other news in brief

Continuing the death theme, drummer Mitch Mitchell died yesterday. This now means that a) all three members of the original Jimi Hendrix experience are now dead, what with bassist Noel Redding dying in 2003, and Hendrix himself...well, you probably know about that, and b) the curse of the rock drummers continues, what with Moon and Bonzo checking out early, Rick Allen narrowly avoiding doing so, and of course Spinal Tap's legendary problems with drummers, as described here.


Interestingly, when I said "Mitch Mitchell" to Andy, he said "what, the bloke who invented the Spitfire?". It turns out he's been dead for over 70 years, principally from arse-related problems, as it happens, though there's no suggestion these were of the same nature as Joanna Lumley's.

Also in the news: Chuck Norris lays down the law to America's new president-elect. Remember - no-one comes near Chuck Norris....and lives. Chuck's ramblings originally appeared on the always highly entertaining WorldNetDaily, home of such charming special offers as this groundbreaking exposé of Barack Obama's real intentions towards the USA. Basically turning everyone into commie Muslim paedophiles, as far as I can tell.

More entertaining idiocy from the inimitable Bruce Anderson in this week's Independent: this article grudgingly acknowledging Obama's overwhelming US election victory actually manages the double whammy of casual racism:

A lot of blacks need to be told to get off thy bed and work.

and patronising sexism:

A lot of conservative Republicans think that Mrs Palin is a feisty girl who ought to be encouraged.

Nice work. Possibly even better, if that were possible, is today's article commemorating Prince Charles' 60th birthday, which is so cringingly sycophantic and shoe-horns so many occurrences of the word "intellectual" into its first few paragraphs that you'd assume Bruce must be taking the piss out of the jug-eared dimwit, if you didn't know better.