Words of Waldman

Sunday lunch with the Waldmans

Had a fantastic Sunday lunch at the Trinity restaurant in the Crown and Castle Hotel in Orford (reviews here and here and here).
It's no secret that the food here is a bit special (although, it was even better than we expected). But just as impressive was the way they dealt an array of dietary restrictions that makes the Waldman family every restaurant's nightmare.
- Suzanne and I: vegiquarians (fish-eating vegetarians)
- My parents: strict kosher (no meat, no shell-fish, only fish with scales..no skate/turbot etc)
- My sister: no dairy
- My sister's boyfriend: no pig or shellfish, but meat is ok.
As a result of this they had to provide a completely new off-menu fish dish for my parents, take the cream out of a lentil side dish for my sister, remove the bacon from a chicken and bacon salad, and shuffle around a few seafood/fish platters to get the shellfish off them. And all done with a smile.
I had the local skate which was about the best meal I can remember having in a restaurant for years. All in all, much recommended if you're down Suffolk way.

Gone fishing...

OK, well maybe not fishing...but off to suffolk for the weekend. Expect prolonged silence followed by photos.

Guess what...

Interviewed by the BBC, General Jay Garner has admitted the US made some major mistakes when they took over Iraq (audio). You don't say. Also on Fox news.
Meanwhile, an excellent set of opinions on how we get out of Iraq from today's G2.

The old iPod battery thing rages on...

Everyone has now linked to the fabulous ipodsdirtysecret.com (as featured on CNet, no less), and the very helpful if you need it ipodbattery.com.
My batter hasn't died yet (well it's only a few months old), but the life just isn't anywhere near good enough. So at some stupid expense, I've invested in a Belkin battery pack, which allows you to use 4 AA batteries. Perfect for when travelling methinks. Although whether or not I'll actually use it, is another matter.

Oh come on...let's just have the hunting ban.

No mention of hunting then in the Queen's Speech, although Tony Blair has pledged to resolve the issue in this parliament.
I'm violently against hunting. But I don't want to have the pro/anti debate here. What I find most depressing about the whole process is the way that a combination of political pragmatism and wheeler dealing is getting in the way of one of a bit of legislation that was clearly stated in the government's manifesto.
As it drags and drags, so everyone starts to question it - simply because of the spectacular amount of time it has taken up.
Then there is the slightly specious argument that the time could ahve been better spent on different legislation to protect animals.
A month or so ago, for example, The Observer ran a leader saying - as the Bill was about to appear in Parliament:

those genuinely concerned about cruelty to animals should not celebrate yet, for the Bill is little more than a sop to an old Labour shibboleth. If animal welfare were truly the aim of the Bill, the Government would be addressing the far worse (yet legal) abuse of millions of birds and animals on UK farms.

Here's the thing: yes, there are bigger and more important issues to tackle on animal rights in this country. Yes, it's taken up far, far too much time in parliament. But, the majority in this country voted for a ban on hunting (unlike say, top-up fees, the new european constitution or foundation hospitals).
Like that other excellent principle but practical nightmare, the reform of the Lords, this is one of those things that has to be pushed through if we are to believe there is anything more to politics than posturing and pragmatism. Mere practicalities can't be allowed to get in its way.
Oh, and when Polly Toynbee today says that 'wiser heads' will see a ban as "an illiberal act, banning the hobby of an odd minority". I despair. If something's cruel, it doesn't matter whether it's a hobby, or whether it's practiced by any minority, or majority - no matter how odd. It's still cruel and we should do something about it. If an 'odd minority' took up bull fighting or badger baiting and cock fighting, would that be ok?
Oh, but they can't..because they're illegal? Well, how do you tihnk they became illegal?
s

Scrabble bug bites

I've started reading Stefan Fatsis brilliant romp though the world of competitive scrabble Word Freak: A Journey into the Eccentric World of the Most Obsessive Board Game Ever Invented .
You just have to read this book - or at leas the first half of it - if you've ever been at all interested in Scrabble, and/ or if you like those tales that feature lots of slightly disfunctional types finally finding their metier.
Anyway, having read it, I'm now under the deep delusion that my own Scrabble skills are going to rocket (although the main lesson from the book is that for this too happen you have to put some serious time in to building up your word knowledge...and I'm afraid, I'm not quite that sad).
It has also given me an excuse to acquire a great little gadget, the Franklin Pocket Scrabble Master, which acts as a dictionary, anagram finder, and neat little puzzle, all in one. A perfect Xmas present for that slightly disfunctional relative of yours.

Zempt vs Bloggar

I've always thought w.bloggar was one of the great works of genius. Unfortunately, it doesn't deal with titles and categories, so following a recommendation on the Unofficial Typepad resources, I've switched to Zempt. Because of titles and categories, it's better for writing from scratch, but isn't quite as elegant as bloggar and you can't edit previous posts. So, I'm using Zempt to write, and bloggar to edit. Which works surprisingly well (I find working in the browser templates really clumsy).
Someone's built a little 'Zempt this' IE context menu, for those who like that sort of thing. (Might be slightly quicker than the Typepad quickpost)
Oh - and neither of them let you post to your QuickLists (now, I'm deep in Typepad talk). Anyway - enough blogging about blogging....
UPDATE Actually, Bloggar does do titles and categories, you just have to set the blog tool to 'MT' not 'Custom' in the account settings panel. Although...when I do that, it seems I cant' edit old posts. Back to square one.

Rugby world cup: catch up

We watched it in Newcastle, a quite spectacular morning, following a rather excessive night. Anyway, it was just one of those events where nothing that was written about it afterwards did justice to the sheer emotion of watching it. A few writers stumbled when they rose to the occassion. This from Brian Appleyard on the front page of the Sunday Times probably wins the prize for the most completely overblown bit of prose I read the following day.

"Football has sold out. First the big clubs went international and then the players became a pampered set of preening prats. They fell over on the pitch and in bars. Sympathy for them began to evaporate. And then somebody poured the molten iron and cast the England rugby team. Then some craftsman of genius built a machine of improbable intricacy and called it Jonny Wilkinson. May the gods go with him. Footballers, in short, are globalised girlies; rugby players are British blokes."

Guardian and Observer put digital editions into beta

Don't normally talk about work on here...but in case you're interested, we've just put the Guardian and Observer digital editions into beta today. They're digital facsimiles of the paper, and will ultimately be paid for. Feel free to take a look and tell me what you think.

Jodie Marsh's words of wisdom...

Piers Morgan writes in the Guardian about his new Channel 4 series on the cult of celebrity. He makes a pretty tired old point about celebrities aren't what they were etc etc and these days they're all talentless nobodies.
To back up his point he includes this snippet from a chat with one of his interviewees

'When I asked wannabee club queen Jodie Marsh what the point of her was, she chuckled and replied: "There's no point to me. I've got no talent. I just want to make as much money as I can, as easy as I can and have as much fun as I can doing it." '

Reading this makes me see Jodie Marsh in a whole new light.