:: Friday Mixed Bag ::

No particular theme today, so a jumble of links. I hope some of them amuse or engage...

•  Article of the week, Part 1 (Economy): House Prices. A fairly resounding argument against the Daily Mail-fuelled house-price obsession. Surely it must be obvious that the only people this kind of over-inflation serves are those who are selling property but don't need to buy a new one to live in.
•  Article of the week, Part 2 (Politics): Larcenous Racist Scum. Gerald Kaufman bites back. I'm beginning to wonder whether the whole Town/Country debate is pushing us towards the Conurb/County divide of John Christopher's The Guardians.
•  Article of the week, Part 3 (Sport!): Martin Amis on Diego Maradona. Even a writer of Amis' standing can't make me love the "beautiful game". If anyone managed to finish this, please enlighten me.
•  TV News: Casanova on BBC3. The appropriately named Peter O'Toole is to play one of the leads.
•  Local bar of the week: Escape. This place doubles as a bar and art gallery. Some of the art is amusingly NSFW.
•  Revenge Story of the week: Shrapnel frenzy. I seem to remember that using a simliar tactic at university got Wilverine banned from the College Library for a term...
•  Art Installation of the week: Klütterkammer at the ICA. Was planning to go anyway, but the highly favourable Grauniad review has provided an extra incentive to make use of my membership. Anyone else fancy joining me for a tunnel-crawling, ladder-scaling bonanza on Sunday?

And finally...
•  Revived Eco-Slogan of the week: Please Take Your Litter Home. Or rather, pick it up off the beach then send it back to the country of origin. Art or eco-vigilantism?