I was skeptical. What does an aging film critic know about pickling? Probably about the same as an aging film star knows about salad dressing.

But I’ve eaten my words, just like I’ve eaten most of the jar of these wonderfully spicy pickled onions. Well done Barry.

Umberto Eco, one of my favourite brainy writerly dudes, talks with Speigel Online about lists and why they’re so important to us. A couple of extracts…

What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists – the shopping list, the will, the menu – that are also cultural achievements in their own right.

And…

I realized immediately that the exhibition would focus on lists. Why am I so interested in the subject? I can’t really say. I like lists for the same reason other people like football or pedophilia. People have their preferences.

I’m like him, I dig lists. But football and the other thing I’m less keen on.

It’s really worth a read, if you don’t already love lists you might change your mind.

I’ve just downloaded the Future Sound Of Russia compilation from whence this came. It seems like there’s some great music (and dancing) coming from over there.

I’ve been a bit quiet recently. But I’ve had my hands full. Sometimes both of them. At least for most of the time I’m not at work.

It’s a daunting thing having two babies that can cry at the same time and who currently have absolutely no regard for anything apart from getting exactly what they want. But it’s wonderful and life-altering in a good way too. Of course it is.

I’ve been chatting to a couple of wise old men about the ‘baby blogging’ and they’ve convinced me that it’s not the best idea in the world. At first I thought they were just being grumpy old farts. But then they made me realise that at some point I’m going to have to stop. And I thought about it. And they’re right. And I might as well end it now, before I’m in too deep. Crackunit is too public, it’s too open and it’s not really fair on the girls.

I think the realisation that I had to stop came when I almost posted an ‘Identical or Not’ poll on Twitter. I caught myself going one step too far. Using them as link fodder. I felt like a terrible dad.

As I said before we had lots of lovely people write amazing supportive messages as a result of earlier posts, which has been great and helped us get through the tougher times. Thank you all again, for everything.

Of course I’m going to use the internet to post pictures of them and stuff like that, but I’m going to keep them separate from this blog, and I’m going keep it for friends and family and the kinds of people who should see pictures of your children. If you are a friend or family and want to be included on my family-spam drop me a line.

And in a few months when the girls start blogging I’ll add them to my blogroll if they ask nicely.

Bye bye say the girls…

This OP-1 thing is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a synth and a MIDI controller. And it’s got well fancy skills like an inbuilt FM radio that you can manipulate. Zoiks!

And Teenage Engineering, the Swedish company that are developing said thing, have a website that I find rather tasteful also.

via: http://www.zefrank.com/

I was in the supermarket and this lost toy was sitting on the milk shelf. It looks like a setup. But it wasn’t.

Taken in July but only just found it on my camera.

Aviva sent me this bit of junk mail yesterday. I was transfixed by the free gift. Look at it.

It’s a machine to store telephone numbers and appointments. It’s got an amazing (crystal clear) 3 line LCD display. It has a non-querty keybord PLUS a numeric keypad. My mind is all aboggle with what the FREE GIFT I’d get as a bonus mystery gift if I added partner cover.

Obviously I’m now insured with Aviva.

Manual downloaded from here.