The day after Ray Charles died, Jools Holland has got Toots Hibbert (inventor of the term 'reggae'), Bebel Gilberto (daughter of the man who invented the music bossa nova) and Donna Summer (not an inventor but singer of the most famous version of the classic 'cake out in the rain' lyric) on the show.

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I guess what language teachers really need right now is a story about how boring their lessons are.

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People in Crouch End have organised a campaign to save Hornsey Town Hall

It's a beautiful building that the council have neglected. They say that heritage rules mean it's been too complicated to look after it properly, but I heard an architect say that in fact they've failed in their legal duty to maintain it properly. Anyway, the campaigners had an open day with music and entertainment outside the town hall recently and Apoa just heard that she won the 10's and over category of the 'design the Town Hall Piazza' competition. The judges 'particularly liked the key on the back which helped to identify all your ideas'

The prize is a 10 pound voucher for Woolies.

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Steve Best is on telly tonight (12.20 ITV, on 'weapons of mass distraction', not the most inspiring title for a show, ITYA). Hope I can stay awake long enough to watch.

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teachingforum.net looks like a useful thing, depending of course on whether teachers really use it. My prediction is that school teachers will use it quite a lot to swap ideas, materials, etc. but university teachers already have their own subject-specific fora (I think that's the 'correct' plural).

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Just read this research report

Can this be serious? People at Middlesex are studying language variation and I didn't even know about it?

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I went to this Alexander McQueen event last night and it seems I might have purchased Madonna's tights. Anybody want to make me an offer for them? All proceeds to The Lecture List

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