The Flamingo, The Pushme-Pullyu and the Mao – all pieces in variant chess according to this site. I’m fond of house rules and rule variants in theory but they often seem rather forced: most games have players for whom knowing and tweaking[…]

The Sun And 13 Cantons is not a bad pub, in as much as it is a pub at all. Yes it is overpriced, yes its wipe down clean tables are aspiring to bardom: but they are catering for a media kind of market who like that kind of thing. I am not sure though[…]

Pet Shop Boys Track By Track: a remarkable labour of love PSB fan-site, essentially one of those Revolution In The Head-style career archaeologies, except online and free-of-charge. The song information is interesting, though my favourite bit of the […]

HERE’S WHAT I HATE #1: CABBAGE!! Two minor celebrations running I have had to pick my way delicately through an otherwise excellent meal – once at Stockpots in Old Compton Street (Fried Liver and Onions) and once at the Korean restaurant […]

Reality Blurred: a Reality TV weblog (US shows and networks only though). I’ve been having a little sniff around for TV weblogs, Google hasn’t been very helpful though, loads of right-wing sites rooting around looking for ‘bias&#821[…]

Student qualifies as pop star. Heart-warming tale about how Mickey Mouse degree student has gone straight out of the classroom and into the charts. Hooray, pop music degrees really teach our kids how to be pop stars. Unless of course you have notice[…]

WHILE WE’RE AT IT – THE THEME FROM CHEERS
Locals, I like locals. Indeed I like locals so much there are very few locales in which I don’t have local. Which is why I always hated Cheers, the popular television program supposedly set […]

Chelsea Headhunt Kenyon: so far so boring. Global brand, best in the business, carry on, nothing to see here. Except I think, though I’m not sure, that Chelsea’s outgoing Chief Executive, Trevor Birch, was the fellow I heard the other nig[…]

Phantom Power, the new album by the Super Furry Animals is named after a switch you see on lots of mini-amps. It is a switch, and associated light, which has also beguiled me. What is this phantom power, how can it seemingly power the amp to greater[…]

I was having a sniff around for information on Punch Taverns, who are Britain’s second biggest pub owners but who don’t brand their pubs as aggressively as do Wetherspoons. I was doing this because Wetherspoons’ latest results are p[…]