As the festive season is a mere stoned throw away, I thought I'd be the first to ask a question that we're all familiar with at this time of year - What annuals are you getting? I'm hoping for WARLORD and CUB SCOUTS' DINKLES. I was reminded of annuals by a strange turn of affairs in the record industry. I've noticed that more and more "box sets" are in fact annual sets, in so far as they open up like a book, and the cover is made of the same stuff annuals are made out of. Pop groups used to have annuals in the seventies, groups like The Osmonds and The Bay City Rollers. Belle and Sebastian could revive this great tradition. Hop to it, Jeepster! I'd be more than happy to write it for a moderately huge sum of money. I think Carmen will eventually go on to become the darling of British athletics, as my Dad used to say about Zola Budd. I do feel that Carmen's original cry in the wilderness contained more than a grain of truth. Perhaps we should modify our technique. Instead of counting to ten, we could count to twelve, and instead of thinking of Sir Cliff, we could think about plain old Cliff in the seventies, enjoying a nude romp with tennis ace Sue Barker in a barn somewhere, as reported in the super soaraway Sun, way back when. That way, we will get less "thoughtless" posts and a damn sight more smut. At the same time, please feel free to have the odd slanging match. I don't bother reading them anymore, but I do so enjoy Paul's pitch-perfect impersonation of Mister Barraclough from "Porridge". By the way, I also have problems with Frank Yang's weird coded messages. Fortunately someone quoted one the other day, enabling me to nick a great idea. Night night Mister Barraclough, night night Fletch. Lenny Godber In my CD player: CD 1 of the Booker T and the MGs annual set . CD 3 features Boz Scaggs. Sounds like something you have to go to the vet with. Have Splat and Pish had their Boz Scaggs jabs yet? +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+