Further miscellany

Just a few things I have picke dup this week.
Apparently, Radio Three concerts have found a way of stopping people coughing while the recording is taking place. It's a lozenge which, as they say, takes the 'cough' out of Tchaicovsky. The sweets are even wax-wrapped to ensure no rustling as they are opened and thus total silence during the performance. The lozenge has been manufactured since the 1930s, so it's not an entirely new invention. Over the years they must always have had a guaranteed and large order-book for deliveries first to Highbury stadium and now the Emirates ground at Ashburton Grove.

News comes that the Obama's have chosen their dog for the White House, rewarding theier children for putting up with the elction campaign and the disruption of moving to Washington D.C. The Portuguese water dog is apparently a type of poodle and while Barack Obama has tried to make a clean break with his predecessor (such as thankfully handing back the bust of Winston Churchill, whose ideas were so wilfully misused and miscontrued), this is one tradition he is keeping, finding an ideal replacement for Tony Blair.

Finally, while watching Masterchef this week (which produces such marvellous food, but always makes you wonder what you are missing out on with the ordinary nosh eaten by 95% of people), they served some aristocracy and Olympians at a horse trial event. Zara Phillips remarked in front of the cameras "We are really quite privileged." Well don't make it sound like a surprise - you're the Queen's granddaughter, you were born into privilege. It's what you expect. That aside, Zara still is a classy Royal - one that transcends the stuffiness of an age-old institution. Masterchef itself is the televisual equivalent of a richly indulgent pudding - great TV.