Rock, Paper, Scissors
There’s a great article on this game (which had its world championships recently) here, explaining how it isn’t as artificial a situation as you might think – it describes a set of dice where over a number of &[…]

I did a ‘pick of the Trojan box sets’ over at ILM, which went down pretty well, then someone on I Love Comics asked for a similar view on the Marvel Comics Essential volumes (5-600 pages of vintage comics in B&W on cheap paper for ab[…]

More John Peel
I think it was 1975 when I started listening to Peel. I’ve been on and off ever since, sometimes hardly missing a show for months on end, sometimes going equally long without hearing one. Even when I wasn’t listening, it me[…]

Until earlier that year, I had been in a tiny indie band. After the Statistics paper in my ‘A’ level maths, a paper which I failed miserably and completely, I took the unhappy uphill walk back to the 6th Form Centre. It was already clear […]

John Peel (1939-2004)[…]

Pub Justice
Last night I went again to the pop quiz at the Rosemary Branch. It was a bit of a sentimental night because B, the one member one of our regular team who lives near there, is moving to Australia at the end of the week.
On his way to the[…]

Broadcasting legend John Peel dead
From the BBC Newsroom:
Radio 1 DJ John Peel has died at the age of 65. He was on holiday in Peru with his wife Sheila when he suffered a massive heart attack in a hotel. John had been on Radio 1 since it went on air[…]

Teenage Kicks (And Others)
– I sometimes used to worry that they’d sack him. I imagined him looking glumly through records he wouldn’t get the chance to play on the radio. It honestly never occurred to me he might die first.
–[…]

The lifespan of originality as a laudable quality is perilously short. We try to hold up firsts as being somehow significant, but beyond their actual place in linear history they rarely stand out. Maybe Hillary and Norgay were the first to climb Ever[…]

A Defence of Mike Riley
I feel the level of criticism is unwarranted.
He got most of the decisions right. The Ljundberg / Ferdinand coming together was probably the most controversial. It was a push, but Ljunberg’s reaction was to get on with i[…]