Could this be the reason why the Queen keeps Corgis? A strange forgotten dog breed in today's weird Wikipedia article from the Dabbler's Wikiworm... The Turnspit Dog was a short-legged, long-bodied dog bred to run on a wheel, called a turnspit or dog wheel, in order to turn meat for cooking. The breed is now extinct. It is mentioned ... Read More...

Last year I wrote a short biography of my childhood dog, Jason, and mentioned that, preposterously indulged, he had his own armchair in the front room. It was a pretty naff 1970s-coloured one left over from a previous suite, but this is what British people are like with their dogs. ... Read More...

Resident style guru and trend-spotter Susan Muncey looks at the garish world of candy kitsch... Candy kitsch is a trend that won’t go away. From the 1960s to the ‘80s, American toys like Barbie, My Little Pony and Care Bears transformed the colour palette of the young wardrobe. During the 1990s, when many international brands ... Read More...

Frank unearths firsthand accounts of one of the most ridiculous paranormal experiments in the history of ghosthunting... Harry Price (1881-1948) was the most celebrated, and certainly the most energetic, English ghost-hunter of the last century. His name pops up somewhere in virtually every account of paranormal phenomena from the 1920s until ... Read More...

Steerforth introduces the police photography of Arnold Odermatt, which elevates everyday mundanity to the level of art... One morning I told a colleague that I'd ordered a book of photographs of the Swiss police force. She looked at me as if I was mad and I could see her point. But perhaps ... Read More...

As well as the usual diamonds and whatnot, Princess Anne received hundreds of wedding gifts from ordinary members of the public, many of them ludicrous and possibly insulting. See part 1 of the list here, and here's part 2... Here is a further selection from the list of gifts received by ... Read More...

Susan investigates cutting edge pet-related lifestyle trends. Brace yourself, this is going to get weird... Adults have become frozen in time, wishing to remain childlike for as long as possible. Women are putting off having children until later in life, if at all.  Playful pets have become substitute children for many. ... Read More...

As well as the usual tiaras, diamonds and whatnot, Princess Anne received hundreds of gifts from ordinary members of the public. These included novelty handcuffs, some 'futuristic crayon pictures', a biro, to mention just a few of the best ones... I've always liked a bloody good list, which is presumably why ... Read More...

In which Nick Cave describes a Kylie Minogue pop hit as 'a harrowing portrait of humanity not dissimilar to that of the Old Testament Psalms'... While writing a piece for sofa.com about the album The Boatman’s Call by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, I came across this quite stupendous lecture ... Read More...

Jon Hotten – aka the Old Batsman – is known for his cricket writing. But he’s also the author of Muscle, a hugely entertaining insight into the alarming world of professional bodybuilding. Here he explains how his involvement with the muscle business began… Bodybuilding is a world that seems very distant ... Read More...