Are you Juan, too?

29 March 2004

Ananova - Mexico sets up gay football league.

Mexico has set up a gay football league for homosexual players. All match officials will also have to be gay, reports Mix Brazil. They will compete for a cup and the chance to represent Mexico at the World Gay Football Championship. [Ananova]

Snot Gobbling

29 March 2004

I'm gagging just thinking about this.

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor....He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up. Dr Bischinger said: "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner." And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system. [Ananova]

There was a clip on one of those candid video TV shows of a young girl sneezing explosively into her cupped hands. She paused, considered what she'd achieved and then began licking her hands with relish until an adult pulled her hands away from her face.

R Sole

23 March 2004

Hurrying back to the office today I saw a fat middle-aged man in a suit bawling at a traffic warden. The man was wearing a suit and his stomach rolled over the top of his trousers. 'Oi, dog breath', he called at the warden. 'Get a proper job'. His voice was slightly slurred and I noticed he was standing in the doorway of a bar. 'Wanker,' he slurred, tottering backwards. He put a foot out to steady himself. The warden ignored him and browsed the windscreens of parked cars. The oaf continued shouting at him - people turned to stare. The traffic warden stopped to write out a ticket. I hope it was the oaf's car.

Killing Truth

21 March 2004

As the US election draws closer there are some interesting conspiracy theories appearing. This one is astounding, if true, but such a risk to the US and UK governments that it's hard to believe they would go through with it. Something like this would easily bring both governments down. When both the president and the prime-minister look like they will win their next elections why should they bother fabricating evidence.

On March 13 the Iranian news agency Mehr reported a story that, if true, is surely the biggest news of this election year: "U.S. forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the southern ports of Iraq. A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions. According to Mehr's source, the parts are old ones, just the kind the U.S. gave to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. Once they are "discovered," they would be the smoking gun that George W. needs to get re-elected." [Common Dreams]

Face Ache

20 March 2004

A colleague of mine asked me today if I was still in a bad mood because I'd been 'looking daggers all morning.' This shocked me because my mood was good, I was relatively happy in what I was doing. The windows were open and the fresh air was bringing the warmth and promise of Spring. I didn't feel angry at all. Heavens! My face must just sag into some kind of livid sneer without me realising it.

Apple Newton - yes, please!

17 March 2004

Newton 2004: A digital hub in the palm of your hand, Dan Knight, Mac Musings
How Apple could leverage the brilliance of the Newton, popularity of the iPod, and power of the Mac to create the best PDA ever. [Low End Mac]

1997 And All That

15 March 2004

At Rebecca's Pocket Rebecca Blood gives a thorough and interesting account of the brief history of blogs and blogging. Did they only start in 1997?

Eyes wide open

13 March 2004

Had a really strange experience on the drive to work yesterday. I was stopped at traffic lights watching cars crossing in front of me. I saw a police car and watched it pass. I realised a police officer in the back seat was staring at me. Our eyes locked and we looked at each other for a couple of seconds and it felt too long to stare but I couldn't drag my eyes away. There was no malice, just two people whose eyes had locked and wouldn't let go. Then as the distance increased the officer waved his open hand in a gesture that said something like 'sorry'. No idea why. Just odd.

Soiled satisfaction

10 March 2004

In an unknown city I found myself with an hour to spare in front of a huge book shop. Turned out that it sold shop-soiled books at about a third of the usual retail price. I found a damaged copy of the New Penguin Encyclopedia which only yesterday I had been drooling over in another shop. The price there was £30. In the 'seconds' shop it was £10. There were scuff marks on the cover and some pages were creased but for a brand new book the discount made it an easy decision. So now I have a superb 1700-page book to browse through at my leisure. I could just use Google for research, and I will, but I am of that generation that sees books as more than just containers of pages but as objects to bond with and savour; things to caress and love. Google is just a tool but a book is a journey of friendship and discovery.

At random...page 869 ": Laudanum...an addiction to laudanum was socially acceptable until the early 19th century when the invention of the hypodermic syringe and needle made narcotic addiction more serious."

Whilst in this book shop I rummaged around the 'Linguistics' section. There on a shelf heaving under the weight of thesauri was the handwritten notice, "Dictionarys".

My cat's got no tail

7 March 2004

Some unidentified member of my family drove their car over my little cat, Charlie, causing his tail to be amputated. I have offered him advice and he is considering legal action. He was particularly proud of his tail which was as bushy as a fox's and would stand tall and erect when he greeted you. Quite simply, he now feels emasculated.