Grief, he's so unremittingly happy that I want to go shoot myself.

Contrary to #2 by Kashism, I'm far more liberal than I was in my youth.

(Python mode on)
Of course, by then I was getting used to it.

I used to live near Pratt's Bottom and Badgers Mount in Kent.
Now I live near a couple of hamlets called Homer and Wigwig.

Douglas2 - that's true in hard water areas; the few lead pipes I've seen have been like that, with the exception of one from a very soft water area which was naked lead inside. Some areas have quite acid water which will carry lead away in dangerous amounts.

Fit a good quality filter (not the domestic rip-off type) in the drinking water line to the fountain.

Seems OK to me. I can't see any appreciable increase in risk.

Does anyone else keep reading Chatroulete as having something to do with gambling cats? Even though I now know what it is, I can't keep from thinking of svelte cats with dinner jackets on, drinking dry martinis with elegant blondes in tow.

Lea - we're headed that way in the UK, too. Silly really, 'cos harsh punishment is what the public wants rather than what works - but when did something sensible like that ever stand in the way of "progress"?

Do nerds have empty inboxen because they check frequently, because they know how to get rid of spam...or because they have no friends?

Is there a system in the US to write to owners of cars under recall? In the UK the makers buy the list from the DVLA and write to all registered owners - though you can check individually if you wish. This is for major recalls - I don't think they bother with minor stuff.

Katie - that doesn't work for me, but what does work is breathing very loudly so my wife wakes up and shoves me out of bed. Every time she's bothered, it's worked a treat, the sudden outside stimulus kickstarts the "regain control after sleep" function in the brain. Trouble is it's hard to get her to a) wake up and b) understand just how hard she needs to shove me.

Bryan - one of the things I like most about shopping on the internet is the lack of human contact. No one trying to shove their sales targets in my face all the time. No spotty herbert pretending he knows what he's talking about, no one trying to sell me breakdown cover on something that should last for years.

I want a product, I go order it and it arrives.

A club I was part of used to have a stall at a local fair to raise money. We had huge piles of (largely useless) old clothes. They'd get picked over during the day but were more trouble than they were worth - until the last half hour. Then we used to give them away free. Except most people insisted on paying for them - usually giving us a fiver for a binbag full. We made more money giving them away than we ever did selling them.

"That's Hedley!"