Nowt So Queer As Folk

In my never-ending struggle to provide a curious, interesting and strangely compelling place to visit for jaded intellectuals the world over, I am always looking for new ways to spice up this blog. One way would be to display pictures of scantily-clad men, women and animals (after all, most of my readers are human - and the rest cannot be ignored). But that is just too tacky. Another way would be to grow ever more strident until my postings consist of nothing more than streams of controversial ranting punctuated by obscenities and multiple exclamation marks. This is tempting as it is quite like my normal way of communicating. However, once I reach that point, where do I go from there? There is a limit to how big you can make your fonts (as the tabloid newspapers discovered decades ago).

I already provide cleverly-tailored advertising, provided by my good friends at Google - who have yet to pay me a single dollar for this opprotunity by the way. Not that I'm complaining. I know that, one day, someone will spot an ad that appeals and be driven to click on it. I can't wait for the day that 2c comes rolling in! Until then, you can read me railing about the wonders of science while being enticed by offers to compare your health insurance, or damning the evils of corporate granny-bashers to the accompaniment of invitations to consolidate your credit card debt. Surely this is a major incentive for you to keep coming back?

Then there is my Amazon-franchise Waving Not Drowning Media Store. (Yes, the one they're all taking about.) The only place on Earth where you can buy all the books and films that have had a good review on this blog. (I don't sell the ones that get a bad review. Trust me on this, you wouldn't want to own them. And if you did, just think of how all your intellectual snob friends would snigger when they spotted a WND reject on your book-shelf. Who needs that kind of grief?)

Even so, I have added a new and exciting feature. Yes, no-one asked for it and no-one wanted it but you got it all the same: welcome to 'Nowt So Queer As Folk', your daily round-up of all that is strange and weird in the world's news today! (It's on the right, by the way, just below the adverts.) And, yes, 'nowt' is a real word. It comes from a language called 'Yorkshire' which is still spoken in the wilder parts of Northern England. (It should also be pointed out that in 'Yorkshire' the word 'queer' means odd or peculiar and the word 'folk' is not a popular music genre - that's just for those who thought I was commenting on the sexual preferences of your favourite musicians.)

So, there it is. Enjoy. The news items are selected on the basis of the keywords listed at the top of the section. Anybody with an interesting selection of keywords to suggest may get the honour of having them used for a week following them being sent to me.