I believe that in hip-hop they call it a "call out" - mentioning one of your rivals in an affectionate way. Well, Cole Porter and Noel Coward were doing it many decades ago - as evidenced in Queensland Musical Theatre's production of Porter's Anything Goes at the Cannon Hill Anglican College. Details of the show are here.

I've spent the whole afternoon reinstalling Microsoft Windows on one of my computers after it picked up some amazingly virulent viruses, and I think I can confidentally say: I HATE BILL GATES. After spending 15 years with Windows, and more than 20 years playing with personal computers (starting with a Commodore Vic20), I reckon the user experience has become progressively worse. I've said it before but I really mean it this time: my next computer will be an Apple Mac. If nothing else, at least then I can transfer my hate to Steve Jobs.

When I first encountered recycled toilet paper, I actually tried to work out how they recycled toilet paper. It took me a while to realise that it was toilet tissue made from recycled paper.

When I was very young it was fashionable in some cricles to blame Gough Whitlam for everything that was wrong with the country. Then briefly, it was all Malcolm Fraser's fault, and now they are still blaming Paul Keating 10 years after he left office. We can look forward to the blame when a retired John Howard shoulders all the blame. If he ever retires, that is.

I just received an email to tell me that my US-based Live 365 radio station, variously Radio Bert and Radio Notional, has clocked-up 250 listening hours (which, apparently, is pretty good for this sort of thing). If you haven't tuned in yet, click on the Radio Bert link. It's still mainly just pumping out music, but there will be more spoken content soon. One day ...