It’s OK to have foibles and fetishes, especially if you’re a girl. It can be kinda endearing – think Holly Golightly, or SJP and her shoe problem. Trouble is, these don’t wash so well when the public is paying for your little indulgences and you are generally credited with being halfway responsible. Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Mordern, seems to have a stationery fixation – how else can her whopping £49,000.00 stationery bill......

Hello Jack! I've not blogged here for a couple of weeks. Did you miss me? ...what do you mean you've forgotten that this column even existed? Damn your face, and all it stands for! Actually, that's nasty of me. I apologise profusely and unreservedly. You've got a lovely face, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, least of all David Milliband. It would be a terrible shame to cast your face asunder from the......

Whether we're happy about it or not, everyone is aware that the smoking ban is in full force. And going down surprisingly well for the most part. The one downside of the ban is that it will unfortunately have an impact on some pubs and restaurants. Especially those without outside seating areas. But two weeks into the ban and it seems that some people aren't too happy with this. They think that for some......

The one-man protest that is Brian Haw, the only demonstrator allowed to air his views inside Parliament Square, may find himself surrounded soon. Instead of police circling him, however, it may well be other placard-waving peaceniks. Newly-minted PM Gordon Brown has called for a change in laws squelching the public’s right to protest within the grounds immediately surrounding Parliament. Currently, demonstrating in this area without prior police permission is prohibited by the Serious Organised......

. As Free Range 2007 moves into its second week, Londonist has a chat with Christopher Butt from University College for the Creative Arts in Epsom and finds out about his work and love of weird smells. Christopher, tell us a little bit about you and your work. Well, I'm big on coffee and kit kats. I love the smell of ink on paper. Strange as it sounds, I also get excited about Pantones and......

In Deptford last week, an as-yet-unidentified love-smitten individual tiptoed into the street under cover of darkness and carefully assembled a 12 foot long display of affection in cotton wool, spelling out "I love U". At this point, the sweetness of the gesture evaporated - he or she doused the message in petrol and set it alight. The local fire brigade had to turn out to tackle the blaze, which burnt the road. Oops. But......

Once it was a name that evoked magic, dreams and destiny. In recent years it's taken on connotations of folly, nightmare and derision, but now it looks finally as if Wembley might be ready to resume its place at the very top of the pantheon of British sporting venues. The troubled new stadium has been granted its fire alarm safety certificate, the first tangible evidence that it might really be ready to hold all......

What? Eight or nine couples snogging for ages - they were cued to start and finish by a klaxon and were being filmed and photographed throughout. Where? Outside McDonalds, Liverpool Street Station (mmm, nothing like the smell of greasy burgers frying while you're making out with someone). When? Today, just after 3pm. Why? Absolutely no idea - anyone?......

Dear Terrorists, Your days are numbered. We've got the intelligence to stop you before you even know you're about to think up an attack. We've got armed police that will take you, the guy next to you, and even people in the next borough, down in a heartbeat if it means saving the people we don't kill. We have a terror alert system that keeps our citizens updated on whatever you may or may......

More details have come out from the trial of the men involved in the July 21 failed bomb attack: Ms Baro told the court: "I was in such a panic. I did not know how a bomb worked and I thought we were going to die now." She said she noticed the person next to her was wearing a rucksack then she heard a bang and something came out of the bag and fell......

Evening Standard Headline Fridge Magnets. Once the day's joyless toil in the belly of the unforgiving city is done, and we trundle back to our Barrett Boxes in travelling conditions that make the Bataan Death March look like a limo ride, what diverts you and gives you comfort? Thinking about fridges, of course, because the Evening Standard is full of frankly terrifying reports about how total social meltdown is only a tiny step away.......

The Wise Men gave the baby Jesus gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. What is myrrh? Eddie Izzard believed myrrh might have been an illicit rollable herb of the Roman Era. He was wrong, of course. Wasn't he? And the Wise Men, as depicted in "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) explained that myrrh was - if memory serves - a kind of bomb. But ever-reliable Wikipedia says that myrrh was an ancient perfume......

You may have seen Liz Akers smiling from the news pages lately. You may have even seen her smiling at you on the tube or bus. If you're very lucky, and deserve it, she may have even handed a small 'nicetie token' to you on your commute to work (because you've acted in a nice way, not because you have a nice tie). Liz has earned her 15 minutes of fame, perhaps more, by......

A tribute to the capital’s alleys, ginnels and snickleways 15. Bull Inn Court Where? Long, sloping alley dropping from Maiden Lane down to Strand. What? Named after, unsurprisingly, the Bull Inn tavern, which once stood at the foot of the hill. A narrow cutting between the Adelphi and Vaudeville theatres widens in the middle, allowing in a little daylight. Charmingly spooky, if you ignore the smell. Why use? This alley checks all our boxes. 1.......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Hearing Colours, Seeing Sounds at the Dana Centre, tonight What flavour is Londonist? Salt and vinegar with an unwelcome hint of mustard? Or like the smell of a satellite, with green-tasting screeches? What sounds like nonsense to most of us can smell perfectly to people......

This post is written from a personal point of view, eschewing the Ist 'We' for once, because it expresses what is most decidedly a minority view within the Londonist camp. I disagree entirely with what Alex wrote below; here's why ... Confession time: I'm a lapsed boatie. I still have the calluses - they never go away - and the drawer-full of self-designed t-shirts - complete with "hilarious" nicknames - to prove it. Why......

Where is the best place in London to start seeing things? How about the British Optical Association Museum in Craven Street? No we didn't know it was there either, but then again we're too busy keeping an eye out for weird red lines and, more importantly, weird confectionary to keep track of every museum in the capital. Thankfully the spirit world has brought it to our attention: “One of the decorators saw a crouching......

A lot of the news sites have recently run the story about Anthony Hopkins' and his distaste for Hollywood cinema (if you haven't seen it's just A.H. getting upset that the country he now lives in has a tendency to produce mindless cinema and that some of his fellow ac-tors can be a bit childish). What has been slighlty less-widley reported though is Hopkins' diatribe against the London theatre scene: I can’t settle into......

That should pull in a few RSS readers. Welcome. Actually, bin lorries are being laden with local artworks, including paintings, prints and even theatre sets. Southwark Council has announced that it is putting the ‘art’ back into dustcart. Well, what they actually said was: ‘Art on the Cart is an exciting project that is bringing together Southwark’s refuse and culture services’. We’re just fonder of wordplay than them. We love this idea so much......

To-day was the most glorious of days. A bright sun shone through the cloudless sky, so as one could quite forget the season, were it not for the countless bunches of holly and mistletoe adorning every doorway, and the fresh chill of the morning. I still marvel at our good fortune, here in Ruislip. Only two years ago, our modest village seemed so isolated. Now I am able to board an electric train bound for......

Daddy referred to my mother's reproductive organs as "her little flower" There are many reasons we like strolling down Bermondsey Street. There's the smell of freshly baked bread from the bakery, the out of place Mexican vision of the Fashion & Textile museum, the local notices, the hellos from the girls at United Nude, the ultra hip women and the blokes who look like Nathan Barley... most of all though we like the free......

With every night out comes a dilemma: do you try to make it through the night without visiting the loo, waiting for oh-so-sha-weeeet relief when you get home, or do you relieve yourself just before your journey home and pop the seal, risking further leakage before you reach safety? The problem is that the correct tactic is subject to so many variables, and it's easy to get it wrong. And Justin Brown of Banstead......

We seriously thought we'd never have to mention Make Me A Supermodel ever again after we first found it stuck to the bottom of our very bestest TV watching boots and found it difficult to scrape off. Unfortunately the smell lingers on with the appearance of Jasmine Lennard at the Keeping Mum premiere. This raises a number of questions. 1. Who is Jasmine Lennard? 2. What the heck is Keeping Mum? 3. Why wasn't......

This is just so fucked up. Like a Dario Argento movie starring Rowan Atkinson... Man pays for sex with prostitute from King's Cross (£20) then they share some crack. He kills her (now claiming self defense). He leaves the body in his brother's flat here in London and sets off to Nottingham, Leeds and Wakefield. Two weeks later he goes back to the flat, but the smell sends him off to Bournemouth to visit his......

Did you know that Newham is a hive of cannabis production? No, we didn't either, until we read this article in the Waltham Forest Guardian. It's those pesky 'Vietnamese gangsters' who are responsible for the 82 (yep, 82!) cannabis factories that have been discovered in the borough since April this year, "each one capable of producing £500,000 worth a year of the powerful Skunk strain." Why Newham? Well you see it's popular with gangsters......

With the unnering foresight and keenness of judgment that has made it the magazine of choice for London's city gents, the Economist has announced that "The London theatre increasingly turns to movie remakes". This news will of course come as a complete shock to anyone who hasn't lived in London for...ooooh, the past couple of weeks. "Visitors strolling through the West End could be forgiven if they felt they were transported to a video......