h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Requests the pleasure of nattering to Queex again, as they haven't chatted for ages, and he isn't e-mailing her anymore.

Oops. Sorry. Things to do, you know. I've got to deliver a talk at a conference next week, but that doesn't excuse weeks of silence...

Abject apypolyloggies.

I'll forgive you, simply because I love your new spelling.

Talk at a conference?

Yup. Practical Bayesian Statistics 5. I'm giving a talk on my traffic forecasting work a week Thursday.

Which means I have to lark about with Powerpoint.

Fun. No idea what you're going on about though.

A week today I will be sweating through my presentation.

You'll be fine.

What's the worst thng you've ever had to do?

Hmm.... Not sure. Public speaking doesn't get me that much. Er... I'll have to come back to that.

Trying to write a review of High Society, and not land myself in hot water with the Mod's.

?

I write book reviews for the Post (see my nickname). And next weeks is High Society by Ben Elton. Which deals with whether we should legalise drugs. And because it's an opinionated column, I got round to saying whether I agreed with the ideas. Which the Mod's might not like.

Ah, I see. I keep meaning to get round to reading High Society. He's one of my favourite comedians. I liked previous books of his I've read, although some of them seemed a little worthy.

I guess if you keep to factual reporting of the content of the book you're okay. Personally I'd think you can give an opinion on how effectively the book makes it arguments without straying into forbidden territory, but then I'm not a Mod.

I don't like areas where anything other than the current orthodoxy is considered too 'contentious' to be aired.

I put a little, I do not condone drugs etc bit at the bottom, should be okay.

Besides, even an exhortation for the law to be changed is not the same as condoning illegal use...

Not writing next weeks, so that's abit of pressure off. And then it's Alan Titchmarsh's aouto bio. Nowt offensive there!

There might be salacious details about goings-on in the begonias...

Nope, althpugh there is a snogging sesh (I sound drunk!) behind a curtain!

Ooh! Who with?

No one we'd know, it was 'the first ever kiss' chapter. He was about 11 I think. The school kids all had a party, and played Spin the Bottle. Then abandoned that and just kissed everyone they wanted to.

How come that never happened to me?