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About 20 years ago, I worked for a printer in the north of England. I ran his shop; opened and closed up every day, took orders, too money, took the float home to my own home (with the keys) every evening, took flack from unhappy customers and, when I had spare time, sold diaries to companies...

Aren't we all supposed to be in a war on fundamentalist fruitbats? It's not brilliant over here, no. And there is a frightening (IMO) amount of religious influence going on government. It's visible in planned legislation such as the bill On possession of extreme pornography, the consultation...

But it is working in McDonalds, serving that garbage and having to tell people to: 'have a nice day'. There have to be compensations.

I've just ordered Der letze Mann (FW Murnau 1924) and Frau im Mond (Fritz Lang, 1929) in an Amazon double deal.

Rolling Stones, Forty Licks, disc one.

Classical music to pop and rock, dome dance, some metal, some jazz, musicals, avant garde ... I'm not wild about folk or country. I could say that I don't like rap, but I quite like Eminem.

It also makes me think of a quote from Martin Luther: "reason is the Devil's whore, born of one stinking goat called Aristotle". In other words – don't think. And whatever you do, don't try to apply reason to anything.

And the same for me too. "Difficult" is perhaps perfectly illustrated for me by Thomas Mann – or at least some of his novels, which, being 'novels of ideas', take more time an concentration to read. The reward is different too, though.

If God is compassionate and genuinely wants people to show free will, then why would God punish them if they do not make the choice that he does not like? If they know that eternal damnation is what will happen if they don't make the choice that God wants, then it's no choice and it's certainly...

An email currently doing the rounds. RESUME GEORGE W BUSH 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20520 EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE : Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport , Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and...

That's a really good point. I hated certain books when studying at school, but found them enjoyable 20 years down the line (Thomas Hardy generally and Lord of the Flies specifically were cases in point).

I must admit, Chris, I was thinking this too. If you're studying something for academic reasons, say, then that's a different thing. But otherwise, isn't life too short to struggle through something that really doesn't grip you from such an early stage? That's not to say, however, that...

Macs are the choice of professionals in my business – and much of the rest of the media and creative world – and have been for years. Since I work on them when I'm in an office, I have them at home too. Indeed, as a freelancer, it would be ridiculous, if not downright impossible, not to. They...

Most viruses are not designed with Macs in mind because the majority of the world's computers are not Macs. Simple as.

I was dreadful at languages at school (I don't think my father's negative attitude sent the right messages to a young daughter – he went ballistic when he heard that we were to learn German: 'we didn't win the war so that you could learn German' etc). Anyway, I spent six years suffering French...

I watched Titus, Julie Taymor's 1999 film reworking of Shakespeare's play, Titus Andronicus, last night. Returning from war against the Goths, Titus offers up the eldest son of on of his hostages, Tamara, queen of the Goths, as a traditional appeasement to the Roman dead. He then refuses the...

Silverseason has a point – on the other hand, one could ask why, if magazines are only temporarily worthwhile, why would books be any different? I do different things with different magazines. I have a few comics that I have kept, usually on a shelf or in a box. I have a very limited number...

Finally – after promising to do so for several years – actually replaced my video of The Blue Angel with the remastered DVD yesterday. Not before time, since the sound quality on the video was dire. It's not one of the films in a boxed set of 18 Marlene Dietrich movies that Moviemail is...

The Fifth Element is great fun – OTT and very camp, but what can you expect when Jean-Paul Gaultier was costume designer? I would say that, the presence of Willis and Chris Tucker apart (and how much of that casting was to ensure that it got a decent release in the US in particular?) it has a...

Just got back from seeing Sergei Eisenstein's 1927 silent classic, Battleship Potemkin at the Barbican, with a score by the Pet Shop Boys, performed by them with the string section (and one trumpet) of the BBC Concert Orchestra. The film tells the story of the 1905 Russian naval mutiny (the...