Sorry about the hiatus: evil hackers turned the website into a Viagra advert, then we lost the database backup for a while. This is why the MSM will always remain triumphant; paid-for web monkeys will stay up all night for a week to fix this kind of thing, or risk getting their peanuts taken away.
Anyway. [...]

Between 2003 and 2006 I had a blog called “Cabalamat Journal”. That blog is now defunct, but I have a new one: Amused Cynicism.

Hearty congratulations to Troubled Diva, Mike Atkinson, who’s managed to put together ‘Shaggy Blog Stories’ in seven days in aid of Comic Relief.
The book collects amusing pieces from 100 bloggers. I’m in it but you shouldn’t let that put you off.
You can read more about the book here.
The book’s published via Lulu and [...]

Sorry, very old this, but the winner of our Totally Unofficial World Cup Competition is Planeshift, who blogs here. Nobody scored a point after the final update I gave here, so in the event of a tie I say who wins. On balance, I reckon awarding the prize to the non-Sharpener is most likely to [...]

Back in November, our man Justin had an idea to find new British blogs that we might have missed. Although m’colleague Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundups bring us a weekly dose of the best individual posts, we wanted to find the best new blogs as well. It is, after all, so very easy to stick to [...]

Some of you may have been wondering why I don’t appear to have been writing much for The Sharpener in the last few months. It’s because I’ve been working on a new project, and unlike so many of the other new projects that get mentioned here, this one doesn’t involve sitting at a desk typing. [...]

A quick update on the Sharpener Completely Unofficial World Cup Competition. Sadly, only four of you are matching or beating the House (me).

Okay, as promised, here’s the second part to this trilogy. To remind you, in part one we asked you to come up with:
…anything you think could reasonably be called an achievement of the Blair government. Try to leave partisan feelings to one side.
This one is a little different.

What the heck, all the proper meeja are running one, so here’s The Sharpener’s prizetastic World Cup competition. We’d like to offer the winner two tickets here on 9th July. Sadly, the advertising revenue won’t even stretch to two tickets here, so you’ll have to make do with a voucher for the online retailer of [...]

The second part of this will sadly be delayed for a week. Sorry: I’ve been unexpectedly called to the seaside. Thirty comments so far, with tons of stuff I’d forgotten, on the first part. We could really use a few more from anyone out there who hasn’t yet had a go. All in a good [...]

All this background chatter means it’s almost time to get the bunting scrubbed up for Blair’s departure. As part of those preparations, over the next couple of weeks Chris and I are conducting a little experiment. We need your help: that’s all the readers and contributors here, including and especially those of you who don’t [...]

No, not the latest Blair joke (or, Blair: Joke), but Justin. So, the first instalment of his Magic Lantern Society will be next week.

Okay, a bit off-message for The Sharpener, a public service interlude. Elmore Leonard, the Best Storyteller since St. Paul, will be interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5Live, just after 3 p.m. UK time today. Listen live on the web, or I’ll post the podcast link later. [here]
Not just a perfect antidote to my [...]

Here’s something a bit different for The Sharpener - a film club. There’ll be a secret handshake and everything.
I’m going to nominate a film and invite Sharpener readers to go and watch it. Next week I’ll write a short retrospective - a review with a few interesting facts (if I can find any) - and [...]