The ILC Top Characters Of All Time: a very long time indeed in the making, the mighty poll has finally reached #1 thanks to the diligent efforts of Andrew Farrell.[…]

“Yugoslavia, and the Balkans in general, are one of the world centers of tallness. The great physical anthropologist Carleton Coon’s study of the Ghegs of North Albania is entitled ‘The Mountain of Giants’. Jerry Pournelle tol[…]

Great Windmill Street isn’t that great a street really. A couple of exotic dancing dives, The Fabulous Windmill Theatre*, and a few ropey restaurants and bars. But it did used to be a one hundred yard drag which was home to four pubs. The two b[…]

Our Jenny had a bit of a shock this week. A bump on the head means she has a near-death experience of her very own! Granny urges JLH to join her in ‘the light’ but at the last minute Miss Perkypants looks down and sees paramedic hubby sob[…]

There is a standard press release story which has accompanied most of the press for The Host, Korean monster movie which has been out for a couple of weeks. The director Bong Joon-ho (of the previously also well received Memories Of Murder) just phot[…]

ok i have missed some so my position may well crumble fact-wise but i STILL DEFEND the “adult” jag of this series as being a. very unusual, and b. very much worth trying
sex is no longer remotely rare on TV *but* treatment of sexual mores[…]

As we are dipping our toes into this water, and reminiscing on the mobile library days AND Mark’s prescient Heinlein cover mutters on twin-lit, let me share. I read a lot of sci-fi as a kid. And the pre-history of my interest would factor in sp[…]

One of the great – though cynical – goals of marketing is to encourage consumers to waste stuff. Not in the enviro-friendly sense of extra packaging – the brands put that shit on their products when it was fashionable and they&#8217[…]

* Just Because.
OK. This list was derived almost two years ago now, and in our slow, thoughtful trawl through it, throws up odd anomalies such as this. Why Tears For Fears in 2004? Do we dare blame Donnie Darko?
Of course we bloody blame Donnie D[…]

After playing Dungeons and Dragons and other games for a couple of years, I found myself firmly on the ‘storytelling’ side, not the ‘point-scoring’ side, of the gaming divide. I also had precious few people to play with and &#[…]