Iglesias - Grande, Grande, Grande

And finally, here Nana and Mireille Mathieu perform a beautiful version of the Spanish-Mexican standard La Paloma:

Nana Mouskouri and Mireille Mathieu - La Paloma

Harúmena genéthlia! [Happy birthday in Greek]

See my previous tributes to the magnificent Nana here and here.

Nana Mouskouri (born 13th October 1934)

Boys were their Gods

We went to the fabulously atmospheric Petrie Museum last night for the first of our selection of events to mark Gay History Month. In a fascinating talk, visiting US Professor Andrew Lear gave his explanation of the ancient Greek fascination with gay seduction, the adulation of the young male form by older and wealthier men. Ostensibly this could be any night out at The City of Quebec (aka "The Elephants' Graveyard"), but this is history...

Illustrating his thesis by comparing classical scenes on fragments of ancient pottery, he explained how the "youth cult" was treated very differently from pornographic art, and was in fact a widespread and accepted norm in that culture. It was a really engaging and educational evening, and we look forward to the rest of the events we have booked to attend.

And on the theme of Greek adulation...

Sakis Rouvas - Shake It

Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

Andrew Lear's book "Boys Were Their Gods"

LGBT History Month