I guess one of the things about sending spam email is trying to convince the person at the other end to open-up the thing by pretending it comes from somebody they know. It's such a shame I don't know anybody who goes by any the following names: Wesley Rucker, Ryan Witherspoon (Reese's brother, perhaps?), Willie Toney, Vito Bingham, Myrna Melvin, Marcy Butcher, Hector Pettit, Siegmund Siebert, Randolph Love, Raul Stark or Una Leal. Apologies if you go by any of those monikers, but they just don't sound real to me.

Thanks to the listener of Spencer Howson's show this morning who pointed out by email that the Queensland Theatre Company used to do pantos many years ago, when the cast members included Bille Brown and Geoffrey Rush. And apologies to anyone who thought I was saying that QTC is trying to revive the panto. If that was the case, there'd be one in the 2007 season - and there isn't. A shame, really, because if they keep at it, they might help create a whole new set of regular theatregoers.

I'm a huge fan of markets - both philosophically (because I like the idea of growers being able to sell directly to the public without a middleman taking his cut) and because they can be fun. But they can also be frustrating - especially when they are run by neo-hippies. Exactly how three people can stand behind a counter in a small business and yet only one one of them actually have the nous to serve the queue of five customers has got me stumped. Whatever they are on, they should abstain before market day.

I've started to make a significant - but, perhaps, not immediately noticeable - change here at debritz.net. I'm adding category tags to the blog entries. If you click on the tag at the end of the story, you'll be taken to other posts on the blog in the same category. My categories include "theatre", "radio", "showbiz", "admin" (for posts like this one), "movies" and, thanks to Spencer Howson (who has dubbed me a grumpy old man, despite my relative youth), "grumps". It will be some time before I've tagged all my posts (if I ever do), so most categories have only a few entries right now.

Not long ago, I received an email from EMI about the new satirical CD from The 12th Man, Boned, and I posted an item about it on my other blog. The email noted how well previous 12th Man albums had done and how well the company expected this one to do. Today comes news that EMI is threatening to sue the Australian sports supporters' club, the Fanatics, for changing the lyrics to some of its songs. Now I absolutley support an artist's right to protect his or her intellectual property, but I think it's funny how big corporations only have a sense of humour when there's money to be made.

Opposition leader Kim Beazley's gaffe in calling Rove McManus "Karl Rove" reminded me of former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whose clumsy way with words was legendary. When asked what he thought of (the satirical television program) The Gillies Report, Bjelke-Petersen purportedly replied "Well, it's a very long report and I haven't read all of it yet."