My brother came home from living in Bolivia and Ecuador with a new game. I don't know spanish, but it was something like 'pase del gato', or 'Passing of the Cat' in english. The premise of the game being that a group would sit in a circle and pass a cat around. Eventually the cat would want out of the game, and would therefore claw its way out. The clawee would be the loser, and the players would find something else to do (or another cat).

Fear is realizable. Fear can only be overcome through diligence and patience. Winnie the Pooh wasn't named after Winston Churchill, but Winston Churchill did say, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' I like Winston Churchill. He wrote a lot of great books.

My girlfriend is the daughter of the Edinburgh Zoo Warden.


She lives right in the middle of the zoo, which makes coming and going at night on foot hair-raisingly interesting.


Her room is even more interesting, with an enormous coal fire, mounted heads on the walls, and about 20 different big animal pelts lying around.


Of course, we make it our mission to perform a comparison study of which is the best pelt to place in front of the fire and make love on.


Zebra is way too harsh and itchy.


Gnu is too small and wiry.


Grizzly bear is just wonderful.


But our hands-down favourite was snow leopard.


So, if your love-life needs a spark, go bag yourself a snow leopard.


Better be quick, though -- there's only about three left...