http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tDXGhmtDew&feature=related

Moving away from crispy potato products, there’s just one thing that gets me about this that I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned here, which I’d like to present to the many knowledgeable minds here.

There’s a sequence in the intro (and that is repeated later on) that seems to me to be remarkably similar, melody-wise to part of Christopher Cross’s “Arthur’s Theme” from a few years later….I found myself singing “you know it’s crazy, but it’s true” . So, coincidence? Or a direct, acknowledged lift on the latter’s part…or is there some other connection?

In this particular case Rosie made some controversial comments, then expanded on them. If people still wanted to continue the argument – and I’d have been surprised if they didn’t! – they could have done exactly that. Continue the argument. Spell out what they think, explain why they find what Rosie’s saying offensive, etc. Maybe take it to email if it got too heated.

Not go the ILX route of one-liners and cryptic references and passive-aggressive sniping, this kind of superstring version of internet debate where every post has 6 curled-up dimensions hidden inside it. (And yes, I’m as guilty as anyone here – post #16 – and I apologise for it: old habits die hard.)

I don’t want to keep argument out of Popular, or political comment – I don’t want it to overwhelm the threads either, but we’re all grown-ups and politics and personal experience are inescapably part of pop. But if you’re going to make a point, make a point clearly. Thanks.

I once asked my late ex-partner Frank, a former lieutenant in the Royal Marines, what he would do if we were menaced while walking through St Pauls (it happens – accept that). He said we would cross the road to avoid a confrontation. I asked what he would do if we were pursued. He said he would ask the pursuers politely to desist. I asked what he would do if the pursuers ignored the request. He said he’d break their arms.

I don’t remember Viv’s Quavers ad but we all remember “Mr Cadbury’s Parrot”

I distinctly remember Viv Stanshall’s ad for Smith’s Quavers, mind.

Not much to add about this one. I felt fairly neutral about it at the time, although I had quite a soft spot for its rather elegant, stately (and OK, not a little preposterous) follow-up, “Na Na Is The Saddest Word”. It’s the intro which sticks in my mind the most; there’s a cheesy lushness in there which puts me in mind of later US TV theme tunes – yer Dallas/Dynastys and such-like.

Um, no he didn’t. He said that he had a song of the same name, on the “Typically Tropical” Barbados discussion.

Anyway, I’m just too young (never thought I’d declare that again) to remember the Stylistics, but have a particularly lovely version of ‘You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart’ on a Bacharach and David comp. I know ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’, obv, but that’s the limit. Am getting the impression I should seek out more.

With regard to #24, I could tell similarly horrifying stories about Glasgow in the seventies and replace the terms “black” and “white” with the terms “Catholic” and “Protestant”. Since I am wise enough to avoid crass strawmanism, however, I prefer to view the bigger picture, namely to look at why this prejudice historically exists – and saying that the blacks were just as bad/worse round “my” way is yet another manifestation of what is essentially endemic, or at least ingrained, racism, in blissful and total ignorance of the circumstances which brought this sort of attitude and behaviour into being in the first place.