Hi, Billy Mays not here

I don't know if he was well known in the UK, but Billy Mays had achieved near iconic status in North America, and it was with Jacksonesque shock that I learned of his untimely death this morning. For those of you that haven't heard of him, Billy Mays was the top pitchman on the infomercial circuit, using his booming voice to hawk such products as Oxi Clean and Mighty Putty, and earning billions of dollars for the companies who employed him; he even had his own show on the Discovery Channel.

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Billy was scheduled for hip surgery later this week; he'd originally only intended to have surgery on his right hip, but fortunately he'd called the hospital within five minutes of seeing their ad and they'd doubled their offer; all Billy had to do was pay packaging on the second hip.

Let's just hope that the hospital has a 30 day money back guarantee.

Christmas comes but twice a year

There are few greater pleasures in life than the late, unexpected Christmas present, and I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end twice in the past week. Firstly, Vikki gave me a collection of gifts that rather accurately summed up all that I hold dear and believe to be true: a trivia-based game, a toilet roll with jokes on, a scarf and a Family Guy DVD (OK, the scarf may have been a bit of a red herring, although it was rather stylish).

And then, to cap it all, at the weekend I was presented with my very own...wait for it...Sham Wow and Mighty Putty!!!!! (Thanks, Dave!).

Consequently my cup now runneth over, and the good thing is that I am now in a position both to mop up the mess and mend the handle should the cup topple over as well as runneth.

Life is sweet.