May 7th - May 13th 2007
Sunday Seed capital
Saturday Gerbera
Friday Bouncing ball
Thursday Anemone
Wednesday Word of mouth
Tuesday Rose
Monday Crushed
Sunday 13th May
Do you know what nigella seeds are?
I do, as it happens; I may even have some buried in my kitchen somewhere.
But if I didn't, I know what I'd do, especially if I were under a deadline: I'd hop on 'tinternet. As would you, I imagine.
And if you had to procure 3kg of them? That's quite a lot, but no more than the average stock carried by one of the big cash'n'carrys on Brick Lane, I imagine.
So how come almost the entire story line (if those are quite the words I'm looking for) of one of last week's more popular tv programmes hinged on our teams' difficulties in tracking the damn things down?
Something to do with the programme maker's predeliction for filming furious mobile telephone calls in the back of the people carrier, I imagine. But do none of these people carry a portable computer in their attaché cases?
In reality, maybe. But this is not reality. It's not even reality television. It's The Apprentice, the series that purports to reveal the Machievellian skills required to succeed in business - but succeeds instead in demonstrating the incredible power of a skilled production team intent on manipulating reality to their own authorial ends.
Great television, though.
Saturday 12th May
Gerbera, Winter 2006
Friday 11th May
A teacher persuaded a 15-year-old girl to perform sex acts on him while she played the xylophone at school, a court was told yesterday.
Science teacher Michael Taylor used a "secret knock" to be let into the music room while the talented percussionist practised at lunchtime, it was said.
Prosecutor Nicola Moore said they would perform sex acts on each other and "she would carry on playing the xylophone so anyone outside would think she was still practising. She recalls this happening once a week."
Thursday 10th May
Anemone, Spring 2007
Wednesday 9th May
People who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do not have oral sex, a new study suggests
- New Scientist, May 2007
(There goes the neighbourhood.)
Tuesday 8th May
Rose, Spring 2007
Monday 7th May
I never thought to see the day I'd find myself nodding in agreement with a Daily Telegraph columnist, especially on a gay-related subject, but...well, none of us are getting any younger.
Here's Jeff Randall on the Browne affair:
If a heterosexual boss of a blue-chip company were to hire a prostitute from an escort-agency website, move in with her, parade her at official functions, and then dump her amid acrimony, I'm pretty confident that Fleet Street's attack dogs would be howling at his door, too.
Browne displayed poor judgment. If you shack up with a rent boy, someone who sells his body, you shouldn't be surprised that, when it all goes wrong, he's perfectly willing to trade your dignity for a few dollars more.
Browne was understandably horrified at the prospect of his intimacies being blasted across the tabloids. Most of us would feel the same.
But what's mystifying is that a man of his fierce intellect was prepared to perjure himself, hoping to silence the boyfriend and kill the story. Browne lied under oath and the weight of his falsehood has crushed him.
......previous week
