Smash proof pint glass

Comrade Bingo obviously hangs out in the wrong pubs when in England.

The National Health Service in the UK deals with the injuries from, wait for it, 87 000 violent glassing crimes in pubs every year. That's 2.7 billion pounds.

(Isn't it interesting how it's we North-Americans who are meant to be uncouth and loutish?)

At last comes the smash-proof pint glass.

The new glass is also meant to keep your beer cold.

[BBC]

Those who know celebrities

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Maya

by Alastair Campbell (Canada, Hutchison; $39, UK, Hutchison; £18.99)

Available 4 February 2010

Steve Watkins, logistician, is on the verge of closing a mega-deal at work and on the verge of becoming a father. His childhood friend, now international superstar Maya, believes she is at a crossroads professionally. Meanwhile, Steve thinks it is her marriage to TV presenter Dan Chivers which requires reassessment.

These are the elements that create the perfect storm making Alastair Campbell's Maya quite the pageturner. Steve who, having only seen Maya episodically since her marriage, allows his lifelong, yet unavowed, obsession with Maya to finally slip into full blown pathology as he gains re-entry into her life. One intrusive step leads to another and Steve loses the ability to connect the mendacity and menace of his actions to his intentions which he never doubts for a moment.

The disconnect in Steve is blatant early on and this fraught relationship Campbell sets up between the narrator and the reader contributes to the book's success. Steve's path though inevitable remains suspenseful. Steve does it all for Maya, a character who couldn't possibly be as perfect as he sees her. The characterisation of Maya is nuanced to the end and the ultimate moral judgement to be cast upon the heroine is left up to the reader.

Former Director of Communications in Tony Blair's government, Alastair Campbell is renowned for his antipathy toward the media. In turn, the media is constantly, overly sensitive and defensive to any criticism Campbell brings to bear. Critics are sure to see Maya as another blow directed at them but that could be missing the point. It is Maya and her entourage who initiate and pursue manipulation of the media. If Alastair Campbell would likely be forgiving of those who are under media scrutiny and acknowledge the need for stars to control their image, he leaves the reader space to dissent from that view.

The lack of clear heroes and villains in Maya is but one aspect which gives the book a unique place between mass market fare and literary fiction. Campbell may have just found a way to break into vast new strata of readership.

Comrade Bingo has an Alastair Campbell Amazon page

Snowed Under Brits Play Daredevils

Those British friends of yours are still going on about snow and for good reason. Londoners got off easy just about every other region has been plagued with snow on snow, snow on snow, and then some, and the UK is enjoying some of the lowest temperature on record for the UK.

Yes, all they talk about now is grit (a problem that surfaced last year) or rather the lack of it. All supermarkets ran out of salt weeks ago, imagine using table salt to burn the snow and ice from your stairs. No snow plowers and no enough grit to cover the roads. And because British power is so centralised, the blame can be laid at the beleaguered British PM's door, Gordon Brown.

Of course this means many don't make it into work and after a few days at home with cabin fever, Brits are doing what they do best: off to the pub.

At least that is what we think. We assume the two Scots who decided to drive their Peugeot 307 (that would be a car) on a frozen canal. Luckily, the two passengers (or "mindless thrill seekers" as The Sun termed them) escaped safely with their dog, a westie of course.

And then this morning, we spotted a tweet with a link to a Cornish man's Facebook page with photos of the igloo he had built with plans of sleeping in it. Cornish folk may not have grown up with tales of children dying under the weight of collapsing tunnels of their snow fort. One would assume, however, that common sense would be enough to make anybody realise how unwise it would be to spend any time under an icy structure built by anybody but some ancient Inuit folk who remember the old ways. Fortunately, the rain caught up with Cornwall and the igloo caved in before bed time.

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