Sinister: Ooo! Mother Goose!

[Robin Stout]

	Yesterday I was going to write something but my whole 
email account had been mysteriously deleted. It was a bit like 
waking up and discovering you don't exist. I had quite a bit to say 
yesterday, too, and I can't remember half of it now. It's good to see a 
fully fledged *list debate* blowing up again, though. I was going to 
say something about it yesterday, but my email soul had been 
kidnapped by the mechanical meanies.
	Now, I don't agree with Section 28 ( does anyone know why it 
stopped being a Clause? I remember when they used to call Father 
Christmas "Santa Section") but I do feel pretty sorry for Chris. I 
agree with the bit about empathising with gay people because I've 
been abused for being gay, a number of times, even though I'm not. 
And it's difficult to stand out, whatever minority you belong to. Nick 
said recently about how maybe we're all a bit freaky, and it's true 
that I've often felt like a freak just for liking simple things, and for 
actually giving a shit about people. But then, it's dead hard to stand 
up for yourself if you're not part of the crowd, and if Chris finds 
sanctury in the Church, I don't see much wrong with that. It's the 
whole Catholic thing that's the problem, I think, they tend to take 
things too literally. Fundamentalism of any sort is a bad thing. I 
come from an Anglican background and for me, the Church is mostly 
about standing in a big room, drinking sherry (our vicar had a funny 
definition of communion wine) and singing. Christianity is supposed 
to be about being caring, forgiving and tolerant, and the most 
"Christian" people I know are all these things. Stuart M, would 
probably call himself a Christian and he believes in pretty good stuff.
	I get a little angry with all the glib apathy that's always 
bandied about whenever an "issue" comes up. You know, not 
wanting to sound like a hippy, but if we cared a bit more about each 
other then Section 28 wouldn't be an issue in the first place - it 
wouldn't ever have existed.
	
	Blimey, that was a bit serious. Now, in the manner of That's 
Life, but with better knees than Esther Rantzen, for something rather 
more inane.

	Does anyone think that Belle and Sebastian is a good name 
or a bad name for a band? I don't think I'm objective enough to 
know. I've always thought that Oasis is a rather nambly pambly sort 
of name - it conjures up pictures of palm trees and camels - so it's a 
strange name for Noel "Fookin 'ell" Gallagher's band. Camels are 
quite smelly, though. I was speaking to a chap t'other day and said 
something about Belle and Sebastian and he said "are they a punk 
band, then?" I don't know how he reached that conclusion. Maybe I 
said it too quickly and it sounded like Belsen, or something.

	It snowed in Nottingham yesterday. I'd just left the cinema 
and the first flakes fell from the sky. By the time I'd got home 
everything was white. We even had enough for a snowball fight. By 
the morning most of it had gone, apart from a little on the roofs of 
houses and cars. People will see those cars today and think "Oh, I 
wonder where they've come from, it must have been snowing 
somewhere".

	Bye, then
			Robin x
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
   +---+  Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list  +---+
   To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
   majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+
 +-+  "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper        +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+