Most of those cancelled shows that Colin mentioned (the good ones) were on Fox. That network has the worst track record for killing shows off early.

And the U.K. may have reelected Blair, but WE reelected G.W. Bush. (Though, neither I nor Jen voted for him.) It’s all a big conspiracy, anyway. We’re all pwn3d by the New World Order.

Jen in an aquarium. Interesting concept…

I really wish I’d heard of the Italian beef sandwich before I went to Chicago last year as I try and sample the local delicacies when I go abroad. I enjoyed the cheese steak sandwich in Philadelphia.

Shawno’s British accent is as good as ever.

I never played The Masquerade, but for a while I was into Collectable Card Games and they made one based on it. Lots of fun. The whole vampire ‘tribe’ thing is also really well handled in the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. DON’T think that these books are anything like the incredibly disappointing TV show they made. As is always the case the books are infinitely superior.

I really hate American TV executives. They cancel shows far too quickly. Sometimes it’s deserved (Kindred, Dresden Files, Tru Calling) and sometimes it really isn’t (Firefly, Jake 2.0, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, The Nine, Shark, Odyssey 5 etc. etc.)

Yes we are most certainly the USA’s bitch. Blair got SOOOOOOOOO much crap from the British people for bending over like that. We still re-elected the bastard though…

Because we are still a member of the Commonwealth, our head of state is still “The Queen of England” and her representative in Australia is the Governor General. However, this is mainly ceremonial and not for the day to day running of the joint. If we become a republic and have an Australian as head of state, the head of state would most likely be known as the President.

The effective leader of the country is the Prime Minister (most people wrongly think that the PM is the head of state). The leader of each state is called the Premier. The leader of each local government area (think county) is usually called the Mayor (or Lord Mayor for the local council area covering the capital city).

So in a way, Shawno was kind of right with his multiple guess answer of King, Prime Minister, President.

If you like one-liners go watch this movie . Going in to a video store asking if they have it can be a bit awkward, but it’s worth it.

Dave: Thanks for the medication/alcohol tip. The stuff I’m taking is called Cyclobenzaprine, and since I’ve been on it, I haven\’t had any booze. It’s definitely helping the back pain, and I probably won’t need to take any more after today.

It is banned on public transport (trains, buses, ferries) and has been for quite some time. That’s not to say of course that it doesn’t happen but it is banned. Rowley’s comment that drinking has just been banned on the UK buses and tubes surprised me when it happened. Indeed, there was a massive night of celebration (?) on the last night of legal drinking on the Tube. There was even some streaking.

At sporting events there are some dry areas but they are pretty much in the minority. On the streets there are some dry areas (officially called Alcohol Free Zones) as well, usually in the centre of towns, down near the river, shopping centres etc.

I’ve had severe back pain about 3 years ago, my doctor gave me arthrotec (ibuprophen times 20) but forgot to tell me that you can’t mix those with alcohol. I know i should have read the instrucions on the package but they also list all the side effects so i never read those. After 5 weeks or so my back was fine, a few weeks later i got really bad stomach pains, the pills ‘n booze combination caused some damage to my stomach lining that took 4 months to heal. Toss the pills Shawno, stick with booze.