Looking for adornments for the Wild West birthdays party of uni friends at the end of September, I chanced upon a fine pair of pearly-handled six-shooters in a toy shop. These should be more than adequate if John Prescott should show his mug plus his unequivocally innocently donated stetson, cowboy boots and belt at the party. The thing about Prezza and cowboys is that he's too big for even himself in one town. Hopefully, though he'll be too busy being entertained unequivocally innocently by other wealthy American businessmen looking to curry favours. Or he may just be lying low (or as low as possible).
While in that same toy shop, I happened to find a board game with Napoleonic-era uniformed officers on the frontispiece. It was called Stratego Original. Turning over to read a precis of the game, some very familiar elements (and a picture) combined to fill me with suspicion. On this occasion when I say very familiar, I mean identical. This concept was no less than the French game L'Attaque under a reworked title. Some things were different, for instance the Spy was no longer a French wino lying sozzled in a ditch (who would suspect him?!?) but a sophisticated Henna-haired female operative, but the traits were the same. So simply what I beheld was a game that used a "ye olde foreigne" word and then called itself Original to suggest the re-release of a classic. What a wheeze. I think I should try my hand at creating Riski Original or Monopolia Original.
Oh, these learned, literary types who come on shows to air their wares and their views. I caught a disturbing snatch of one such professorial woman, as I walked in the kitchen with my parents' Radio 4 Women's Hour on, talking about "little Jane writing this self-defecating poem when she was only nine." The content of the poem was distinctly self-deprecating. So, well done to the kid and incontinence pants all round for the critic.