Quoted by the Times:

Kerry Packer had already experienced eight heart attacks and after one of them, while playing polo in Sydney, the Australian media magnate technically “died” on October 7, 1990. His heart stopped beating for seven minutes before he was revived.

The experience did nothing to change Packer’s robust, if tenuous grip on life. “I’ve been to the other side”, he said. “And let me tell you, there’s nothing there”.

Wow! Mark Williams, not THE Mark William – the snooker player but another even more obscure one. Sure we’d recognise the face and “his work” but nobody would know him from the name.
Anyone else spot a crap celebrity.
My personal favourite encounters include Raj Persaud (cocky psychologist from daytime TV), Patrick Moore (worked with him as a singer), Richard Branstons (Maker of Virgin Pickle) in Chi and best of all Des Lynam in a petrol station. And Liv and I saw Boycott at the cricket once. Oh and Cwiss Eubank on the beach. Also saw Michael Jackson on a bus, no really!

I went out in brighton on friday for a drink and meal with the chaps from work. The first pub we went to was The Nelson which is opposite our offices. Upon entering I saw Mark Williams of Fast Show fame. He was sitting at a table with a pint of ale chatting with some of the locals. I concidered going up to him and say “ooh, suit you sir!” or “This season, I shall be mostly wearing…” but decided against it.

Maybe a colour change?

Concerning Larium:

www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20030221-111929-7532r

Also:

“… my friend just got back from india. she was given, before the trip, some medication called larium, a popluar anti-malrial pill taken weekly. it has very few side effects, but she and her friends on the trip only experienced one- incredibly vivid dreams. in fact, on all the searches ive done about it, vivid dreams is listed as a side efect on them all. my freind had one so intense about an elephant trying to squash her, she rolled off the bed. they all can tell me nearly all of thier dreams, its crazy. anyone experince this med, becuase i think id like to take some, just in case the terrorists strike nyc with malaria. u never know. and if they dont, ill just be having dreams like wild acid trips on a nightly basis. thooughts? i know taking anything to dream seems dumb, but this isnt a hallucinagen, and isnt particularly harmful in any way. larium.”

Hail,

I feel the site is in need of a redesign, but i’m unsure what the new design should be. Any ideas? All design or feature suggestions will be considered, but may, of course, be rejected by the management ie. me.

– i’m thinking black text, so we’d have to lighten the background… white or possibly pastels.
– Have all contributors credited in the “a blog by…” section
– remove archive links to a separate page

When Bill Bryson first arrived in England about a quarter of a century ago, landing in Dover on a boat from France in the middle of the night, he slept on a park bench because none of the bed and breakfasts were open. Crawling off to a newsagents in the early morning to buy something to eat, the first thing he saw was a newspaper hoarding being put out with the legend:

“England collapse against Pakistan”.

He had no idea what this meant; but it certainly sounded portentous.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.