If you're a Generation X-er like myself, you may remember the above headline as a parody of the slogan of a shampoo called Silkience.  The Science of Silkening Your Hair  was the promise with every bottle. I guess the name itself was a portmanteau word that shoved  silk  together with  science  in an unholy humentipeding of the two commonly used dictionary terms. The sharp-eyed amongst you will recognise humentipede  as a portmanteau neologism recently invented by me in the previous sentence. And yes, I have sewn together the word  human  and  centipede  and thus blatantly ripped off the rather repellent concept invented by Dutch filmmaker Tom Six for his series of  Human Centipede  movies. I come neither to praise Tom Six nor mention his work any further, I am here to discuss words and the writing of same.  The science of silkening one's hair sounds good. It is supposed to bring on though...

Reading Variety.com, I discovered that there is to be an Angry Birds movie , to be made by Sony and based on Rovio's popular game Angry Birds because that's what you wanted. Apparently the cast includes Jason Sudeikis he is playing as “Red,” head of the Flock . Also Josh Gad as speedy Chuck, Danny McBride as the volatile Bomb, Bill Hader as a pig, Maya Rudolph as Matilda, and Peter Dinklage as the Mighty Eagle. Other voice cast members include other comic actors including Kate McKinnon, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale and Ike Barinholtz. Also them YouTube guys Smosh (Ian Andrew Hecox and Anthony Padilla). Why are we even talking about this? Because Sony first announced the cast to users of the Angry Birds app. Whoa! Yes, I know. The momentosity of this very special announcement was certainly not lost on Sony itself:  “With two and a half billion gamers around the world, Angry Birds is one of those brands that can drive massive fan engagement,” said Dwight Caines, p...

  I was tuned into INSIDE WEST COAST CUSTOMS last week because I have lost my remote control and therefore can only receive 7MATE on the Panasonic Viera.   For those not acquainted with Australian television, 7Mate is one of the free-to-air channels aimed specifically at men. I watch it quite a bit, especially those History channel shows like AMERICAN RESTORATION, PAWN STARS and AMERICAN PICKERS, but I tend to stay away from shows involving toothless swamp dwellers or excessive modding of internal combustion engines. My previous knowledge of West Coast Customs was based on their participation in MTV’s PIMP MY RIDE. Over four glorious seasons (2005-2008) West Coast Customs was the Californian car remodelling business vouchsafed with the task of ride pimping. In practice this meant some young student or minimum wage worker offered up their decrepit vehicle for a makeover. Some poor shmo whose Ford Focus was held together with epoxy and duct tape would be selected t...

Today I was at the Post Office at Dianella Plaza, which some of you know, incorrectly, as Dianella Centro when I espied SWAN DIAL 71! This mighty municipal sculpture is the work of Elwyn Hawthorn and Dr Guy Hamilton. Sadly, it sits unnoticed on what is more or less a traffic island, but according to the plaque it used to be the world's biggest sundial. In Dianella. In Perth's Northern Corridor. The heyday of SWAN DIAL 71 was, unsurprisingly in 1971 and we even have the pics to prove it. The State Library of WA has some great photographs of the opening of Dianella Plaza back in August 1971. Here is SWAN DIAL in its former glory.  When you're on the SLWA site hit the back button at the top left of the pic and suss out some of the other photographs. Among the delights you'll discover–a happenin' place for men's fashion called Shirt Inn International and roasting pork at a mere 55c per pound. Mr Trivia

No, Virginia, The He Man and She-Ra  Christmas Special (1985) is not on this year Hail Zeitgeisters, Obviously today is a day for family etc. what would you be doing watching the telly, eh?  However if you do wish to cast your eye over what’s on the free-to-air digital, you’ll find slim pickings. We’ve had a quick look and chosen some highlights also some “highlights” This selection is based on the Perth guide which will be similar to the guide in many capital cities, but there may be some regional differences. NATIVITY (2010) 9.16 AM-11.00 AM (ABC 1) Mr Maddens, a primary school teacher, is charged with producing the school's nativity play and competing against the posh rival school for the honour of 'best show in town'. Martin Freeman from THE OFFICE (UK) is the lead in what is a well-regarded family movie according to many on-line, although I thought this was awful when I saw it on Christmas Eve. Suss it out yourselves though when it is repeated today....

The Iced Vovo brand was registered in 1906. According to the Wikipedia stub, it’s “a wheat flour biscuit topped with a strip of pink fondant either side of a strip of raspberry jam and sprinkled with coconut. It is a product of the American-owned Australian-based biscuit company Arnott's. When I was a kid, before your fancy Melting Moments and Triple Choc Chip cookies became de rigeur ; before we developed the American habit of buying cookie dough; before you could purchase a dozen huge, soft cookies for a couple of bucks at Coles, we had a thing called the biscuit. Fancy biscuits were in short supply. You could always find a Nice or a Granita or a Milk Arrowroot. These were okay. They were the solid mainstay of the bikkie tin; the Chips Rafferty, the EH Holden, the rotary Hills Hoist of Australian biscuitry. Their ready availability was the result of your canny mother's foresight. She would supply the average ones and only bring out the good ones when absolutely necessa...

Apparently Pope Benedict XVI has just got himself a Twitter account and he will begin tweeting on December 12th. Lapsed Twitterers are almost as numerous as lapsed Catholics, so the Pontiff will be on familiar ground. I've done the Twitter thing and I worry that within a week Pope Benedict will be reduced to commenting on the "awesome latte" he just had. His Holiness will be known as @pontifex. If you're really interested in getting in on the social media wisdom of Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, then his people have thoughtfully arranged a hashtag #askpontifex for your convenience.  If you do a Twitter search to see how this is working out (and I recommend you do) you'll see the types of questions are either from those angry at the Church and who see Twitter as a forum for confrontation or from ironists like @Judes_Dickey who asked: "Is Theology the study of Malcolm-Jamal Warner's work on The Cosby Show? # askpontifex."  Why not ask Benedict XVI ...