mjmooney

Common sense. Well done, sir.

ergo Mandela couldn't have been a terrorist, unless your politics have completely changed over night I was being sarcastic.

Maybe. But how many husbands with a working wife will say: "No, don't take a day off to take little Timmy to the dentist. Your job is FAR more important than our family" ? Double standards abound.

This is fantastic.

A freedom fighter is on our side. A terrorist is on the other side.

Ah yes, Bros. Matt, Gloss and Emulsion, wasn't it?

Well, basically he was a terrorist. A terrorist in a good cause, certainly - if ever a regime needed taking down it was white South Africa. But he was no Gandhi, and people died. But the fact that on gaining power, when you might have expected some score-settling and revenge, he went for the reconciliation route. It was the right thing to do, and he got my respect for that.

Yeah, mine too. But sometimes you just have to grit your teeth if the guy does the right thing in the end (for whatever reason). Same goes for Adams & McGuinness in N.I.

It's The Returned (Les Revenants - which I think also means "ghosts" in French). Better than the translation the US got, which was "Rebound". Anyway, yeah, it was good, will watch next episode. Liked C4's touch of having actual French ads in the first break. And the music was excellent - didn't realise it was Mogwai (never heard anything by them before, must check them out).

My childhood book was The Wind in the Willows. Still love it!

Ahhhh, Alex Jones... <sigh>

...SWEEEEEET GENE VINCENT...

I never find them annoying, I find them boring and meaningless. Probably because I don't care about the vast majority of them - by and large these aren't people I keep in my phonebook. Er... then why did you accept them as your FB friends? Replace them with people who ARE in your phonebook. Sorted.

Totally agree Tony. Very few of my FB friends post anything particularly annoying. I find it really useful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22781861'>BBC website jumps on the Ice Rink bandwagon Link won't work for some reason. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22781861

The Eagles seem to have come through their terminally uncool and hated by hipsters phase to be OK again. I always liked them, but less so after Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner left. Joe Walsh is great, but he doesn't belong in The Eagles.

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen. And all that. One thing I will concede to religion (Christianity in particular), it has contributed a great deal to English language and literature.

Must admit, I was slightly sceptical as to whether Merv the Swerve was a "proper" Villa fan, but I'm now convinced. Picking Dylan's "Highway 61" gets him Mooney points, too.

Stephen Fry. I used to like him, even when everybody else didn't. But this latest tabloid front page stuff about how he attempted suicide recently is the last straw. Of course depression and mental illness is a serious thing, and talking about it is good. But this is just drama queen behavior, no more no less.

A feast? I thought it was the opposite?

Ramadan is a moveable feast, like Easter.

I'll bet it does happen. But Anglophone expats often tend to put their kids in English schools if available, which is silly and a missed opportunity, IMO. Agreed. Personally my biggest gripe with that pattern is that it intensifies ethnic/xenophobic divides. If the guy next door to you speaks with an accent similar to yours (and the more you interact with other cultures, the more likely you are to pick up their accents) you are more likely to find common ground with him and to feel comfortable opening up to him. Not a good idea if you want a happy, cohesive society. I am absolutely convinced that accents are the single biggest factor in ethnic integration (or lack of it). If he talks like "one of us" he's massively more likely to be accepted than somebody who "talks funny".

"Worst Villa player of all time?" You clearly haven't been following the Villa as long as I have.