Media Diet Week 19

Press: I see Eve has had a revamp. I do believe it's the first since it was launched. I don't like the new logo - it looks as if they tried to go retro-chic with it but it just looks old-fashioned. I note the irritating SJP is on the cover again. I'll never understand why magazines are so obsessed with her as I don't rate her as a "fashion icon" at all. Eve gets a plaudit for putting an over-40 on the cover, though. A lot of mags seem to do this now, simply because there are so many interesting, high-achieving women around in their 40s. Yet us over-40s still lack a decent magazine that reflects our interests (note: this includes dresses with sleeves, work, other interesting over-40 women and culture). I'm sick of mags that only show frumpy clothes, or clothes for teenagers. I hate spaghetti straps. I also despise the sole page devoted to book reviews (usually ghastly chick lit) and films - why can't magazines cater for women who interested in cultural issues? I'd better stop here before I really go off on one.

Blogs: last week's Media Diet entry came a little early for my discovery of the very splendid Fleet Street Blues, a new jobs and gossip blog that is well worth a plug. And I see they had the good taste to choose my template. In other news, I'm busy putting together yet another blog, which I won't be plugging here simply because it'd be a bit too obvious. That'll bring my blog total to 6...

TV/radio: not much to report this week. The Apprentice was a hoot, purely for Michael's splendid gaffe over the kosher chicken. Don't they teach anyone anything in schools these days? I'd expect even a half-Jewish schmuck like Michael to know about kosher meat, though... I don't often listen to Radio 2 on a Saturday after Jonathan Ross, but I managed to catch Hot Gossip yesterday. Hosted by Claudia Winkelman, it's a very funny panel game based on tabloid tittle-tattle. I'll be tuning in again.

Books: I finished the brilliant Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid, who delivered not one but two crimes for solving, plus a tentative glimpse of Tony Hill's ghastly abusive mother. No doubt she'll be making an appearance in a later book. On a crime fic roll now, I've just started Minette Walters' latest: The Chameleon's Shadow. It's shaping up well so far.

Five things...

...you didn't yet know about me.

1. I once had an on-off fling over several years with a very famous Fleet Street hack* when I was a teenage apprentice journo. And no, before you ask, it did not advance my career. Probably quite the opposite.

2. I never completed my indentures as the mag I trained on went bust 6 months before I would have qualified. This was in the days before you could study hackery at university, so I don't have a degree in journalism. Or any NCTJs.

3. I don't have any shorthand either and I type with 1 and 1/2 fingers. Why? Because the mag I trained at was run on a shoestring and couldn't afford to send me to day release college. I manage.

4. My favourite meal is roast chicken with all the trimmings and when I'm not slaving over a keyboard I am slaving over a hob. I have twice been a professional cook (between hacking jobs) and am damn good at it.

5. I sometimes pick fights with colleagues. But only over professional issues I feel passionate about. These might include the NUJ, the correct use of English and whether one ought to fiddle one's expenses. Well, you might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment.**

* Ask all you like but my lips are sealed. I don't kiss and tell.
** Disclaimer: I have never fiddled my expenses. I hate it when others do.