El Pibe

wot bob said. plus it's about as reality as x factor. wannabe's, exhibitionists, liars doing whatever it takes. the producers, researchers and participants feed off each other's needs and nobody asks too many questions. Definitely not new, didn't worhol say as much one or two years back?

I'm almost ceratinly uniquely named too!! at least we never have to put 156 after a user name.

i may have to give up on the independent online, when did it become reddit? (yeah yeah, when arseholes like me stopped paying for the print version, i geddit) http://www.independent.co.uk/ leads with oooh look, a dog dressed up as a spider dressedup as news *see what i did there?

god yes. la piba not eating potatoes is bad enough. Trying to accommodate a vegan would be el fin!!

it's all comfort feeding for the little ones isn't it? And when you want to break them, then there's controlled crying mwah hah hah. Though probably won't work so well when they're 6! You might want to stop with the comfort feed before that. Aaanyway, I'm soaking a gammon right now. (that's not a euphemism btw)

The cat left me disembowelled rat entrails today.

Me too, my all or nothing form continues.

to be honest i haven't met a single west ham fan who's treating this with anything but mild disbelief and confusion.

i've done it in the past, but i think it helps to go with form, and i don't link to tinker closer to the time as you get all paranoid that youre jinxing it by changing it, a la JL!!

bah, forgot again as had friends over from blighty. I'm not really very good at this am i.

david moyes, legend!!

But yeah, it's no great revelation that people say 'ooh yeah i'd pay more for better serivces' and then vote with their pocket....EVERY....TIME.... and it's not getting better in this downloads for free, tax payers not citizens, rights not responsiblities, cake and eat it culture of ours. anyway, thanks for your great insight blair, now please, once and for all, retire from the public eye with whatever grace you may have left (a clue....none...espeecially after *that* card)

i think i put it better frankly ;)

"democracy is over-rated" the strength of democracy is stability, brought about not in spite of the lack of room for political manoeuvre endemic to appealing to the lowest common denominator and appeasing short term goals with tinkering, but because of it. It does come at the const of basically annoying ALL of the electorate. The inherent deanger is of course that it can turn people off the political process giving more sway to those who DO engage. Given a choice between the paralysis of proportional representation and the sine wave toing and froing of two party systems, I'm afraid i can't be arsed to decide ;) The problem with benevolent dictatorship (and i know it was mostly tongue in cheek) is that it's entirely dependendent on the continued benevolence of the rul(er/ing clique) and of course succession is a fraught business. Plus, you know, trading in a sense of powerlesness in a political system that can't do too much harm, to a sense of powerlessness in a political system that can do what it wants.... All that said the Chinese seem to have been making a pretty good stab at it for the last 30 years or so, though they've solved the stability and succession issues by creating a two faction system where they hand over power every 10 years....uncanny :D

The New Leaf

it was a long week in fairness. my top score still only averaged a little over a point a game. poor all round really

also soul caliber on the dreamcast.

anyone playing world of tanks blitz, out now on android as well as ios (and new update gives you the british tanks)? ftp model is not annoying in the slightest, it's a beautifully balanced game, and judging by my 500 battles and counting, worrisomely addictive!!

managed one, still barnstormer for PD and I.

in one week

twice!!!

ooooh, 3 more correct scores, making up for forgotten weeks ;) how the hell did you work out the halftime scores?

good article AM, not entirely sure why its in here. But yes, all its revealing of is a tremendous lack of imagination among muslims when naming their kids ;) Jes?s has massively fallen out of favour in Spain, though Mar?a still dominates...spaniards do tend to obsess about their mothers so no surprise the holy mother still wins!!

I think tradesman has it backwards, people were desperate to like the cherry tree, and the promise of 'new management' meant people flocked there and were cautiously optimistic that a new leaf had been turned. But the age old problems resurfaced. If this is true then i reckon whatever comes has the potential to be a massiv success as its a fantastic building and perfect location. Walkabouts are admittedly a bit meh (to resurrect a dead meme) just a bit clinical and soulless, but I've had some great times in them watching the rugby with kiwi mates.