Thunder from New Zealand

John Smith's opponent in the 1992 Labour leadership election denounces the Blair-Brown Government.

Bride of the Nearly Man

Times and Telegraph offer contrasting obituaries of Mollie Butler, widow of Rab, dead at 101:

"I have never met anyone with whom it was so consistently amusing to be. His company was like a fire on a bitter night which both glowed and sparkled. No wonder I was happy."

Obama's Elf

He wants out (18 seconds):

Dahl's den

An interactive tour of Roald Dahl's writing hut.

Do something useful

Help classify a quarter of a million galaxies.

Cocktail horror

Fear the McNuggetini.

Heil Sailor

Hitler (Harry Enfield) gets in touch with his stereotype-homosexual side (4 minutes):

Cult ruin

Uncle Monty's cottage from Withnail and I is up for sale.

Oldest British author ever

Edward Upward, last voice of the Thirties, dies at 105.

(This profile from 2003 is good stuff.)

"War without its glory"

Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth is to be filmed.

Distilled to her essence

Approaching eighty, Eartha Kitt (who died last Christmas) performs Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" like no one else in the history of the world (5 minutes):

Johann Hari causes riots

In Calcutta, no less.

Tesco called me an animal, wails man with doctorate

Wait till he sees what the commenters are calling him.

What does Hazel Blears stand for?

To reach the wastepaper basket!
Shut up, growls George Monbiot, it's a serious question.

Compare The Meerkat

An inspired idea for an ad (30 seconds):



And the website really exists…

One hell of a life

Don't think I'd heard of the Broadway star Libby Holman before today - but blimey.

Roadkill carpet

Turns your living room into a dying room.

Dogs in early cinema

Ruddy scene-stealers.

What's French for Asbo?

Over-exposure to Rocky leads Rémi Gaillard into all kinds of mischief (3 minutes):

There's Probably No Point

Now relax and enjoy the Bus Slogan Generator.

Don't fire this Canon

To know John Fenton even a little was to like him a lot, and, somehow, to revere him.

Bar bans bad language

Everyone's swearing about it.

Final glimpse

Laurel and Hardy together on camera for the last time, in a 1956 home movie (4 minutes, but Hardy vanishes after the first 80 seconds):

Thank President Bush

You know you want to.

Pets In Uniform

Draft your dog, conscript your cat, pressgang your parakeet here.

If they'd had Facebook in 1813

What Pride and Prejudice might have looked like.

Hat tip: Donkin Life

Losing it bigtime

When Christian Bale unleashed a foul-mouthed rant on the set of Terminator: Salvation, Lucian Piane deftly turned it into a dance track, with Barbra Streisand spliced in (3 minutes):

Not so innocent

George Davis's disillusioned ex-wife dies.

Bibliomania

In today's balmy economic climate, and with Christmas coming up, don't we all want to buy millions of cheap books for ourselves, our friends, our relations, our enemies?

And where better to find them than at README BOOKS, otherwise known as my mate Glen?

To whet your appetite, Webside Gleanings is privileged to publish this authentic portrait of Glen by stained glass artist Andy Johnston:

Kill the myth

(Still prefer my own version: "There's probably no bus. Now relax and get run over.")