On my this blog yesterday, I posted an item about recorders as instruments of torture. I feel I need to clarify this. Now I know there must be some wonderful recorder players out there, but the fact is that recorders are most commonly played by young children who don't have a lot of musical expertise and, consequently, the sound they make is shrill and tuneless. The same can be true of the accordion (which can sound wonderful - honestly!) and the violin.

The world has lost two stars - veteran Hollywood actor Jack Palance and young Australian Belinda Emmett. Details are at my Celebrity Deaths Archive.
11.37am update: US singer Gerald Levert, of I Swear fame, also died on Friday.

This happened some time ago, but I just remembered it. My wife and I witnessed an accident in the Brisbane CBD and went to help a woman whose car was forced off the road by hoons. When the police arrived they asked her: "When was your last drink?" The woman stopped to think for a while, and then replied: "Eleven years ago."