Postcards from Palookaville

America is a great country. Where else could I turn on the television this week and witness a serious debate about whether the televising of the Oscars last Sunday had adversely affected attendance at Nascar races that day? It is difficult to be optimistic about the future of anything, be it...

America is a great country. Where else could I turn on the television this week and witness a serious debate about whether the televising of the Oscars last Sunday had adversely affected attendance at Nascar races that day? It is difficult to be optimistic about the future of anything, be it...

Listening to Janis Joplin the other day, I was struck by two things. First, my eleven year old son (who had never, to my knowledge, heard Joplin) commented as he heard the first bars of `Me and Bobby McGee' that he didn't know I had a Joplin album. To recognise the voice like that at 11 must make...

Listening to Janis Joplin the other day, I was struck by two things. First, my eleven year old son (who had never, to my knowledge, heard Joplin) commented as he heard the first bars of `Me and Bobby McGee' that he didn't know I had a Joplin album. To recognise the voice like that at 11 must make...

Had a terrible weekend. I was at home with mum and dad when my Welsh speaking niece arrived wearing, of all things, a Cymru rugby shirt. Virtual blasphemy in my father's house. Still, after the Italian triumph on Saturday, I managed to cope. I gather the Sons of Glyndwr are blaming the English...

Had a terrible weekend. I was at home with mum and dad when my Welsh speaking niece arrived wearing, of all things, a Cymru rugby shirt. Virtual blasphemy in my father's house. Still, after the Italian triumph on Saturday, I managed to cope. I gather the Sons of Glyndwr are blaming the English...

I see the new film `300' is stirring up controversy as an `anti-Iranian piece of propaganda.'

I see the new film `300' is stirring up controversy as an `anti-Iranian piece of propaganda.'

While I was at home with my parents last week, my niece (not the Welsh-speaking turncoat) stopped over for Saturday night. While she loves me as (she says) `my uncle from a Roald Dahl book, who’s never grown up and is naughtier than I am,’ I’m afraid certain aspects of my style leave her perplexed.

While I was at home with my parents last week, my niece (not the Welsh-speaking turncoat) stopped over for Saturday night. While she loves me as (she says) `my uncle from a Roald Dahl book, who’s never grown up and is naughtier than I am,’ I’m afraid certain aspects of my style leave her perplexed.