A far more interesting moment was had last week when Damon Allen broke Warren Moon's career passing yardage total of 70,553. Saturday was Damon Allen Day in Toronto and Moon was there to honour the record, as well as his brother Marcus and the rest of the Allen family.

"The main reason I'm here today is not because he broke my record, but because of the respect I have for Damon Allen as a person," Moon said. "You guys have really been blessed to have an athlete of his calibre in your city.

"I want to thank you for showing Damon the love and support you showed me during my years in Canada. It's going to make the rest of his life here in Canada a very prosperous and very loving life for his family."

"His career will be written in indelible ink," Marcus Allen said of his younger brother. "But what you've done as a brother, son, husband and father will live in our hearts forever. That's what we're most proud of.

"To all the citizens of Canada, thank you for allowing my brother to play the game that he loved, thank you for allowing him to make a living and more importantly thank you for letting him make a life, one that he enjoys in this wonderful country."

I have to agree with Ms Jennings.

I literally got off the plane from Rome a few hours ago, having spent the bulk of the past week exploring Puglia.

I chose to make Taranto my base of exploration for various reasons, which in retrospect was a mistake. I tried really hard to love Taranto but it went unrequited.

Frankly, I think the title of the book I saw in Roma Termini station before I left for there ("Taranto Poisonville" - http://www.sartoriolibri.com/terun.html) sums the place up. It's a shame though, because with a little love and a LOT less heavy petrochemical industry, the place could be a nicely polished diamond.

The revelation was Lecce though.

If I could have changed anything about my trip, I'd have spent the week in and around Lecce. Beautiful architecture, tourist friendly, fantastic food...absolutely charming! The place is almost a minature Rome but living la dolce vita and not so bustled up. And a few miles out of town there are olive groves and grape farms so vast they stretch to the horizon.

Brindisi was truly charming and even smaller places in Taranto Province, like Grottaglie and Martina Franca had their charms.

I would encourage more people to "go south"...it was rewarding and, despite the claims and worries of some of my friends, completely unthreatening!

Funny, in retrospect, the only person who was enthusiastic about my choice of holiday was a friend from Torino!

You write: "If...the world's freeloading downloaders rush in ever greater numbers to Russia for their music fix, and the world's big record studios implode from their unsustainable business model..."

Why should it matter if the studios implode? Their business is publicity & distribution and the internet has made them irrelevent to any aspiring artist, whether they be musicians or photographers or film-makers.

Good riddance, I say!

I've been living in Britain for over a decade now and, bad as things are here, it's miles ahead of where it was in the mid-90's when I arrived on these shores.

There is one myth about British food that I can shatter though; that there is no good place to eat in this country. Patently false. London has the most deliciously thriving restaurant scene and you can get quality food (at a price) of practically any sort. Artisan delis are popping up all over the city and the influx of immigrants has brought huge variety to the markets.

The UK has 230 Michelin-starred restaurants, third highest total in Europe after France and Italy and just ahead of Germany.

You *can* eat wonderful food here, you just have to look hard and work at it.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the "food porn" shown on Saturday morning TV here, together with all of the celebrity chef cookbooks have had an impact on the psychology of the country about food, but pretty much only amongst the yuppie crowd.

Unfortunately, for the vast bulk of Britons, food is still sadly labelled "solids", consumed unthinkingly and without love and it matters only which sauce gets slathered all over it to give it some sense of flavour.

This lack of respect for food is slowly being overturned though the backlash has, inevitably, already begun.

Some mothers were recently photographed taking orders for pies, chips, pizza-like substances and appalling things the Brits insist on calling burgers and hot dogs that no self-respecting North American would let within 100 yards of his grill.

Why is this noteworthy?

The orders they were taking were from their children and their neighbours children, through a school fence. A school that had taken on Jamie Oliver's message about feeding the children at school fresh, healthy meals, low on fats and sugars and high on vitamins and minerals.

Sigh.

You wrote: "two percent out of every 1000 babies"

Exactly how is that different from 2% of 2 babies or 2% of 6.5 billion?

Sorry to be a pedant, but...

Mr Posh Spice has always been overrated. His only consistent ability has been around set pieces and crossing. Beyond that, he's so average it defies my ability to find a suitably average word from my thesaurus!

Re: "A surprisingly large segment of the electorate is willing to contemplate the possibility of impeaching the president, unappetizing though that prospect should be to anyone who can recall the destructive impeachment of Bush's predecessor."

Given what we know about the Republican party and it's attitude towards governance ("Government is bad, ergo we must govern badly."), is it not conceivable the GOP fought hard to discredit the very notion of impeachment - knowing they were going to steal the White House after the next elections?