:: Smoke Without Fire ::

The moneybox rattlers were gaggled round the station entrance again today. Except a second glance confirmed that they weren't begging for mony after all. Rather like the eager activists (Anti-vivisection, Stop The War etc.) previously vying for my attention at that inhospitable hour, these people had an important message: Today is No Smoking Day. I'm inclined to say that the celebrity endorsements posted on their site (Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Jane Asher and Fern Britton) are amusingly revealing about the whole enterprise, but I must admit not to have got into the swing of things. Well it's hardly Comic Relief is it? Of course it gives the media plenty of opportunities to run stories about possible Smoking bans in public places à la New York, but there were a couple of droll items too. Such as the Student Union which has repealed a smoking ban in its bars after suffering a massive loss in profits. Recent Oscar-winner Charlize Theron wins the prize for weirdest smoking accoutrement in today's fume-filled web pages.

She also met Thabo Mbeki this week... without sporting the aforementioned item.

The Grauniad settles for some patronising pap from arch-quitter, Allan Carr: The Best Place To Give up Smoking. Frankly, the thought of hanging round the Costa Del Sol with that cheerfree goon made me want to spark up a giant doobey there and then. As if to heighten my sense of irritation, the same publication also won the prize for the day's most excruciating pun. However, all was forgiven when I discovered that the most viewed page from their site of late has been this gem from Steve Bell:

Next is news from another country which is shortly to hold presidential elections. Putin has appointed a new slimmed-down government after his dramatic recent clearout. Despite his increasingly autocratic stance he still enjoys very high approval ratings (even some of my less gullible Russian friends rate him). Interestingly Russian law bans publication of opinion polls from a week before the election date. I shouldn't hold your breath over this one, though. The man appears to have no credible or visible opponents.

And finally, one for the technophiles amongst you. My latest project is entitled "Consumer Electronics, Toys and Games". This gives me ample opportunity to look up some swanky pieces of kit. Today I came across something I hadn't seen before. A CD turntable that you can scratch with! Blimey, I thought. Then I looked at the price tag. Double blimey - I'll take two!