Favorite movie stars

The results of the Normblog movie star poll are up. It's nice to see Cary Grant take the top spot; next to Jimmy Stewart, he's my favorite actor and a Bristol boy to boot (Mac went to the same local school).

Here's the way I voted (with four out of the top five):

Ingrid Bergman
Humphrey Bogart
James Cagney
Kirk Douglas
Cary Grant
Katherine Hepburn
Robert Mitchum
Barbara Stanwyck
James Stewart
Spencer Tracy

Watching Wimbledon

I haven't been blogging much recently; I can't understand how anyone can blog when Wimbledon's on.

You see, tennis is my game, though I haven't played for a couple of years - not since I messed up my knee doing Tai Kwon Do. Now, all I can do is watch. But when Sharapova is playing, watching is almost enough.

The Ladies' Championship is down to the last eight and all the matches will be played today. Here's the draw:

Lindsay Davenport (US) v Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus)
Amelie Mauresmo (Fr) v Anastasia Myskina (Rus)
Mary Pierce (Fra) v Venus Williams (US)
Nadia Petrova (Rus) v Maria Sharapova (Rus)

Four Russians in the last eight!

I'm hoping for a Davenport-Sharapova final. But if Venus Williams gets past Mary Pierce today, the Sharapova-Williams semi-final should be a joy to watch.

Normal blogging (whatever that is) will resume after the weekend.

Day by day

Chris Muir's strips just keep getting better and better.

Tree fells boy

There's been a little drama in the Junior household. Yesterday, the Big Fella managed to run face first into a tree, and a jagged branch has cut a three inch gash down the front of his face.

He's got a bump on the head, a big black eye and he's going to have a scar. But it could have been worse - less than half an inch to the left and he'd have poked his eye out.

I told his Grandma what happened, she wasn't very sympathetic: "He ran into a tree? Tell him he's an eejit!"

I already did. Bless him.

Little green microbes

It seems some people at NASA are getting worried about the prospect of life on Mars.

New Scientist reports:

Before the US sends humans to Mars, it should rule out the possibility of dangerous life forms on the planet, a NASA advisory panel has reported. And it says the only reliable way to do that is with a robotic sample-return mission - which could take more than a decade to implement.

Social scrutiny

Via Most Sincerely Folks: Application forms for the new UK Identity Card are now available online.

Anyone for tennis?

Wimbledon starts today and the BBC will, as always, be providing top quality coverage of the event.

I'll mostly be watching Sharapova - she begins her defense of the title on Tuedsay. I like her game and I think there's a good chance she'll win it again this year. When she's on form - and it looks like she is - she's awesome.

Go Sharapova!

Soaking Cruise

The BBC reports that Tom Cruise was assaulted at the London premiere of "War of the Worlds".

Four members of a freelance camera crew were arrested at the War of the Worlds premiere in London after its star Tom Cruise was squirted with water.

The 42-year-old actor's face and jacket were drenched with water squirted from what appeared to be a microphone.

The crew was working for Channel 4. It said it hoped Cruise would see the funny side of the stunt which was for a new comedy show.

So, Channel 4 is now paying people to go around assaulting celebrities in the street because they think it makes good television!? I don't know what it is that leads some people to think that if they have a camera and a microphone they are somehow above the law. In any case, the individuals involved have been arrested and bailed, and will face police questioning today.

After they're through with the police, they might start thinking about how they're going to respond to Cruise's lawyers.

A spokesman for Channel 4 told the BBC:

The water squirting was not intended to cause offence and was very much in a spirit of fun. We hope Tom Cruise will be able to see the joke in the spirit with which it was intended.

Sounds like wishful thinking to me. Village Voice said it a while ago: "Tom Cruise sues the way Robert Downey Jr. violates his parole."

I hope he takes them to the cleaners.

Monkey business

If monkeys had money what's the first thing they'd buy?

Mark Liberman at Language Log explains what happened when researchers taught capuchin monkeys to use money:

After "several months of rudimentary repetition", the monkeys learned that one-inch silver disks with a central hole "were valuable as a means of exchange for a treat and would be similarly valuable the next day". Chen and Santos were then able to experiment with price shocks, wealth shocks, gambling games and so on. And along the way, the monkeys began on their own to exchange money for sex.

I thought patriarchal capitalism was supposed to be responsible for the commodification of sex. But if monkeys are doing it...

No porking

From the BBC: A Bristol pub owner has been given a two-year Anti-Social Behaviour Order for putting up a sign in the car park of his pub saying "Porking Yard".

Local magistrates ordered landlord Leroy Trought to change the wording to "Parking Yard" after the local mosque complained that the sign was offensive to Muslims. Trought faces a prison term if he breaks the order.

Mr Trought undoubtedly feels hard done by (he's changed the name of his food stall to "The ASBO Snack Bar"), but he should count himself lucky that the Religious Hatred Bill is not yet law. Otherwise, he might have been convicted of "incitement to religious hatred" and jailed for up to seven years.

Looks like free speech is getting expensive.

Elderflower Sunday

Today, we'll be out gathering elderflowers for this year's batch of elderflower champagne. Mac usually makes about five gallons of the stuff - we'd make more if we had the bottles to put it in - it's my favorite summer drink.

The recipe comes from an old Women's Institute book on homemade wines and cordials published in the 1950s. I highly recommend it.

ELDERFLOWER CHAMPAGNE

2 elderflower heads
1 1/2 lb. white sugar
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1 gallon of water
1 lemon

Pick elderflower heads that are in full bloom and put them in a bowl with the sugar, vinegar and the juice and cut up rind from the lemon (not the white pith!). Add the water, cover and let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours.

Strain the liquid into strong bottles, cork firmly (screw-tops can also be used) and lay them on their sides. In two weeks it will be sparkling and ready to drink.

Just in time for the second week of Wimbledon. Perfect!

Daily Mail-o-matic

Found at qwghlm: The Daily Mail Headline generator - "A new Daily Mail headline every time you click the green button."

My favorite: DOES TEENAGE SEX STRIP HOUSE PRICES OF ALL DIGNITY?

Poker Joe

Recently, instead of blogging, I've been playing poker. Online. For money. It's ghastly, I know - but someone's got to do it.

Since before Christmas, when I had to give up work, tournament poker has been my only source of income. I haven't won much - no more than a few thousand dollars - but every little helps.

Anyway, just saying, I find it hard to blog and play poker at the same time -though some people seem to manage it.

So, if I'm not here or lurking around the blogs, you'll find me at Pokerstars - look me up and say hello.

Africa and the G8

Martin Kettle, writing in today's Guardian:

My fear is that the dynamics of the G8 summit involve too much of the naive leading the naive. Too much of the Make Poverty History campaign reeks of middle-class Europeans trying to feel good about themselves by prescribing very radical but practically dubious solutions to Africa's problems. Unusually, though, a similar criticism can be levelled against our normally pragmatic and careful government too. Geldof and Brown are in the same game. Both are brilliant at playing on liberal guilt. Neither of them is nearly as good at helping us to understand Africa.

Family file

I got a video file from my eldest son today - he's in the middle of his exams.

I know it's normal for students to let off a little steam on mid-exam weekends. Sometimes they even video the proceedings - I can understand that. But sending a media file of it to your dad! Now, that is original.

Thanks, son!

(I'd post a link but the file's too big to upload)

Frivolous ping

I know I already said this, but Suburban Blight is back and looking better than ever. Kelley's just upgraded to Movable Type 3.17, and is in need of "a frivolous test ping". So, here it is: PING!

Welcome back, Kelley.

Local graffiti

For some reason, Bristol seems to produce more than its fair share of graffiti artists: Delj was bombing walls in Bristol long before he made it big with Massive Attack, and then there's Banksy.

I know it's wrong but, so help me, I really appreciate some of Banksy's work - it livens things up a little.



Respect!

Update
Must be the day for it - more graffiti blogging here.

Fisking Walden

Via Ed Thomas at Biased BBC, I found the Rottweiler Puppy's cracking response to Brian Walden's recent column for the BBC on the decline of the West and European opposition to the US.

You should read it all, though one bit stuck me - regarding the lack of gratitude shown towards the US for its historic contribution to European security, Walden has this to say:

Perhaps the US deserves much gratitude for what it's done to preserve European freedom. In practice it doesn't get it. Its influence and culture are resented...

That's certainly true, though (as RP points out) there's a word for people who criticize American materialism while avidly consuming its products.

As for expecting gratitude from Europe, I think we've had all we're going to get. Reading Walden, I'm reminded of the fact that Americans like Europe a whole lot more than the Europeans like America - such relationships are bound to end in tears.

My advice? Never love someone with low self-esteem, they'll end up hating you for it.

Over the Wall

Clive Davis is in Berlin:

A shame there's so little left of the Wall. But it's hard to describe the feeling you get when you're crossing a road and suddenly realize that the thin, two-brick line running across the tarmac represents the point where East and West once met. Somehow that's more meaningful than any grand memorial.

Advice for life

Via Language Log: Mr Sun offers some practical advice to this year's crop of new graduates. It includes a few things they most likely won't have heard at Commencement, such as:

Make a list of the things you want to do before you die. Be as open to your heart as you possibly can. Now, throw that ridiculous piece of trash away and get your ass to work. The ball is over, Cinderella.

And,

If you start lowering your expectations and compromising your principles now, you won't have to play catch-up when mounting debt and endless tedium crush what was once your soul.

Recent graduates should read it all.