The Grace Pages

Tony's last-ditch attempt to hold on to power

Labour's latest party political broadcast is a surefire sign that this is a Government on its last legs. Is this really what it's come to? Is this all Tony has left to say?

This analysis made me chuckle.

Hat-tip to Blairwatch.

Wisdom from the deep brain

Who said Einstein didn't know what he was talking about?

Hat-tip to Tony.

When I were a lad

Watching this video made me reminisce about all the things that were popular when I was a wee kid. When I was a kid, I played with

He Man
Star Wars
Spirographs

On TV I watched

The A-Team
Streethawk
Knight Rider
Penelope Pitstop
The Littlest Hobo
The Degrassi Street Kids
The Red-Hand Gang
Chips
*Mr Rogers' Neighbourhood
*The Friendly Giant
Mr Dressup
The Smurfs
The Moomins
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
Grange Hill
Sesame Street
*The Electric Company
*Gilligan's Island

*US and Canada, for those confused Brits reading!

Films I watched were

Return of the Jedi
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
Superman II
Popeye
The Black Stallion

Books I read were

Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World
Oh, What a Busy Day!
Orlando and His Little-While Friends
Janet and John

I went to the shop and bought a penny mix when sweets were only a hapenny. I strutted round the playground with my arms over my mates' shoulders shouting, "Who wants to play..." until we had enough people for a really good beat-em-up game of Superman or Robin Hood or whatever that particular day's favoured superhero was.

While in some ways it's scary, in other ways I quite enjoy getting at the age where childhood feels like a long time ago. Of course, there are 40-somethings reading this who are astounded at (and really quite jealous of) how young I am!

Weekend waffle

Stephen Green's appearance on the Beeb's Question Time last night did not really justify the uproar I witnessed on some gay forums. There was outrage that the BBC were giving him a platform, but he only ended up making himself look utterly ridiculous, which I'm sure the Beeb knew very well when they asked him to come on the show.

He was quiet for most of the programme, actually, and when he did open his mouth he only made a fool of himself. The rest of the programme was unusually flat by QT standards, I thought.

Onto other things: Despite the overblown title, this is an interesting film about hysterical overreaction to alleged "discrimination" on a few American university campuses; its main virtue is that the tone of the documentary itself is generally not overblown, and it contains some enlightening interviews.

If you're too sore from the last time a Republican whupped your ass to appreciate the documentary, here's some lighter fare: a sneak preview of The Shining (QuickTime required); proof that you probably shouldn't trust movie trailers.

Oh, and here's some parting advice: Think young.

Cringeworthy

I pity this poor preacher.

Hat-tip to Adam.

PS. For what it's worth, "pitch" sounded more like "pinch" to me.

You are the weakest link!

I'll be glued to the TV at 5:10 tonight, as an online acquaintance takes on the evil Anne Robinson in a battle of the wits on The Weakest Link. She'll find it hard to take the piss out of him, since he already takes the piss out of himself -- daily -- and drinks it. He calls it his "golden brew" and claims great health benefits from it.

UPDATE: He won, by the way. He attributed his success to the urine, adding that "I deserve and expect to be adored. As I walk through the streets of Hull, they will be bowing down and throwing rose petals in front of my feet."

Every sperm is sacred

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is generally a fairly mediocre film, but there are one or two classic moments.

I love my applemac?

Hat-tip to Deep to Deep for this priceless commentary (WMV) on the woes of owning an applemac.