On the day John Peel died, a quick script I ran up this afternoon to check the archive counted 22 mentions of him on my friends list.

Already today, 23 people have mentioned Steve Irwin dying (yes, I know I have just made that number 24 – fuck off). The day is some hours from over.

This is, I feel, indicative of the sick, sad state of the culture we live in.

I recently vowed to watch no more TV that pandered to my worse instincts. Nothing that appealed to my sense of snobbery, or schadenfreude. Nothing that humiliated people, or pandered to the proletarian. I shall be quite happy to drift further and further out of cultural touch.