maryportfuncity

And I thought this was such an exclusive little band. There's millions of us out there.

My son comes out as Pants Humphrey. Sounds like a blues singer who hadn't a clue.

Or maybe the surviving ones took him for a mug then and don't give a S**t now.

If you're ever tempted into porn as a career I'd stick with Starcrossed, class name. By contrast Maryportfuncity sounds like a badly lit affair where some dodgy housewife performs a pale imitation of Debbie Does Dallas.

Can't say I've noticed any of the dodgy foreign politians he's been happy to meet over the years expressing concerns for his health over the last couple of days.

He will if he reads yer post Janeo.

Mark Radcliffe's radio show had a running joke of how to work out your porn star name which involved - I think - the name of your first pet followed by your mother's maiden name. I come out as Dino Bird. Bloody stupid when the name on my birth certificate is Rod Thruster!

Heard 94 year old Sybille Bedford interviewed on radio today. Makes me think again about the lengthy lives of writers. Kind of ironic since their job - as highlighted by Simon Armitage - is the employment that when watched by an audience most resembles dying. Maybe we should keep a thread headed with all the writers not famous enough for the real DL but still in ripe old age. People like 101 year old Edward Upward and Sybille Bedford.

Millwall: I rate them, Pure Reason Revolution and several others who drag their music into strange areas. Some of the Syd stuff is friends of friends type information. All joking aside his story - despite the tragedy - is also a source of inspiration. He's so fragile mentally that face to face encounters with the other Floyds have been known to send him spiralling into despair. He never sees his fellow Floyds but still the band make sure he's okay. David Gilmour in particular is a real saint in this department. Impressive when you consider Gilmour - in effect - replaced him and knew him least well. Also, considering the fact that a genuine rock casualty lives and wanders amongst the public it's comforting to see that the press don't exploit him.

Cerberus: My life is greatly improved for your post. Timothy Dudley Smith, composer of that toe tapper 'Tell Out My Soul' lives. He'll be 79 on Boxing Day. For anyone else looking to check out hymn writers I suggest having a look at the portrait of Fanny Crosby, she looks like some cult rock star.

They are: Syd's mother took responsibility for his medication but she died in 1991. Syd's own attention to detail in dosing himself with insulin hasn't been great and when he gets forgetful he lapses into comas. He has a devoted bunch - mainly family - to help him. He's had episodes of blindness as a result of irregular medication but I understood this was under control now because he was getting more care from the local hospital, ironically the same Cambridge hospital where his dad served as a respected pathologist.

In great East End gangster tradition, in some massive foundations.

Dennis Potter How refreshing. We finally get to discuss a writer who is dead.

That's like..........tonight!!!

Despite the obvious threats to his health we may have underestimated the man. He seems to have a good balancing act of saying the right things for the West to hear and not upsetting every dangerous lunatic at home. In other words a lot of people who might be tempted to kill him realise the alternatives are worse and the consequences of offing him could be putting themselves in the firing line. I'll tempt fate here and say he'll see 2006.

Re Shatner: Looks like he'll beat ZZ Top into space. They - apparently - have reservations for the first passenger flight by NASA.

Professional Northern Pooftah, you mean he gets some kind of government grant simply because he' s Northern and - er - a rear gunner? Could I then get a similar grant for being a belligerent northern pig of the old school? I mean, they preserve old cinemas and the like. I was thinking maybe I could lean on a stick, wait for tourists to wander by and say stuff like: 'It were all fields round here when I were a lad.'

We had a debate on death books a few months back and - amongst others - discussed 'Dancing With Mr D' Bert Keizer's somewhat poetic account of being a doctor and dispensing death to the terminally ill who want it in Holland. Think I'm a 1 on that list as well.

HCW said regarding Gerald Ford's never being elected to Vice President or President posts: 'That would be interesting reading on his C.V.' I'm wondering, are Ford's mental faculties still up to reading his own CV?

Noticed ZZ Top were in Saratoga and Reno during the deluge on their Texas homes. Not gonna get a Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown moment with this hurricane.

S'cuse an English ignoramus but as there is no Vice-Vice President what would the procedure be if death or simple infirmity ended Cheney's lengthy non-event of a politcal career?

I'm too young to remember the original, when is the anniversary?

The whole point about Neil Young is that he's fought nostalgia - or rust - for decades. I know what you mean about the unpredictability. But, Donovan is an also ran, end of. If you don't believe me buy yourself a copy of Essence to Essence, lock yourself in a room and listen to it ten times in a row.

About as odd as the fact I DO remember starting it.

So, if we stick it out long enough we'll become Ascended Twunt Masters.