I had a good chuckle this morning when I read the following short and sweet piece at Irregular Times and I quote it verbatim and in full:

For those baby boomers who might consider decrying the current sorry state of lyricism in today’s pop music, I have only this to say:

Hey there, Lamppost, whatcha knowin?
I’ve come to watch your flowers growin!
Ain’tcha got no rhymes for me?
Doo-n-doo doo, feelin’ Groovy

Yes. You got me. Enough said!

I was browsing the clothes racks in Marks and Spencer recently and came across their hat stand. Now, anyone who has visited this site before will know that I am drawn to hats like a moth to a light bulb. And there they were – Panama Hats.

What’s more, each hat bore a label with the inscription ‘Genuine Panama Hat’. They even had a little leaflet with them showing how the hats are hand-made in Ecuador.

And beneath that a smaller little label that said “Made in China”.

And rather then being made from the plaited leaves of the panama-hat palm, my guess is they were made from paper. Most Chinese made Panama ’style’ hats are.

I don’t know the legality of labelling these abominations ‘Genuine’ when they clearly are not but I do know a proper Panama Hat when I see one. Because I have one. Hand made to my specification and size in Montecristi, Ecuador from the finest leaves and ordered from those amazing people at Panama Hats Direct – it arrived this morning, perfectly packaged in a balsa wood box.

And it really is a thing of beauty. 700 – 800 weaves per inch and as soft as tissue. Unlike the Chinese paper versions which feel like stiff cardboard. And it will last a lifetime. I even know the name of the man who blocked it – Freddy!

Genuine Panama hats are all made in Ecuador where the town of Montecristi has the reputation of producing the finest quality workmanship. So a big thank you to Casey Dazell of Panama Hats Direct. if I hadn’t found him, his business and website, I could have been walking around with a sad piece of Chinese paper on my head.

I have to say that on the whole I tend to think petitions are a bit of a waste of time and resources. That doesn’t mean that ‘the people’ should stop the practice, just that I believe our beloved leaders see petitions as way to pay lip-service to the democratic process in the safe knowledge that they have no basis in law and can be safely ignored. I am not sure if any petition has ever achieved its aim although I suspect there have been a few cases where it at least paid a part.

What petitions can do however, is spark debate, get the issue in front of the media and build pressure. So I am pleased to add the link above (click on the logo in this item) to the I Want A Referendum online petition on the off-chance that anyone reading this hasn’t come across it elsewhere.

Along with devolution, the current slow drip of out national independence into the European Empire are the leading battlegrounds in the fight between The People v Our Government and the more pressure to hold the promised referendum the better.

With the new NFL season due to start tomorrow I just thought I ought to nail my colours to the mast once again for the, er, Oakland Raiders.

OK – so it’s a forlorn hope. I’m not expecting much. They are a team in transition. Well, they have been a team in transition for about 5 seasons now ever since they lost John Gruden and then Rich Gannon. And they seem to have spent most of that time transitioning from pretty bad to dire so really the only way for them has got to be up.

Actually, I’m feeling quite upbeat that this is the year they will turn the tide and at least win as many games as they lose. Culpepper could be a good fit if he stays healthy and confident and he has something to prove. And Randy Moss has moved on.

And that’s the big problem really isn’t it? If Moss gets back to his best play, then the bloody Patriots are going to start smelling of Superbowl all over again and we will have to suffer another year of Tom Brady’s smug grin. And the Colts? Somehow I doubt it.

So… Go Raiders!

I am about to leave my host so over the next two or three days things might be patchy and even disappear for a short while as the new DNS records kick in.

I have been with DreamHost for a couple of years. They seem like nice people and the support team have been helpful and good to me. But I rather suspect that they are suffering from their own success. Sell cheap – stack ‘em high. There is just too much competition for servers and cabling and too often my site loads as if I was back on dial-up. Sadly they have no option between the cheap and cheerful and the dedicated server so I am moving on.

The next couple of days will see things patchy here and, while the new DNS server records kick in who knows? Email may disappear briefly as well. I will be closing down comments in about an hour so that I can start the process of moving my database. And all being well, will be back soon.

[UPDATE: Well one or two little scares but as before I am always astonished at how easy such a move really is. All back to normal I hope!]