You know, the wiki feels compelled to say this about Ty Cobb, after all these years, in the intro to his biography:

"Cobb's legacy as an athlete has sometimes been overshadowed by his surly temperament, allegedly severe racism, and aggressive reputation, which was described by the Detroit Free Press as 'daring to the point of dementia.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Cobb

Nobody liked the guy, but they gave him his due.

When I think about the steroid era, I think of Mark McGuire. Bonds and McGuire are the same age, 43. Forty-three and still in the Majors! McGuire has been out of baseball for six years. And you look statistically at Bonds' career, you have one freak year on 73HRs and another on 5HRs. The rest is a steady progression of increasing productivity until these last couple of seasons in his forties when he's merely average.

People, you don't have to like the guy, but give him his due. Baseball's disrespect for Barry Bonds is a black eye on the sport.

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?

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!

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...

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 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 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!