> Looks like John Ford country - great pictures. More here.
> A quiet day in Iran.
> This Friday, 11th November, Little Atoms will have David Aaronovitch as their guest. The show will be broadcast live at 4.30pm and can be heard on the Internet here. Later it will be archived on the Little Atoms site.
> A footnote to the poets poll. There were nearly 60 poets who obtained one vote each. But, strange to relate, Harold Pinter didn't receive any votes at all. Not even one.
> People sometimes make disparaging remarks about Canada. Not me, you understand. OK, Canada did give us Kate and Anna McGarrigle, but then every country has its problems. Here's something terrific that's come out of Canada: Diana Krall. And I'm talking about this sort of thing, more than this sort of thing.
> While I'm on that subject, I have previously sung the praises of Cook and Morton's Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Published this month is Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopaedia. You'll want a copy - believe me. You know, open it to look something up, you can't put it down again, and all that. On Diana Krall: '... the most successful Canadian export since Oscar Peterson (or, perhaps more pertinently, Joni Mitchell)...'
> And here, to close, is one for the Counsellor: on becoming a Villa fan (scroll down) - in which it is explained why I support Australia at cricket even though I've been in this country for more than 40 years:
It is an unwritten, though binding, law of life that one does not change one's boyhood sporting allegiances...