often seen in the street without a hat

I am pretending to write my (now six days overdue) conference paper, while watching Where's Elvis This Week on youtube. It is weird. It's a sort of panel show hosted by Jon Stewart, filmed in the US but as far as I can tell only aired in the UK. It only lasted for five episodes. This is probably because there is no desk, no clearly delineated rounds and worst of all no points. What were they thinking?

It's from the autumn of 1996, and Diana is alive, Fergie is on the front of newspapers, Tony Blair seems like a hopeful young chap, and there is derision at the idea that John Major could possibly have an affair. The whole point of the show is to talk about British/American cultural differences, and it's okay, but a bit dull and obvious. The guests are odd. Each episode had one woman (out of four guests), but for four of the five episodes the female guest was on the American side, so it was peculiar. The episode with the British woman was also the worst episode. But then the woman was Lowri Turner, who I'm sure is capable of bringing down any television show you care to name with an appearance. (I love the way the wikipedia article points out that it was surprising that Daily Mail readers picked up on her racism.)

The majority of the male guests were comedians, (Arthur Smith, Armando Iannucci, David Baddiel etc), while none of the women were. This really irks me. It happens a lot on The Panel as well. I do mostly like the women who are on that, but it's just really obvious that there's this weird split between women and comedians.

Last week's News Quiz, though, had Sandi in the chair of course, and then Sue Perkins and Carrie Quinlan! I think that's the first time I've ever heard that. Even before, when Simon Hoggart hosted, it was rare to get two women at the same time (I remember Sandi remarking on it when she was finally allowed to be on a team with Linda Smith), and three is very nice indeed. And it was good, as though it were a perfectly normal occurence and not a hideous feminism-gone-mad, what about the menz tragedy.

( Michael McIntyre )

( Booths )

Pirate cereal! I am quite seriously thinking about stocking up in case it vanishes again. Of course, since the films are over (dear god, don't let them do any more), it's bound to go away quite soon anyway, but while there're product cards in the plasticky bits on the shelves, there's hope.

Last night I was woken up twice - once by a young man right under my window at 4am, asking his friend very loudly if they were going back to his for a smoke (I did not catch the reply), and then about an hour later when my finger started throbbing after what looks like a small insect bite. Boo.

On Radio 4 this morning, the presenter pronounced "schedule" as "skedule", and immediately corrected himself and apologised with a slightly panicked air about him, and said "I had to do that because there'll be letters". Quite right.

Today I am teaching a workshop on essay writing skills. I don't actually possess essay writing skills, but I do have a Plan.

Tonight I am going to see I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue with nerdcakes. Brilliant.