E. There's a lot of good stuff with the letter E. Where would Springsteen be without his E Street Band? How boring would students be without an E or three? Physicists will recognise E as "electron" which is pretty much fundamental to, well, everything. It's a mathematical constant that I don't really understand. And then there's E numbers. Now, some of them aren't that nice, if we're honest. But recently, there's been a purge on additives and chemicals, because we automatically assume they are the Devil's work.

When I buy a pack of sweets, I'm looking for a slightly unhealthy binge on tasty, over-sweet junk. It's the same motivation behind the magic combination of beer and pizza. You know it's unhealthy, but who cares when it tastes so nice? Anyway, with E numbers being slowly eradicated from all sorts of sweets, I'm a bit confused.

Sure, it makes them healthier...but nobody buys sweets for their health value. They buy for the opposite reason: they are unhealthy, and we love it. Just because some fat nitwit can't stop guzzling gummy bears, why penalise the rest of us? Sweets aren't made to be healthy - they're not supposed to have "fewer additives", "less sweeteners", "natural ingredients". It goes against the fundamental nature of the foodstuff, you morons.

The other week, I realised the ridiculous heights this invasion of healthiness has reached. I bought a pack of Spearmint Polos - something I haven't done for ages. I prefer the spearmint ones to regular Polos, but I rarely buy either. Anyway, I remember from years gone by the little blue flecks that are on all Polos of the spearmint variety. That's what made them distinguishable - in your hand, without the packet - from ordinary Polos. But because of everybody's hatred of E numbers, Spearmint Polos no longer have light blue flecks in them. Taste exactly the same, mind you. But even so - it's such a loss.
____________________________

In other news, it's my birthday soon. If you know me, buy me a present.

Angels & Demons is out soon. Great book, but after The Da Vinci code adaptation, I'm worried it will become awful. Despite the ambigrams.

Eurovision Song Contest is on soon - my sources say Norway is hotly tipped to win this year. But apparently, the UK entry isn't actually that bad.

Swine flu will kill us all? Well, you *say* that. But the statistics speak for themselves: nobody who has predicted the end of the world has ever been proved right...

Twitter really is a load of nonsense, isn't it? Doubly so if you read Tim Westwood's tweets. Enough to drive you to suicide.

I seem to slowly becoming a smoker. That's worrying.

Dexter is one of the greatest shows on TV, bar none.

Pushing Daises was one of the greatest shows on TV, but now it's been cancelled.

Fringe is also quite good - I just keep watching to see what improbable nonsense they cook up each week.

Why have you read this far? Are you really that bored? Christ...