Whatever happened to Barbra Streisand's moustache?

Stephen Fry, of "Wilde" fame, asked this question last night in his tv show "QI". First thing I thought of was, "Ok, what DID happen to Barbra Streisand's moustache?". It didn't occur to me to question, "what moustache?". No, she didn't sport a moustache in "Yentl".

The answer was, btw, that she ate it and then excreted it. And she's not alone. Turns out everybody's done it. A week before a child is born, it eats up a lot of its body hair, including moustache, together with other things (bits of intestines!) and becomes the baby's poo first time outside the womb. Bet you didn't know that. The image on the left is an artist's impression of what she would've looked like had she not done the eating and excreting thing to it.

So, you might ask, why Barbra Streisand? Later on in the show, Stephen Fry also mentioned the myth that gay guys can't whistle. Then he attempted to whistle a tune. Needless to say, no sound came out.


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Where do TV sets go when they die?

© Joselito Briones

I'm curious because I've had a glimpse of how they get there. They get loaded in a £40/hour van and get driven around the city to bid their final farewell, and get offered by the van driver to whomever would grant them a lease of new life as a useful and loved household appliance, for a nominal price. Photos on the right shows the units in limbo (the tv's, covered in the background, not the illegal-immigrant-hiding-inside-a-van looking people having souvenir photos with them).

Today Wil had to move to his new temporary accomodation in Chelsea (Sloane Ave.). He hired a van and asked me, Mati, Ronnie and Jerome to help him haul his things from the Notting Hill serviced apartments. In return we were treated (in advance) to a dim sum lunch in "Ping Pong". Decent food as westernized asian restaurants go, we weren't expecting authentic dumplings, so we weren't disappointed. We did the move after lunch. After the move we walked along King's Road... bought some stuff from Waitrose, then passed by Habitat, then continued along King's Road, with the aim of having dinner at "Mona Lisa Cafe". Unfortunately by the time we got there it was already closed, so we ended up doing "The Big Easy" instead. American inspired restaurant. Huge chunks of meat and big servings in general, southern comfort theme, big screen on the wall, americana music in the background. Ordered "catch of the day" which was a chargrilled whole seabass, but they ran out, so changed it to king prawns instead (bad, overcooked). The others had baby back ribs (better than other restaurants, Ronnie said), and steak (good).

I like the neighborhood (better than the last time I was there, when I had the feeling that majority of people there are women pushing baby trollies) , too bad I'll be moving on soon and won't have much time exploring it more.


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I walked for hours yesterday.

© Joselito Briones

Neal Street to Shaftsbury Avenue, then High Holborn, Charing Cross Road, then to Oxford Street, by Citibank to inquire about transferring funds to my US account. Continued walking. Passed by Marble Arch, then Bayswater Road by Hyde park, then to Queensway to meet up with Wilbur's builder (dodgy), then coffee with both of them. Then to Wil's temporary accomodation in Notting Hill so he can check if the mortgage approval letter has arrived, then walked with him to Notting Hill Gate tube station... then walked all the way back to Soho, to Berwick street fish monger (turns out it's closed today) then to Chinatown, then to Tesco's in Bedford Street in Covent Garden to buy groceries, then to the flower market at Seven Dials, then back to Neal's street.

By the end of the walk, my black calfskin chisel-toe oxfords from Miu Miu, unused until yesterday morning, was completely broken in.


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