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

Only just - it's 11.57pm Central Standard Time. It is 2002 isn't it?

If you thought that British Christmas Day tv was bad, spare a thought for what Americans have to put up with - on TLC a 'Trading Spaces' marathon; on Comedy Central a 'Saturday Night Live' marathon; on TechTV a 'Thunderbirds' marathon (didn't mind that one too much actually ); on TNT the final half of a 24-hour 'A Christmas Story' marathon (certainly didn't mind that one ); and even BBC America got in on the act with a 'Coupling' marathon.

12.02 - only 364 shopping days till Christmas

And I think that that demented bollockbrain in Washington is going to plunge us all into war. Why would anybody - especially someone who considers himself to be a Christian, do something that's going earn him the reputation of 'warmonger' in the annals of history?

There's talk of another Tom Waits album in the coming year (possibly two), but alas, no tour Who knows though, he may surprise us all the way he did last time

Dewey caught and killed a bird today It looked a lot like a , but I didn't think they had them here in Texas. They don't fly south for the winter do they?

It's well over three years since I stepped on the soil of Great Britain, and I feel a need to do so again. I feel the need to do a whole bunch of things I haven't done since I've been here. I need to sit in a pub and get my laughing gear around a decent pint. I need to see the sun going down at 10pm during the summer. I need to watch The Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall (They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning... we will remember them.) I need to listen to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue at 6.30pm on a Monday evening instead of when I remember to select it from the BBC Radio Player. I need to sit in the Peter May Stand at The Oval. I need to see a London plane tree. I need to ride on the Underground. I need to go to a recital at The Wigmore Hall. I need to crawl along at a couple of miles an hour at 5.30pm on the Western Avenue in stifling heat and hear the traffic report on the radio say something like "...and the tailback heading out of town on the A40 begins at the Northern roundabout". I need to go into a caff and have eggs bacon beans sausage tomatoes mushrooms bubble a fried slice and a cup of splosh. I need to sit on the grass in Alexandra Park and then walk up Muswell Hill. I need to take a stroll along the promenade at Southend-on-Sea. I need to stand in the queue for the checkout at Sainsburys. I need to drink a glass of Fitou. And then I need to get right back to Texas... or somewhere.

That sounds very much like a New Year's Resolution list...

Hope you'll be able to visit England this coming year!

So do I

I liked England a lot when I was there,
but it's been 32 years since I visited
the place. My sister has been there
several times since then. I think my brother
has, too. Both my parents are descended
from people who started out in England.

I'm not an Englishman, though, and never
will be.

Gosho, I worry about war a lot. There's a real
tragedy playing itself out in the Middle East,
and it makes me sick to think that we are
moving toward becoming a part of it. Of course,
we are already a part of it, because of Sept. 11.

The U.S.A. is in a Depression, but few of us have
realized it just yet. When the realization finally
hits, who knows what will happen to the American
mindset?

Trying to engineer peace in the Middle East is
tricky. For one thing, hardly anybody there has a
government worthy of trust. The exceptions would
be the two democracies, Israel and Turkey. Every
other country is either a monarchy, (think Saudi
Arabia) a dictatorship (think Iraq), or a Theocracy
(think Iran). I am never really sure whether Israel
is hated more because of its displacement of the
Palestinians, or because of its democratic government
that makes the monarchs fearful of being overthrown.

Hey Gosho, if you do make it over this year, you'll have to let us know & then the Committee can organise that booze-up in the Holts brewery

Carrot wine anyone?

Gosho <G&T>

I hope you are wrong about the war and it does not happen

You know you are always welcome here dont you! It would be fab to see you here when ever works for you ...

if only it could have been surprise by design instead of trading spaces...
:P
-pete

wibble...

No.... Doobry.