INVALID FOOD: looking for classic vegetarian recipes for the poorly, after my kneejerk suggestion of Chicken Broth had been spurned, I reached for my trusty Mrs Beeton, who is always sensible on such matters. Three quarters of her standbys are also m[…]

CHEAP FOOD WE LOVE: Supplementary (Crisps, Post-Colonial Theory and): I’ve been trying to pin down the recent branding shift in Phileas Fogg snacks, and I can’t do it, I don’t think, without invoking the late great Edward Said: I th[…]

SPACE: FLYING VISITS is a little ten-minute filler programme on BBC2 (Tue, 9.50pm) which allows them to play around with presentation and formats, CGI, cartoons, talking heads at thumbnail size next to a multicoloured diagram, in ways they never do w[…]

‘:0

(Facesaving item just this second remembered from same documentary: WISPA narrowly avoided being marketed as ROMBO)[…]

Re: Alan’s shape query: years ago I saw a documentary about the marketing campaign for Yorkie, during which they announced that it belonged to (as I heard it) the “cantiline bar” category. Googling now I can only find this engineeri[…]

SCIENCE IS YOUR FRIEND #1: A musician I knew a bit – I’d written a little story on him – invited me to his house, somewhere in Essex on the banks of the Thames. He was throwing a barbecue for family and friends, and it was a nice wa[…]

Well the return of Inspector Frost was dire, despite featuring a demented tango competition dancer dismembering her partners for being not good enough PLUS a scene set in a yard stacked high with thousands of busted fridges which suddenly all fell ov[…]

(Sistrah Becky just suggested TIME AND TIDE must be part of the Brighton Photographic Biennial, but it doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere on the website)[…]

On Brighton sea front, just by the burnt-out wreck of the West Pier, there’s a photography exhibition. It’s actually ON the front: each picture, in its frame, is attached to the railings of the esplanade as you look out to sea. It’s[…]

Aliens certainly look like THIS: unfortunately the story doesn’t say i. how these Californian scientists worked this out, or ii. what their damn book is called. (Other questions as usual not answered: when did we start calling them aliens and w[…]