A Taxi for Mr McLeish and Mr Rix please.

Ken Stott, Kenny Beveridge, Ronnie Corbett, Walter Scott, Alan Johnstone . . . are you listening? Your boys took a helluva beating today.

Those 2006 New Year Resolutions In Full

- Exercise more. Walking to the local Pizzeria doesn't actually suffice as a fitness regime.

- Read more fiction (recommendations please), rather than studying my sitemeter. (Which is in many ways a fiction of sorts.)

- Not be so cynical when watching Oprah with Kara.

- Learn how to make Cornish Pasties. I miss them, and the Cornish Pasty Industry misses me. Profits were down 17% this last financial year as a consequence of my moving to America, and I understand that my name is mud in certain rural parts of the West Country.

- Trying not to laugh out loud when spotting hipsters in New York. Of course, leg warmers are coming back in fashion.

Get excited about important stuff in real life, rather than nearly fainting with giddiness, like I did a few months back, when encountering two Sparts outside Brooklyn College.

- Finish that Dave Eggers book: Firstly, because it is witty, insightful and life affirming. Secondly, because otherwise Kara will beat me to death with aforementioned paperback if I don't. (What could be more "life affirming"?)

- Stop using wikipedia as a quick link in blog posts, without first reading what the actual wikipedia entry says. (See previous resolution.)

- Stop saying: "That show actually originated in Britain." Firstly, because it can ge grating to the listener when they hear it for the four hundredth time; and, secondly, because the show is invariably crap - see here for more details. It doesn't put British TV in the best possible light.

- Actually submit a book review to the Socialist Standard. (That noise you can hear in the background is not a tree failing in a deserted forest, but the collective jaws of the Socialist Standard Editorial Committee falling on the floor.)

- Learn Spanish so I can properly enjoy Channel 974 on the TV. I think I'm missing out.

- Stop being so cheesy. I sound like a James Blunt record at times, and that is not a nice thing to say about oneself. This can be cured with my ongoing rediscovery of the genius that is Luke Haines. The bloke makes Cathal Coughlan sound like a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

- Ensure that I'm properly stocked with the essentials for the event of this coming year.

- Oh, aye, and do my bit to smash global capitalism. (I'm contractually obliged to tag that one on at the end of my resolutions list.)

Back in Ten

See you in the New Year,folks. Hope everyone has a good holiday.

Don't Mention Harry Webb

Aye, everyone either goes for either the Pogues 'Fairytale of New York' or Noddy Holder shouting and bawling 'Merry Xmas Everybody', but the best Crimbo song bar none has to be this one. Christ, I even like the Spice Girls version

Hat tip to Spiked Candy

Obscurantism Knocks

This is my 300th post to this blog (473, if you were to also include the posts I've started, only to delete), and rather than try and attach any significance to that milestone landmark figure, I will instead just post a link to a quiz that Kara has already done.

I'm not as interesting as Kara, so instead of a quiz solely about myself, I've instead concocted a daft political quiz that intersperses personal political trivia, ultra leftism and an unhealthy interest in 1980s pop culture. I've typecast myself in this role, and nothing short of years of expensive personal therapy and retro electro-convulsive treatment will ever break me from it.

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

That Reminds Me, I Better Return That Copy Of 'The Anarchist Cookbook' To Brooklyn Public Library

Men in Black asking after the Little Red Book.

Infotainment

Fellow SPGBer, Piers at Border Fever, alerts us to the mid-seventies classic 'Understanding Marx' by Red Shadow (The Economics Rock & Roll Band).

Anybody know anything about Red Shadow? There is too much wit in the lyrics for it to be straight faced. Though, saying that, the mid-seventies was a weird period for lefty politics. How else can you explain the then popularity of the WRP?

For My One Reader In Zagreb

Dobrodošli na stranice WMS-a

Introduction To Socialism 101

Tonight's repeat of Seinfeld carried as good a definition of socialism as I have ever read or heard outside the pages of the Socialist Standard. Trust me, it's sowing the seeds and, with a few more repeats of that episode, I can say with assured confidence that I will see socialism in my lifetime. Kramer and Mickey, take it away lads:

[Street]
KRAMER: Each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

MICKEY: What does that mean?

KRAMER: Well, if you've got needs and abilities that's a pretty good combination.

MICKEY: So what if I want to open up a delicatessen?

KRAMER: There are no delicatessens under Communism.

MICKEY: Why not?

KRAMER: Well, because the meats are divided into a class system. You got Pastrami and Corned Beef in one class and Salami and Bologna in another. That's not right.

MICKEY: So you can't get Corned Beef?

KRAMER: Well, you know, if you're in the Politburo, maybe.

More red propaganda from Seinfeld can be gleaned from this excellent website. MIA better watch out; Looks like there is a new old sheriff in town.

"A Sare Yin."

And no, it's not me. Anybody who knows me, knows that if I were to ever get a tattoo it would be this inscribed on the inside of my eyelids in gothic script.

At the time of posting, Walter Crane was unavailable for comment.

Update

John at A Revolutionary Act has sent me the following link in connection with the above post.