[UK] We appear to share a brain, or at least that part of it relating to childhood reminiscences.

I was born the year before the Beatles released Revolver. I remember an article on the radio about them splitting although it didn't make much sense at the time. We had a hippy lodger who used to play me Ummagumma by Pink Floyd when he was babysitting and I couldn't sleep. I used to get tuppence ha'penny pocket money when I was 5 - enough for a bag of Walkers Crisps.

....moving on from telly to other things sold by Curry's. Does anyone have any opinions as to what makes a *good* gas oven? Or does anyone have a particularly favourite fridge? I need to buy this type of thing and haven't a clue where to start!

Musically I was born in the year Duane Eddy released Peter Gunn, not that I remember it except a couple of years ago someone gave me a copy of the 45.

Breaking News!!! Dujon is No1!! a great result not seen since august last year, *throws several tubs of confetti into the air.*

rab]There should be two links in the last post but the on for 15 august does not appear.

Lib] Go for the most expensive brand you can afford - Bosch is my favourite - you get far better customer support if things go wrong. Never buy because of add-on features you'll never use. Go for the lowest energy rating possible (A is the best). Never take subscribe to add on insurance - most appliances are covered for two years regardless. Shop around - and don't be scared to ask for a best price. Happy shopping!

[Lib] You can probably get a fridge better than you'd expect, for less than you'd expect, by hunting around the sole-proprietors and small chains. I much prefer not shovelling my cash at the known retail brands these days - same or less money, same or better service. And fighting the power, man. Admittedly, it's not so time-consuming to hunt through the small local types when the town and outlyings of Northwich aren't much bigger than <pick a sub-area of a sub-region of Manchester>. The theory that because Dixons Group is huge you get better post-sales service is invalid - Dixons has one of the worst reputations, and it's major competitors (ie Comet and Argos) aren't a great deal better. Sorry if I'm repeating common knowledge - it's always worth repeating.

Thanks all for letting me climb to the top once more - I thought it would never happen. ... ;-)
[Inkspot] you typed 'hef' instead of 'href' in the missing link.

I was already nearly 16 (1958) before we had a telly, a thing the size of a wardrobe with a screen of several square inches, so I never watched kids' TV; just never been part of my life. (Dujon) Congrats on being top of the whatever-it-is; I don't do that one. I see from my weather browsing that eastern Oz is now very sweaty indeed, but not for long, probably. Take it easy, mate, you're not as young as you used to be, now, are you, goo' boy? (All) If you've absolutely nothing to do next Wednesday evening and are within a gnat's crotchet of Dartford, come along to the Mick Jagger Centre. Our band (Force Ten) are playing, starting 8 pm. A mixture of jazz, swing, funk, Glenn Miller-type stuff plus a very good female singer. Cost you £8, some of which will land up in my back pocket, I hope. Some tickets left, so I'm told. Hmm!

[BtD and Nik] Thanks for your words of wisdom. House purchase is delayed (grrr) so I won't be buying for a while (I've already got a sofa being delivered, which is kinda problematic as I've got nowhere to put it). Why is housebuying so infuriating?!?

Don't I know it - buying the place that now contains angrycake.com took almost *six months* after having my offer accepted. I'd had a cooker, fridge/freezer and bed bought and sat in warehouses for most of that time, having somewhat foolishly thought it'd only take the few weeks I was told it would take.

I just missed (well most of) 'That's Entertainment' on the local television. Unfortuanately it was on in opposition to the local F1 race in Melbourne - another one of my weaknesses (that's the cars, not Melbourne). Why can't the TV stations advertise that sort of stuff instead of some 'Z' grade movie in prime-time? I AM UPSET. I know, my fault; but if I'd realised I would have recorded the damn thing, as I don't have a copy filed away. *sobs - goes misty eyed after seeing the last 30 minutes and leaves with the full intent of getting rotten.*

Dujon]The race was repeated here this afternoon, I had high hopes fo Mark Webber, but only to be dashed again by reliability of the Jaguar. I would like to see him replace Montoya in the Williams. Would he beat his prospective team mate the petulant Ralf Schumacher? yes! without a doubt.

[Inkspot] To be honest (re Webber) I don't know. The media here tends to be so biased towards anyone with an Australian connection that it's hard to pick the facts from the hyperbole. No doubt he's a good driver, otherwise Jaguar would not be using him (apart from the money which he may have brought with him!), but it's an interesting thought.

Yay! I've been millionaired again!

[Dujon/Inkspot] Webber is indeed a top talent, with a great ability for doing good things with less than the best equipment. Our post race pub discussion on Sunday lunchtime centred around the (not totally unlikely) possibility of a Williams dream team in 2005 with Webber and our own Jenson Button on board.

Managed to wake up without Princess Ida in my head this morning, so my sanity may shortly be restored (well, whatever sanity I had to begin with, anyway). The last night was fun, what with the substitution of a packet of cigars for some handcuffs, some banter betwixt lead and orchestra, and a plan to give the MD a brown-trousers moment in the last number which came off beautifully...

Oof! Back to work...

I'm not going to be available to come to the e-pilg tonight - but how about a Gilbert and Sulivan theme..?

Me Cryptic? No. But the pelican has no tomatoes.

Bool] I think our cryptic postings have scared everyone off. Good job I didn't mention the bonfire that our neighbours are having in their swimming pool (no joke). The smoke is making the chickens sneeze!

Hello everyone, it seems I can get into MC5 at last. Whether this is just temporary or not I don't know!

Hooray! Can you email me another traceroute output please?

Well, I'm still here but paradoxically "tracert" now says "Destination net unreachable" after the first entry!

Slow week in the morniverse. **whistles eerily**

Did anyone watch the programme last night about the crisp industry?

Wish I had. Was it good?

[Btd] Well if you were working, why would you need a telly? It was OK. Just surprising how much I knew about crisps. I eat more than I should, but then I don't eat other stuff... much.

Cross-posted from Orange, but... a small announcement - White Rose MC is, at last, online. This is a version of the York/!York archive, rejigged to use the same technology as Orange MC (hence my desire to give it a different name).

Enjoy!

...and, again, reeeeee-lax. The new fan is much less painful to listen to.

[Dunx] Wow. I'll ungrey the York link Sometime Real Soon Now (i.e. when I can work out how out-of-synch the live version is with the dev version, and whether applying all updates would break anything. Yes I do use CVS, no I don't understand it and hence use is propery).

Any chance of a similar stunt being pulled for the Pants archives?

Dunx] You are a hero!

[rab] Not by me, no - I don't believe there was any backup of the Pants archives.

Pardon me for dropping in here: but, Dunx: if you were so inclined, you could find the archive.org record of Pants MC (it's surprisingly extensive) and manually pinch everything they've got there. I've already got the Lock Cup matches and a few others of interest: I'm slowly building up to getting the lot before archive.org crashes or gets taken down by an army of ravening copyright solicitors, but it is an option. If we really really really really really badly want the archive to be taken and re-hosted, that is.

[Angus] I feel that Dunx might already have enough on his plate... but if you do have all the games in a reasonable format there could be scope for archiving it appropriately.

Am I alone in believing that NOT all games need be archived? Only those which are *of particular distinction*, whether in quality, style or genre.

Aplologies to all at Celebrity Monington Crescent, somehow moreteaplease regained No1 without trying. Last Friday after I had sold all my shares I reinvested them in Prince Charles, if was he in the news I don't remember seeing him anywhere? and he paid out a handsome 5.57 a share! So I'll let them ride for another week and see what happens.

My halfwit band have some new tunes for you to listen to. So when you have five mins, toddle along to http://www.papalazarus.com and have a listen. Why not leave some nutty inane message on the guest book while your there? Ok cheap plug well n truly over......ftangftang......wibble

[JLE] Well... possibly. The problems are that (1) someone has to go through all the games to make a judgement on which are or are not worthy; and (2) you're relying on just that person's judgement. Even if there were a panel of judges, you would be requiring that their judgement be accurate for all time.

From an archaeological point of view, a lot of the most interesting artifacts and documents are the ones that people thought weren't worth keeping at the time. If all that is kept is the exceptional, then the context for those exceptions is lost.

So, possibly, but in my judgement, no.

[Dunx, JLE] I'm with Dunx on this one. Many's the time I've searched through the archives loking for a particular post of mine or someone else's. I'm afraid I have a habit of using these sites as a sort of highly social blog, and they're one of the few ways I can remind myself of what I was thinking about and preoccupied with at particular times, and when certain events happened. Players' reactions to Sep 11th are particularly interesting to look back on from this distance, particularly in locations other than the chat game, where life proceeded as normal within less than hours. Future historians might look at the pages and say "What were these people thinking? Joking and limericking away before the dust had even settled on such a huge historical event!".

[Projoy] I didn't realise these boards went back that far - where's all that then? curiosity declared

[Projoy] Well, I haven't seen a single comment throughout any of the Morniverse about the Spain bombings, so I don't see why there should have been so many about the ones in America either. I think our sense of importance is greatly warped by our peculiar belief that what happens in America is more important than what happens elsewhere.
Now, the verdict on Betsygate - that's what I call important!

Betsygate?

You mean you haven't been following it with bated breath?

I think everyone is horrified. And also very aware that the target could so easily have been here.

[Breadmaster] Oh, Betsygate, I do beg your pardon!

[BM] We don't really know the significance of the Madrid attacks yet, which makes them at present equivalent to the earthquake in Bam. But the significance and symbolism of the 11 Sept attacks were immediately obvious and pretty much unignorable. And arguably what happens in America (at least in some contexts) is more important in terms of international repercussions than what happens here, so the perception is not entirely arbitrary. [ZK] If you're interested in the reaction to Sep 11th, you can see it breaking here. CdM and I were midway through a debate on insurance when Néa was the first person to react, ahead of PaulWay hearing the news. What's really interesting in retrospect is how Drewsxpa provides future MC historians with an aside on the event for context - but of course, the date and the event is now burned on everyone's memory, and we need no such thing.

What you might need context for, on the other hand, is the "yipee" comment on 13 September by "Iain Duncan-Hague". You may recall that a man with a similar name was elected Conservative leader on that date. You don't? Oh, well, hard to blame you.

There's a fair few archives we may never see again: Beer Powered Mornington Crescent Frenzy is gone for good, I believe, as is Huxley's rather stylish, but short-lived server. Delphi remains in limbo, too.

[Projoy] Thankyou. I haven't quite read all of it, but will do so at my leisure. As to the more recent attacks (in Spain, obviously) I suspect no-one has said a lot because, callous as it sounds, we've sadly seen this all before, with my sincerest apologies to whoever that statement offends (including me). I was, however, visibly appalled when I was following the news on TV on Friday (I didn't quite grasp the scale via the internet on Thursday), so it's not as though I'm not affected. I am. But what is there left to say? Aside from that, watching those parades yesterday, I was overwhlemed by one particular thought - how proud I would be to be Spanish right now.

I was horribly shocked - but it still isn't certain who actually perpetrated the attacks. So we've been sidetracked into thinking it may have been ETA, rather than Al-Quaeda. There was also the way that passenger planes were hijacked and crashed into the towers, which seemed to make it even worse, somehow.

I sometimes wonder if there is a difference between honest belief and being brainwashed. That statement applies to myself as much as to anyone else. Whilst I have been raised within a society that, basically at least, follows the principle of 'do unto others ...' I often ask myself why someone would act in the manner which many do. I have also come to the conclusion that no-one can overcome extremists should such decide to launch plans to disrupt a country's activities by targeting its citizens. What those people or groups would hope to achieve by such activities also eludes me; surely such operations would merely strengthen the resolve of those targeted. It would appear that capitalism does have its weaknesses, particulary when it comes to the indiscriminate use of wealth to obtain a goal without due concern about those who might be affected by the process and its consequences. In that sense perhaps it is time that governments - honest ones, if that's not some form of anti-logic - took a wee bit more control over the activities of companies (multi-national or otherwise). However, I digress. I applaud the reaction of the Spanish people to these latest attempts to undermine the fabric of their country - even those in the Basque areas.

Does anyone have any idea why Ralf Little's shares keep going up?

The tape claiming Al Qaeda responsibility says it all, really: "You desire life; we desire death."

Have the gremlins crept into my computer, or am I simply imagining all this minimalism?

ooh, that was confusing. did I imagine it?

No, I didn't. How very strange. Approving of new fontage, however.

New fontage? Everything looks the same to me.

[Raak] I suspect the gremlins have got at my computer. Everything switches intermittently to Times New Roman and similar sparsity.

I did just notice the new favicon -- very nice.

The world is so small today, that news can be transmitted around the world seconds after it has happened, with instant assumptions of responsibility.
What has frightened me, is that as further details emerge is that this could happen anywhere, that Al-Quaeda have a long term goal and as a result they chose the place, time and method. They have the upper hand. The next act of terror will be unlike any that we have seen by them.

Once the west has bled the middle east dry of oil what kind of societies will be left? Looking at the news pictures of post-Iraq its hospitals, schools and housing were no bettter than that of a debt ridden third world country. I have yet to see evidence that everyone in Saudi has the same standard of living as you or I. With parts of America have already run dry of oil and its consumption shows no sign of slowing down, the exploitation of the middle east by the west only fuels the fire of Al-Quaeda fanaticism.

I momentarily experienced what looked like a plain text version of this page too, under IE6. Have reloaded and now it looks normal again.