Quentin had a link to some thoughtful musing by Bill Thompson about the current Wikipedia controversies. His conclusion:
I use the Wikipedia a lot. It’s a good starting point for serious research, but I’d never accept something that I read there without checking. If the fuss over Siegenthaler, Stoltenberg and Curry means that other readers do the same then it will have been worthwhile. We shouldn’t dismiss the Wikipedia, but we shouldn’t venerate it either.
The Observer, the newspaper I’ve written for since 1972, has been published in broadsheet format ever since it was founded in 1791. But today’s is the last broadsheet edition. From next Sunday it will be published in the Berliner format of its sister paper, the Guardian. The change was inevitable, but it’s the end of an era all the same.
A Global utility knife, IMHO the best in the world. It’s Japanese, beautifully made and perfectly balanced. And sooo sharp. I’m the cook in our household, so this is a working tool, not a toy.
A pair of Grado SR-60 open-back headphones. I know, they look like something that Soviet radio operators used to wear, but they’re exceedingly comfortable and provide wonderful, rich audio.
The DVD set of Heimat 1, Edgar Reitz’s stunning saga of life in rural Germany between the First and Second World Wars. I was a TV critic for 13 years, and when I quit in 1995 an interviewer asked me what I would remember most from my stint. I had no hesitation in responding “Two things: Reitz’s Heimat and Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective“.
But by far the best presents I got were some mince pies specially baked by my daughter for me on Christmas Day with the letters of “Happy Xmas” cut out in pastry and presented in a hand-made box.