Ted Max

The Guardian OBO started all the japery. Before them Cricinfo was all "Left alone, no run" ad infinitum - and everyone else just did bare scorecards. Then when the other outlets saw the page impressions the Guardian OBOs were clocking up (often the highest in the whole Guardian Unlimited site) they started going down the same comedy, email us in your thoughts, riffs and routines. Pale imitations, all of them. An hour and a half of Jimmy and Broady this morning. Not good news for the Enzedders.

Truly, we are no longer in that place and we can never go back. We're in a different place now. Is the session over already? I'll pay on the way out.

I was told that the Magdala used to be very reliable for a "proper punch up" (vis - manly, square-go, fisticuffs) of a Saturday night, but sadly those days are long gone now - along with the glasses stacked 15 deep along the bar, the carpet and the velour seating. Shame. Nowadays it's full of idiots with MacBook Pros WFP and watching the cricket, I hear.

It could be Team Clinton has done Obama an unwitting favour in foregrounding the race, inexperience and pastor Wright angles, dirty as it seemed at the time. It means this stuff is already out there, and although the Republicans will definitely hit it, it won't have the shock of the new - and Obama has had plenty of opportunity to get his defence in first. McCain getting through relatively unopposed has meant he hasn't really been tested yet - there's a still a story for the Democrats to tell. Not sure about the running mate thing - especially the view that only Hilary can get the older black plus white working clas vote out? Another few months of economic stagnation, and who is that demographic really going to vote for when it comes to it? Is there not a safely dull, efficient administrator, preferably with a nice war record, that Obama can call on?

Well Helene's eyes are too far apart, and sometimes seem to move independently - like a tree frog. Charlie Brooker thinks Helene looks like a kit cat clock.

I got you. If by some freak accident (ie you haven't paid yet) you are the recipient of the only ever slightly negative review of anything ever in Living South, that might actually be a mark of pride - one for the billboards. "Not really my cup of tea, but my folkie companion said he quite liked it." - Living South

On the upside you would be able to get a seat in the Peckham Rye Park Cafe.

Hmm, trouble selling the ads, d'ye think? When's it usually out? Still, I suppose this is a first for Living South, people hanging on its publication.

Well that was rubbish, wasn't it? I wanted to see Helene and Alex get minced, re-shaped into patties, grilled till charred and then thrown to the pigs. Disappointed. And SRalan and his cronies are a bunch of sexist old gits - Lucinda would be good at interior design and decorating the board room, chuckle chuckle. How does she gross 100k pa contracting, then? That's a lot of candles to sell. And SirAlan's "Nice to have a lady's view" to Karen Brady - shown his true colours there the patronising twunt. I hope he either picks fame-hungry passive aggressive nutjob Claire, or defensive, holllow streak of piss Alex, or even manipulative eye-roller Helen - he deserves all of them to be honest. (stop me if I'm taking this too seriously, someone)

Mag has up-and-down WiFi. But it's free if it works. And you can go and sit outside and top up your vitamin D levels during drinks breaks.

I've partaken in a bit of sly WFP cricket watching in my time. Magdala usually obliges.

Was it a repeat of the Peter Oborne film? Seen it before if so, and yes Obourne very much fingered Cowdrey as having done the dirty deed behind closed doors - in the most two faced manner. IIRC the film kind of came out of Oborne's biography of D'Oliveira which is brilliant - read it if you can. Oborne doesn't nail down every aspect of his theory of a high level political stitch up between the MCC and the Saf government - some of it is pretty circumstantial. But he's brilliant on placing D'Oliveira as a player in world terms. And if you like John Arlott, he comes out of it very well, btw. EDITED to get the writer's name right.

Nine or ten days of sun should do it, Brendan.

????, have a punt on how long it will take one of the Beeb pundits to state that when you look at the teams that are here, "I really think England could have won this tournament."

I used to know the people who grow these ones in the UK, in a former life.

Perhaps this is something to do with the "How to make ?500 a month???" thread in the Lounge?

Likewise Ted no idea what made me choose the place Well on that part of LL it was that or Le Chardon, in those days, if you didn't fancy a curry. Actually, that's not quite true, there was Spaghetti Weston's next door, serving pasta to a disappointed clientele.

No answer to my post? How do you assess market value, Sean. Seems to be "it's less than last year so it must be a good deal." How do you know the deals currently available = less than market value?

Datum = the "commission paid" line on Seany's payslips. :) There are properties on at prices that look like good deals if you compare them to last year's peak valuations, but maybe last year's prices constituted bad deals, Sean? What do you think - this is the bottom and people should buy now? Or is there another reason for piling in now? (genuine question not sarcastic)

This was the first place I ever ate out in in ED - and for nostalgic reasons if it shuts I'd feel the loss, even though I never go there now (principally because I never go out at all now). But if it were to go - it would be the ideal venue for the clearly missing late 'n' live music venue on LL. It's a large space, and there's even an upstairs bit for chin-stroky poetry readings and other avant garde happenings.

Yes, Sean. Of course, property professionals are happy enough to endorse the "property as investment" ideal in a rising market. Now everyone is conditioned to think they must only buy a house if it will also double as their pension scheme, it's going to be hard to convince people that they are, after all, only buying a home to live in.

You're fine David. Keep the flowers, that's what you're after. Tomatoes will follow. A nascent bunch of tomatoes = truss. In terms of snipping off, you want a plant with a nice central stem and nice neat(ish) side stems going off it, like a child would draw a tree, perhaps, rather than stems everywhere. Then when you've got about half a dozen bunches of tomatoes growing nicely, you might want to think about stopping the plant growing up and out anymore, and just concentrate on fattening up your lovely plums, as it were.

There are still net frames in Dulwich Park - I couldn't vouch for what surface is laid down. used to be concrete I think. If you were entering from Court Lane, they are in the far corner of the playing field bit to the right - sort of over the fence from the bike hire place. Does that make sense?

The main thing is, as the plant grows, to pinch out the little shoots that form between the main stem and the leaf stems (the bits that branch out off the main stem). If you don't do this you will end up with lots of lovely leaves and not so many tomatoes. Then, when you have about 6 or so trusses set, (a bunch of tomatoes, in effect - probably take a couple of months??) stop the plant growing any further by snipping off the tip of the plant. This puts all the growing energies into the tomatoes. Some people say if any more trusses start to form you should get rid of those too - as again too much fruit will be spreading the energy of the gro bag too thin. But you can judge this from the state of your plant - how big the tomatoes are getting, how quickly maturing etc

Second and third will be to order herself some new shoes and retain a chauffeur.