Rawk Family Trees #1

Marie Debris and the Spending Spree
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Marie Debris and the Spineless Three
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Marie Debris

Regular messages on my screen that I'd miss if they went away:

- Your bugzilla buglist needs attention

- You are now on Day 1155 of your 30 day evaluation period

Early 21st Century Runes, #1

ÐÏࡱá

How a modern-day Powerpoint presentation is displayed on a prehistoric copy of Powerpoint. Yes, I know there's a viewer, and I use it. But somehow I think that most Powerpoint presentations could be reduced to this enigmatic collection of characters without any real diminution of meaning.

It's kind of zen, isn't it... The more you look at it, the more beautiful it is. That plus/minus sign thing is a stroke of genius.

Hmm. A book you simply can't pick up.

[pic]
Paranoia : Title Deleted for Security Reasons
by Edward Bolme (Paperback - February 1993)
Avg. Customer Rating:
Out of Print--Limited Availability

Italy has a mobile phone network called Tim. The Netherlands has one called Ben. Why isn't there one in the UK called Darren?

Presentation slips #2

"the recent slurry of announcements from Nokia" [flurry]

Presentation slips #1

"and the backside of this strategy is..." [downside]

Me and my bad credit - what am I thinking of? Me and my not-large-enough breasts - where do I get off? My and my overpriced Viagra-alike supply - am I crazy or what?

Issues to raise with Americans, when opportunities arise:

how can I best introduce my three-year-old to socialism?

do you hate the French more than we do, or does it just look that way?

where do you get your weather?

where will the successor world empire arise?

Cockle:

A rising tide
lifts all the pollutants
further up the beach.

Revenge: a dish best ordered "to go".

True statistic:
More Nokia 8210s have been stolen than have been manufactured.
Seen in The Guardian's The Editor supplement, 11 May 2002

Sales tactic of the day

I offer a no fee cancellation service, the customer can cancel at any time without penalty. This makes clients who are not 100% sure book with us. Once they've booked, they tell the kids and then can't back out. It would be a brave parent who spoilt their child's birthday party by cancelling the bouncy castle man.

Shark-Attack Barbie Sighting

"No, no! I didn't want the 'Fun in the Sun Barbie' with the sunburned skin, I wanted the 'Fun in the Sun Shark-Attack Barbie' with the bite marks on her surfboard."

At a business meeting in a Bloomsbury hotel today, I noticed that one of the bars has been branded as the Virginia Woolf Brasserie. I'm sure dear Ginny would have hated this, although it looked like the sort of place she could have got decently depressed in.

I suppose there's an EM Foster's pub nearby, hopefully with a function room called A Room With A View.

A lawnmower believed to have been the inspiration for one of Philip Larkin's last published - and best known - poems has become one of the most unusual additions to the University of Hull's archives.
Archivist Brian Dyson said it was likely the machine was the one Larkin was using when he accidentally killed a hedgehog, which inspired the poem, The Mower, published in 1979.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,712893,00.html

The world eagerly awaits publication of the Larkin/Amis letters, which will detail Kingsley's protracted loan of Phil's mower during the summer of 1954. Sources close to the volume's editors say that Amis angered Larkin by using the mower to write the first chapter of Lucky Jim, which he did on a very large field near Leicester.

The incident prefigures Sylvia Plath's tragic experience with a strimmer in 1961.

Philip Morris have changed their name to Altria. They haven't divested their tobacco interests, they've just changed the name of the company. It's like spraying the house with air freshener instead of removing the corpse in the living room.

Ecommerce through the ages, #1:
The French Revolution
Monsieur Guillotine invents the add to basket icon.

Cockle:

Up with the lark
Down with the duck
And white wine with the fish.

So many books to read, including:

Knitting With Dog Hair : Better a Sweater from a Dog You Know and Love Than from a Sheep You'll Never Meet
by Kendall Crolius and Anne Montgomery