Gruts

BBC: Iraqi handover to be speeded up
The chief US administrator in Iraq has said he wants to accelerate the handover of authority to Iraqis.

I bet he bloody does.

Another 2003 prediction comes true:

Apparel Magazine: The Magic of Spring (01-Oct-03)
Contrasting the casual, uptown cool of the new shirts, a decidedly downtown-and-across-the-tracks kind of style also presented a directional force for spring. From grease monkeys and truck drivers to hog-riding hipsters and modern-day cowboys, designers paid homage to the simple life with short sleeve plaid shirts, 1x1 rib tanks, distressed denim and rugged, fraying edges.

A retrospective article, describing this year's clothing fashions. It would appear that fraying cloth ran and ran in 2003.

How does she do it?

BBC: Almost half of adults 'lack basic maths'

Almost half? That's outragious! That's over 75%!

This is me as Carolyn's two daughters see me (you can click on the images to see the full-length pictures). OK, I know it's getting close to Halloween, but I didn't expect to see anything quite this scary.

BBC: Odd mishaps cause computer grief (16-Oct-03)
A man so angry with his laptop that he shot it has topped an annual league table of the oddest computer mishaps.

I'm sorry: spilling coffee over your keyboard is a computer mishap; deleting a file by mistake is a computer mishap; plugging your modem cable into the mains is a computer mishap… Pumping your laptop full of holes with a gun sounds pretty pre-meditated to me.

BBC: Pope beatifies Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa of Calcutta has been beatified by Pope John Paul II, before hundreds of thousands of pilgrims packed into St Peter's Square.

They must be kicking themselves to have missed it. Wouldn't you think His Holiness could have waited a few minutes?

Mind you, perhaps he didn't think he had time.

A reader and benefactor writes:

As you're mainly responsible (via your warm beer page) for my conversion to Real Ale […], I wanted to make sure this didn't escape you (pretty much reinforces your observations on the history of lager in the UK of course).

Yes, it would appear that the great British public has finally wised up to the cold, fizzy piss that the major breweries have been foisting on it for years: gorilla's is how one friend of mine describes it (placing it one rung up the ladder from gnat's).

According to the article:

The [UK] breweries liked lager because it could be served from bottles and cans easier than traditional British ale. But they were worried that the British drinker could not consume the stronger beer in the large volumes they were used to [i.e. drinking the generally weaker, but tastier English ale] - and the breweries needed to keep their profits up. So the first lagers created for the UK market were watered down versions of their continental cousins, brewed for a shorter period of time and, therefore, with less flavour.

So now all the British lager drinkers are migrating to stronger, continental-strength lager, but still drinking the same volumes: the lager lout is born! What a pity more of them don't see the light and, like my correspondent, return to a more British (and tastier) way of drinking.

Hey, did I really help convert someone to the cause? How cool is that? (Around 12°C, I hope.)

BBC: Anglicans 'regret' gay bishop election

You know, that headline is so much funnier if you read it out loud in a Japanese accent.