This is three days late

This is three days late but it has to be said. Trick or treat children in pubs. NO.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of Sorrows: long piece on Billie Holiday. Looks interesting.

My mind’s elsewhere today

My mind’s elsewhere today but for the sake of content (c’mon team) here are Guardian reviews of the Spice Girls (bad) and Fatboy Slim (worse). I can’t imagine the critics are too far wrong in either case.

A half of bitter

A half of bitter is probably the cheapest alcoholic drink that you can order in a pub - it would be Old Kent Road on a drinker’s Monopoly board. I had one last night, not out of poverty (someone else’s round) but because, perversely, I rather fancied one.

Being another’s round, I didn’t have to go up to the bar staff and actually ask for “a half of Bass please”. I am sure that the experience is not an empowering one.

My half pint was served in a half pint glass, naturally enough, and it was one of those which are shaped exactly like a traditional pint glass (straight side, then round lip, then straight bit), only smaller. People with no depth of vision (e.g. cyclopes) would have thought I was a giant. Let’s hear it for perspective.

If you are interested, Bass tastes rather soapy. Oh, a half of shandy is cheaper than a half of bitter but it can scarcely be called alcoholic.