Natalie Does Britney on MTV. That's Natalie Casey doing an interview with Birtney's Pears. Featuring the "Sweat pants or hot pants?" "Sweat pants" line that confirms *just* why I've a soft spot for Pears. Quite literally.

Today's More Spin Than Substance row is over Mike Marsden, a hitherto unknown Labour backbencher for - well - somewhere. He was carpeted by The Party's chief whip for disagreeing with The Party line on the attacks on Afghanistan. "It's people like you that appeased Hitler in the 30s" claimed an intemperate Voice Of World President Blair. Marsden goes to the press, and the Deputy Chief Whip has to come out of the shadows to play down the storm. It's all attracted much more attention than the member's original comments.

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness try to avoid Dubya's War On Tara by dropping strong hints that the IRA will hand over some weapons. There's a deadline of midnight Thursday, otherwise the devolved assembly will begin to unravel in a permanent way.

byron c go:
Iain wrote:
> Repeat after me: the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains.
> In Hertfordshire and Herefordshire, hurricanes hardly happen.
> Mikhael Gorbachev. Yevgeny Primakov. Archbishop Makarios. John Major.
You forgot: I Like Ike. Tricky Dick. Tom Landry. Dubya.
Hey, I'm reading from Received Pronunciation 201. That sort of tricky stuff is in RP 302: The African Elective. Sitiveni Rambuka. Joshua Nkomo. Ndabaningi Sithole. Thomas Daschle.

Tonight the IRA finally spoke the words that two nations have been waiting for and hoping to believe, announcing that it has begun decommissioning its weapons in an "unprecedented move to save the peace process and to persuade others of our genuine intentions".
Just one day after the Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, called on the IRA to put its weapons beyond use, the group released the following statement: "The political process is now on the point of collapse. Such a collapse would certainly, and eventually, put the overall peace process in jeopardy... Therefore, in order to save the peace process, we have implemented the scheme agreed with the IICD in August."
The IRA remains committed to the republican objective of a united Ireland, and that it had allowed two international inspectors to survey "a number of arms dumps". There was no immediate independent confirmation that decommissioning has begun.

The United Nations confirms that a military hospital in the western Afghan city of Herat has been destroyed by US air strikes, but it does not know how many people were killed. The Taliban reported the bombing of a hospital yesterday, saying that a US and British strike killed more than 100 patients and medical workers there. Britain denied its planes took part in any raid against Herat, and the Pentagon said it had no specific information about the incident.

byron c go:
ABC. Their move toward "family friendly" programming in an effort to get Disney to buy them now looks like a smart one, although it was painful to watch while it was going on. I think they've finally realized that "family friendly" doesn't have to mean super sappy or only appealing to five-year-olds.
They have? Hallelujah! What I've seen of ABC programming in a number of years has been pretty darned insipid stuff, devoid of any real content.

NBC I don't know as much about. I may be the only person I know who isn't into The West Wing, although that may just be because I didn't get into it early enough.
I tried to get going about two-thirds through season 2, and failed. Thank heavens for E4 being so short of programming they're replaying from the start.

I used to watch Mad About You and CHUMS^H^H^H^H^HFriends. That's about it.
CHUMS is rip-roaring fantastic comedy. Even last week's episode - *without any guests at all* - was fantastic in its way. Friends, I think, is coming to a natural conclusion this season. An extension would be a bit too much.

did like "Kate Brasher" from earlier this year (too bad it's on almost-certainly-permanent hiatus) and this season I like Citizen Baines.
I'll look out for them both...

Fox ... hm. Undeclared rocks, and Pasadena looks promising if they can manage to keep it from being preempted by stuff like baseball and America's Most Wanted.
Only one more week of baseball. Cory, with your local Diamondbacks taking on your favoured Yankees, where do loyalties lie? Which team are we rooting for?

The animated shows (Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, King of the Hill) are always fun to watch.
Family Guy I've not seen, Futurama is brilliant, KotH I can take or leave. The Simpsons is on every day, which removes the fun a little.

Millennium: gone but not forgotten. Malcolm In The Middle: grown stale.
You're not wrong there.

Dark Angel: I gave up on it halfway through last season.
It's more action than plot, and rather tasty action, too.

WB: They can deny it, but they've hurt themselves by letting Buffy go and cancelling Popular. I still watch Gilmore Girls, Felicity and Dawson's Creek.
The latest for the potential UK viewers of Felicity: chopped into 20 minute episodes on a Sunday afternoon. Don't all rush for a box.

UPN: Buffy. Roswell. That's pretty much it.
Roswell looks like it's falling off the BBC, sadly. Buffy 5 continues to pull in huge ratings.

As I think I may have mentioned elsewhere, my guilty pleasure this season is the Wasteland reruns on Showtime Next. But that's for another post, some other time.
I was impressed by the premier of MUTANT X. In a trashy, throwaway level, telling the same old growing-up-and-not-fitting-in tale.

Thankfully, tomorrow begins a week's holiday. Heck, do I need it!

Suspended Geoffrey Robinson faces a three-week ban from the House of Commons for misleading MPs over a £200,000 payment from the late publisher Robert Maxwell. The Commons' Standards and Privileges committee said the former paymaster general was guilty of a "serious breach of Commons rules" for failing to come clean over the money. His conduct fell below the "standard the House is entitled to expect of its members."

If it's Wednesday, it's time to be embarrassed by the Great British Public's Lack Of General Knowledge... Things They Didn't Know On The Weakest Link

• The square root of 49.
• Salmon don't make kippers
• "I'm into love and peace, not war." ... "You're a venture capitalist?"
• Someone scheming twists you round your elbow.
• The difference between Britney and Lopez.
• Between "Fast and furious" and "Fast and loose."

XP Microsoft launches Windoze XP (Chi Rho), the first computer program to be named after two Greek letters since Delia Smith's home cookery cardgame, Delta Pi. It's also the first program to be named after an Egyptian city since the Library at Alexandria. Richard Branson says that Virgin will be using Win-XP for everything.
There was one catch to my trains - in spite of leaving home at 1435, and taking half an hour to travel into the city centre, I still managed to catch the 1423 Virgin train. It was late. I read later that Richard Branson intends to run his entire Virgin empire on Windows XP. Thank goodness the train didn't crash, or we'd all have had to press control-alt-delete.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban claims to have emulsified the Northern Alliance opposition commander, Abdul Haq, in a firefight. Haq, a one-legged veteran guerrilla leader, had penetrated Taliban territory south of Kabul in a bid to drum up support for a coalition government to take control if the west succeeds in toppling the hardline Islamic regime. The commander was acting as an emissary for the exiled Afghan king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, and trying to spread news of his peace plan before he was reportedly surrounded by Taliban fighters in the desert around 35km south of Kabul.
The Red Cross blasts the US for destroying one of its food depots and sending relief supplies up in flames.
WP Blair commits British ground forces to support the campaign in Afghanistan. He won't be drawn on numbers or objectives.

Angella
Dear Lovers of Liberty,
I read this in Greta Van Sustren's daily column about her show The Point and thought I'd pass it on:
Thank you for doing so. Reading it made me rather angry; this ire is vented at van S, not anyone here.

The anthrax problem is ONLY getting bigger.
Much as I really, *really* hate to pull the rug from under someone's feet after only seven words, but this is flying *totally* in the face of the facts. There have been *no* envelopes containing anything nastier than a telephone bill for over a week now. While one cannot say for certain that the problem has finished, the danger level - already minuscule - is now as near zero as makes no odds. You're more likely to win the lottery. Twice. Without buying a ticket.

These are just TODAY'S developments:
[snip cases we've heard before]
So there's follow-up to the mailings of two weeks ago. Some of it is preventionary, testing to make sure that none of the stuff has gotten out of place. Some of it is reactionary, responding to the tests.

This is a dead story, news people. It was never that big for starters, and has been flogged beyond the grave by grotesque overkill. Please rank it below the commitment of ground troops by the UK; below the peace process in Northern Ireland; below the World Series; and probably below the developments on the daytime soaps. That's how newsworthy it is on the global scale.

there is disturbing news related to the anthrax spores that contaminated Senate Leader Tom Daschle's office. Those spores are reported to have been treated with a chemical additive that makes it easier for the anthrax to travel through the air...a technique so sophisticated that only 3 nations are thought to be be capable of doing it -- the US, Russia and Iraq.
Someone is suggesting to the Washington Post and NY Times that these things were more dangerous than they might be, and is intimating by suggestion that it's been done by the US / USSR / Iraq. This is hypothesis built on suspicion built on rumour built on innuendo. Shine a light and the whole edifice would come crumbling down.

But let's go through these possibilities. The USSR labs have been a law unto themselves, and could be a suspect. The USA labs are local, and the least secure. Most of the Iraqi labs were bombed out of existence in 1991, and the remainder were closed by UNSCOM before 1994. *If* this is an accurate report, then it adds weight to the suspicion that it's an Internal Job by disgruntled United Stations.

The WP report suggests the spores didn't come from the Soviets or Iraq. And the Wall Street Journal adds something called "bentonite" to the mix, which - apparently - isn't something to ward off Marvel superheros but an indication that this is sponsored by a state. Which one? You do the math.

The clincher? The FBI later suggests that the letters were written by someone for whom English is a foreign tongue. That'll be the US, then.

How can we protect ourselves?
For crying out loud, bloody well stop panicking! There is a far, far greater chance of being hurt in a car accident than there is of being actually hurt by this bacterium. Will the government be taking massive preventative steps against *this* menace to society?

the government's response.
Go spend some money. The economy could do with the uplift, and with the government running around like chickens of the headless variety, the economy is being allowed to go down the swanny. You need an excuse to spend money.

Why not go watch AMERICAN PIE 2, as I found myself doing last night? Well, there's no plot, the acting is so hammy I keep expecting the baddy from Buffy 5 to pop up, and most of the charm of the original has vanished. On the upside, plenty of eye candy. And you know you've made it to the A league when an ensemble movie is promoted on your name and image.

Which leads neatly to Willow McCabe
Hot Topic has provided me with a kick ass witchy black velvet lace up bell sleeved corsety type top to contribute to my Willow costume. Pics will be available post-Samhain.
Oh, this we *have* to see. Annoyingly, I've left my blueberry in Birmingham, so any pics of Weaver as Giles will be probably have to wait till December ):

Chelle's gonna want me!
I hope.
I may not be chelle, but this sounds like enough to make *me* do my Daffy Duck impression and go droooool, droooool.

The grand hallowe'en party sees me there as Rupert Giles, with the tweed jacket and thin spectacles and slightly receding hairline. It's a good job I decided not to go as Daria, otherwise I'd have been badly upstaged; she *really* looked the part.
Two Anne Robinsons is perhaps one more than we needed. They both remained in character through the obligatory quiz round, flunking out early on. Spike was a minor hit, though he was beaten by the Richard O'Brien lookalike. Everything was authentic, down to the snakeskin boots, tight black trousers, and completely shaven head.
My other favourite costume was the chap who turned up as Kaycee, on the grounds that if she wasn't what Debbie claimed her to be, she may as well have been male. It made sense after a few drinks, I'm sure.
Victoria will be pleased to learn that no-one tried to be Willow; there was a female vamp who wore a *very* skimpy outfit, but she was the comic book character Vampirella, and exchanged blood-sucking tips with Spike early on. (At least, I *think* that's what they exchanged.)
As ever, a grand time was had by all.

byron
Any outplacement specialist worth his/her salt will tell you that it helps to have a routine and stick to it.
It helps, but it's not vital. Having motivation and conviction matters more. And if the occasional fallow day helps there, it helps and needn't get knocked. It's no different from turning up to the office feeling like something the cat dragged in and getting really hacked off with others.

Besides, any arrangement where one gets to watch Buffy when others slave away in offices can't be all bad.
Sounds idyllic, he said, most jealously.

This location is better in more ways than just distance from the house -- the staff is knowledgeable, which makes a world of difference.
Good heavens, a job centre staff that knows something. This worries me. (And Dr Wordsmith sends kudos to b for using "staff" as a plural noun.)

Makes for better networking, because not just the staff but your fellow jobseekers understand what it is you're looking for.
This helps. A lot. Makes one feel that one's not the only one in a similar situation.

The speaker this week was Mary Gordon Spence. She explained that Spence is her last name, and Mary Gordon is her given name -- kind of like Peggy Sue or Bobbie Jean.)
Calling a lass "Gordon"? They'll be calling boys "Sue" next, mark my words.

The topic of the talk was "the joy of not working", and it was evident to me that during the course of the talk, the woman who facilitates the club meetings (who is a self-described staffing specialist) was struggling to keep from saying anything because a lot of what she said made complete sense but runs counter to everything the "experts" say about trying to find work after losing a job.
Oh de schone, oh de schone, oh de schone, schaudenfraude!
[/animaniacs]

We each shared a life survival tip. Mine was "Sometimes you just have to take a step back and think. Or take a break."
Blinkin' good advice. What, you want one from me? In the long run, tis better to fail on your own terms than to succeed on someone else's.

At the risk of dragging MSCL kicking and screaming into this, what would the characters say here? Vic Racine put his chips on the table early: "Follow your hearts and steer away from heroin." Angela wondered why everyone wanted her to "be yourself." Les autres..?

Victoria W McCabe:
Brendan and I got all costumed up, me as evil Willow
Ah! You never said you were going as *evil* Willow. There I was, imagining Vic in the sort of garb she's been wearing in the last few seasons. But no, she's got a slightly lower cut to the dress and the leather thing going on.

The table across from us had four girls who were also sporting Hot Topic ensembles, this time punk. One of the girls kept looking over at me. A short while later she began making out with the girl beside of her. Later as I was coming out of the ladies room, she was coming in. This is the first time in my life I've ever been obviously checked out by another girl. She looked me up and down and said hello. I replied with an equally friendly but cool hello and contemplated bringing my orgy fantasies to life (my wild pike night with Chelle had me reved up!), but we were late for the party, so alas I left the hot chick behind.
[hugs]

She may not realise what a close escape she had. In the world whence Evil Willow comes, there are people chained, and they are ridden like ponies.

Heading into potential spoiler territory: compare that statement with Tara's description of *her* equine exploits to Willow when they're sitting on the stairs in TOW All The Shagging. Actually, let me see if I've still got the sig... ah yes, obCory.

Enough spoilers already.

We arrived at Spike the Scottish DJ's house expecting a cool, adult Halloween party since it was supposed to be mainly DJs and a costume party with alcohol and all...we were wrong.
Ah. Major curses.

There were kids there watching Rugrats
This is not good.

and most of the costumes were Harry Potter.
Oh, cliche already. This is as predictable as Anne Robinson this year, or X-Men characters last year.

But all the guys talked to me at least.
Er, result?

there were a flapper, a cowgirl, a fisherman, a grim reaper (he looked as uncomfortable as I felt), a rollerblader, a wizard, a priest...and I never figured out what Spike was supposed to be.
Spike. Naturally. In the Buffyverse, Hallowe'en is (if you'll excuse the pun) a dead night for vampires, with all the wannabes going around. So Spike could have a night off.

then they got out a board game and I knew I was in hell.
It wasn't The Weakest Link board game by any chance? Heck, you had the costume to host that one. Too much intelligence to do a decent Anne, but it's not brains that count, it's votes...

Anyway, not much else to tell. Except I am such the Goth wannabe. I loved going out like that...I felt like that was *me*...or at least how I feel inside. Damn the price of velvet!
[more hugs]
Just for a moment, you *shall* be Evil Willow. Allow the warrior Victoria space to express herself.

What are the rest of you doing for Halloween? Samhain?
Watch this space... the party is over, but the new year begins Thursday.