This is utterly lovely

Adele performing 'To Make You Feel My Love' on Later... With Jools Holland.

via

Fascinating

People were named after things, and things were named after people. His lover in later life, Blanche Blackwell, gave him a small boat named Octopussy, which became the name of a man-eating pet octopus in the short story. In rather ungallant return, Fleming named the ancient guano tanker in Dr No the Blanche.

The crime boss Marc-Ange Draco in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is named after El Draco, the Spanish name for Sir Francis Drake – a reference picked up years later by J. K. Rowling for her Hogwarts antihero, Draco Malfoy.

Rosa Klebb (the Russian for bread) was partly based on Colonel Rybkin of Soviet intelligence. Major Boothroyd, the secret service armourer, is named in honour of Geoffrey Boothroyd, the gun expert who provided Fleming with invaluable technical advice.

...

Fleming’s villains, like his heroes, are patchworks of different people, names and traits. Le Chiffre, the Benzedrine-sniffing villain of Casino Royale, is believed to be based on Aleister Crowley, who gained notoriety in inter-war Britain as “the Wickedest Man in the World”.

Crowley was a bisexual, sado-masochistic drug addict. A master of Thelemic mysticism (“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”), he specialised in mountaineering, interpreting the Ouija board, orgies and thrashing his lovers. The press simultaneously adored and hated him. Crowley made Le Chiffre seem positively sane.

Mmmmm, Biblical

Gee, why wouldn't someone want to be married to a peach like this?

A Serb farmer used a grinding machine to cut in half his farm tools and machines to comply with a court ruling that he must share all his property with his ex-wife, local media reported on Thursday.

Branko Zivkov, 76, told Belgrade daily Kurir he had been ready to give his wife Vukadinka her equal share of everything earned during their 45-year marriage, but was furious at being asked to give away half his farming equipment.

Instead, he bought a grinder and cut in two all his tools, includinglarge items such as cattle scales, a harrow and a sowing machine. "I still haven't decided how to split the cow," he told the newspaper. "She should just say what she wants -- the part with the horns or the part with the tail."

Today in

silly headlines...

Some superdelegates more super than rest

But do they wear capes? Hmm...

Back Tor

Back Tor, originally uploaded by ChrisHepburn.

Oh dear...

From the 'Shine A Light' premiere in LDN.

I don't know which is worse- Jaime's horrid Daisy Dukes or Jasmine's mutton-dressed-as-lamb...

























However, I think Noel's pimp coat takes the cake...as well as his combination of the indie boy stripey t-shirt and zebra-striped scarf. Or his missus's dotty self. No Polka-Dot Left Behind....

Random ten

1. In Love With A Feeling- Babyshambles
2. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend- Miranda Lambert
3. Sam's Town- The Killers
4. I Think We're Alone Now- Girls Aloud
5. Penny Lane- The Beatles
6. Thick As Thieves- Kasabian
7. Sure Looks Good To Me- Alicia Keys
8. We'll Meet Again- Carl Barat and Pete Doherty
9. Koko- Goldfrapp
10. The Concept- Teenage Fanclub

Bonus-
11. The Age Of The Understatement- The Last Shadow Puppets
12. Goodnight Goodnight- Maroon 5

So cool

Battle of the Fugs

As previously mentioned, the GoFug wenches are having their own version of March Madness, and it's down to the final four-

Beyonce v. Posh Beckham

and

Chloe Sevigny v. Bai Ling

Smart money is on Bai Ling for the crown. Why? This outfit is, shall we say, not atypical.

Occasionally,

I can be dumber than a whole sack full of hammers.

Last week, I was at work, and was feeling a bit peckish. Lo and behold, I spotted a box of caramels that we have for sale. However, the caramels had been in the 'fridge, and were inedible in their current (at that time) state. I thought, "Hmmm, maybe I could warm one up in the microwave. Mmmm, tasty."

Unlike myself at that moment, I'm sure you can see where this is going.

So I put the caramel in the microwave, and heat it up for 5 seconds, I swear. Being a big spaz and not paying attention, I open the nuker, and grab the candy. Which had motherfucking liquefied in 5 seconds.

What is your first reaction when you burn your fingers? Yup, shove them in your mouth. Unfortunately, I have approximately the same hand-to-eye coordination that a drunken two year-old possesses, and I now am sporting a nasty burn on the corner of my lip. Which really farcking hurts.

So, yeah. Am cool. Why do I share things like this? Normal people wouldn't mention candy-related burns, but nooooooo...

They're already entirely too adorable,

but this little anecdote makes me love Alexa and Young Master Turner as a couple even more...

What other stories have irked her? "There was a really upsetting one when Alex had written me a Valentine card and I had accidentally left it in a bar. And someone sold it to the Sun and then they printed it, and they changed it so it didn't look like a Valentine card, and they just said it was a love letter. They slated him for being really soppy.

"Look, it's my boyfriend and it's Alex. Of course it's gonna be written like a story."

Was he peeved? "He was really cool with it," she says, "and he said, 'I'm not upset that everyone saw it because that's the truth and I couldn't give a shit.' And then he went [Chung dons a comedy northern accent], 'Eh, but at least you've got a copy of it now, eh?'"

AAAAAAAAAAA

Oasis have announced a handful of shows in the US and Canada, kicking off in Seattle on August 26.

The band have so far announced just four headlining shows, one of which is in the US with the remaining dates in Canada.

The Seattle show will mark the band’s first live performance in over two years. Following the short stint they will headline the Virgin Festival in Toronto.

Edit-
AND RYAN ADAMS IS OPENING?

Please excuse the donning of sackcloth and wailing from these parts....

Want.

For spring...

Shoes from Anthropologie













Dress from Converse One Star (at Tar-jay)



















This hat from Jovovich-Hawk (also at Tar-jay)
















This handbag from Isaac Mizrahi (again, at Tar-jay- sensing a pattern here?)

My day

Argh.

Yesterday, I was feeling like total crap, so took NyQuil and went to bed early, despite the fact that I desperately wanted to hear how Kazza's roller derby debut went.

Anyway, woke up this AM when Mom asked me if I'd take her to the emergency room in Iowa City. Our local ER is complete shit, so it's "stop the bleeding and go to University Hospitals."

She's been having some issues with her eyes hurting and being droopy, and it's gotten a lot worse in the past week. So, I drove our happy asses up there, they ran some tests, wound up admitting her, and now I'm freaking out. And it's all about me. Ha ha ha.

My maternal grandmother died from complications of A.L.S., and that's one of the things they have to test her for. I know it's a statistical abnormality that Grandma got it in the first place (women usually don't, and she got it in her late 70's), but I'm still freaking out.

Mom made me go back home, but I had to run to Barnes and Noble and buy her some trashy romance novels first. Priorities...

So, I'm off to do my usual hysterical displacement activity. Watch crap on YouTube.

Hee

see more crazy cat pics