due to manic deadlines and bleep bleepity bleep workload.

Barely have time to eat, even when there are sausages for supper…

Owen has just lost his father to cancer. I don’t believe that it’s intruding on his grief to point you to the beautiful words he has written to honour him.

Here in the UK, BBC Radio 4 stops broadcasting at 1 in the morning and switches to the World Service. Of course by that time many of us are tucked up safely in bed but all these late nights recently have meant that I’ve been enjoying the World Service for more hours that I care to remember.

Anyway, last night (or technically in the early hours of this morning) I was half listening to Bert Kwok (Cato in the Pink Panther) introduce two monologues in the Worldplay series. Hearing laughter (it was recorded in front of an audience), I started listening properly then stopped working altogether to enjoy one of the best things I’ve heard on the radio in many years.

Play of the Week this week concludes our Worldplay Season. Two Viewings comprises two monologues recorded as live, and directed in America by Dennis Erdman for Los Angeles Theatre Works.

‘Tell Tale’ is narrated by actor Bruce Davison, as a respectable married mortician with a secret passion for a real estate agent specialising in selling property to the bereaved.

And in ‘Thirteen Things About Ed Carpolotti’, Rue McClanahan plays a newly widowed suburban matron who finds her comfortable world crashing down around her, only to be rescued by love, from beyond the grave.

And following the monologues, members of the L.A. Theatre Works Acting Company, including Jeff Goldblum, describe what made them want to pursue their acting careers.

I loved the Rue McClanahan (instantly identifiable as Blanche from the Golden Girls) performance and I’m off now to hear it again. It’s a wondeful story and she is just perfect as the grieving widow. I’ll come back and add the author’s name when I find it, doesn’t seem to be on the website.

You can hear it here, please do go and listen, I promise you will enjoy it. Don’t go thinking it’s a “girlie” story. Oh no. Ah go on, you can come back and leave rude messages here if you don’t.

I bet they thought long and hard about this headline [via Sevitz].

Brilliant new film from Ze Frank [via Xequa].

And the BBC are holding a competition, “What is the Today programme“:

If asked to picture the Today programme any number of images could come to mind. We’d like your answers to: “What is The Today Programme?”. It can be about the presenters, the content, the type of listener who tunes in: you decide. A cartoon, a photograph, a poem or indeed a song. It can be in any style. It can be positive or negative, serious or satirical, colour or black & white…

Here’s one of the professional entries from Peter Brookes of The Times.

On awakening, zombie-like, from the over-work induced coma that is the norm this past week, do not scream in horror in the belief that someone has stolen into the bedroom in the dark of the night to place black (knee highs on your legs. Relax! It is simply that you have forgotten to shave your legs in a long while.

Run a nice hot bath, take a razor and apply gently to legs. Those knee-highs will be but a dark, distant memory…

The 7 dwarfs went to the Vatican, and because they are “THE DWARFS”, they are ushered in to see the Pope.
Dopey leads the pack.
“My son,” says the Pope, “What can I do for you?”
Dopey replies, “Excuse me, your Excellency, but are there any dwarf nuns in Rome?”
The Pope wrinkles his brow at the odd question, thinks for a moment and answers, “No, Dopey, there are no dwarf nuns in Rome.”
In the background, a few of the dwarfs start giggling. Dopey turns around and gives them a glare, silencing them.
Dopey turns back, “Your Worship, are there any dwarf nuns in all of Europe?”
The Pope, puzzled now, again thinks for a moment and then answers, “No, Dopey, there are no dwarf nuns in Europe.”
This time, all the other dwarfs burst into laughter. Once again, Dopey turns around and silences them with an angry glare.
Dopey turns back to the Pope and says, “Mr. Pope, are there ANY dwarf nuns anywhere in the world?”
“I’m sorry, my son, there are no dwarf nuns anywhere in the world.”
The other dwarfs collapse into a heap, rolling and laughing, pounding the floor, tears rolling down their cheeks as they begin chanting…
(more…)

a sideblog for the next couple of weeks, just somewhere I can throw links. But that wouldn’t so much fun. Ah well, blogging at midnight it is then.

So what have we in the pot for today? Well, how about Kartoo, a visual search engine?

Or maybe a blog hosting company for us lefties?

There’s a new blogging service at square space, while Jamie Jamison is testing Blogware and comparing it against TypePad.

Lowering the tone a little, Zeno, bless him, is running a competition. He posts pictures of bloggers’ bums, you have to guess who they are. Rest assured, there will not be a Daisy entry. Prudery personified, c’est moi.

Found while searching for something else – Hell’s Language: An Historical, Social, and Linguistical Look at Cussing by Glenda Thompson

In case you haven’t seen it, put some time aside for The Greatest Story Never Told and maybe Sambakza. I’ll have to watch that one again properly.

Hell fire, I’m tired. One more then it’s off to bed.

can be a terrible thing. But they can be funny. And if these were about the Welsh I’d still post them. Honest.

If Friends were filmed in Liverpool

Scouser keyboard

Liverpool airport

[via non blogging Jane]

The contents of The Shrub’s inbox [via Billy]