As the Festive season draws to an end, I'm intrigued to find what the fine folk here think the least tasty seasonal comestible is during a week where any amount of questionable vittles only ever scoffed during Crimbo time might be

My vote is for the honey roasted cashew - a horrible recent intrusion in the Xmas nut bowl amongst the brazils and the walnuts.

So what's your least favourite festive foodie offender?

This has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen - a demonstration of the Vox Organ Guitar on the 1967 US game show I've Got A Secret:

How the hell were getting a guitar to make sounds like this back then? And I wonder why more guitarists didn't use these? I guess the $3000 price tag back then was rather prohibitive. I'd have loved to have heard what noises someone like Syd Barrett could've got out of this guitar

I was very entertained by the recent Word podcast featuring Mark Ellen's recollections of squat-sharing with the late great Tom Hibbert, especially the tales of Hibb's surreally awful attempts at cooking and in particular his grotesque trademark dish - Pea Curry .

If you're unfamiliar with this delicacy, the recipe is as follows:

1: Open can of processed peas

2: Add mustard and tobasco sauce to can

3: Er...that's it

I hooted in agreement with Mark Ellen saying that even the name of the meal was just wrong - why would anyone in their right mind want to make something called Pea Curry?!

So picture my shock when I walked past a branch of hip and trendy London cafe chain Leon yesterday and saw this dish in the window for sale:

Tom Hibbert was obviously a misunderstood gastronomic genius ahead of his time!

(though I get the feeling that the above dish with added squash might be lots more tasty and edible than the Hibbs version )

With a gaping hole in my midweek evening radio entertainment due to Mark and Stuart relocating to Radio 6, I thought I'd give their replacements Hart and Holmes a go. I know it's early days, but I suspect I won't be a regular listener

What was great about Radcliffe and Maconie was their obvious love and knowledge of music, plus their sharp warm wit. For 2 stand-ups, Hart and Holmes are less than chucklesome as radio broadcasters. Miranda Hart doesn't seem to have much knowledge about music (but that's OK, because neither do Radio 2 jocks like Graham Norton and Paul O'Grady, right?) Jon Holmes has slightly better taste in the records he plays, but has the most annoying smug IRONIC voice which makes him sound like everything he says is in inverted commas, and is a difficult person to warm to

Someone at Radio 2 obviously thought throwing a successful sitcom star and a Radio 6 DJ/comedian together would be the perfect radio show dreamteam to replace Radcliffe and Maconie. Maybe it looked better on paper

Just wanted to give a hearty recommendation to The Massive about the cracking BBC doc Operation Mincemeat. Presented by historian Ben Macintyre and based on his book of the same name, it describes the ingenious plan devised by MI5 (and one Ian Fleming) to speed up an Allied victory in WW2 by a successful invasion of Sicily made possible by fooling the Nazis that the Allies planned on invading via Greece and to make German forces mobilize there instead.

To do this involved placing the corpse of a supposedly drowned British airman into the Mediterranean with fake documents planted on him detailing the hoax invasion plan of Greece in the hope they'd reach Nazi sympathizers who'd immediately inform Hitler of the imminent invasion . This story was also the basis of a book and a 50's movie called The Man Who Never was. But what makes this doc truly moving and human is the relatively recent info that's come to light regarding the story of the corpse used - a Welsh manic depressive tramp called Glyndwr Michael, who died a horrible lonely suicide by eating rat poison in a derelict King's Cross warehouse. MI5 transformed Michael into fictional Royal Marine hero William Martin, and the brilliant deception begins..

Not sure how long this is left to view on BBC Iplayer, but please check this fascinating excellently made doc out while you can before it gets made into an ultimately disappointing movie

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wllmb/Operation_Mincemeat/

I felt my iPod was missing some soft Liverpudlian synthpop of the mid 80's, so felt inclined to download some China Crisis tonight
(PLEASE go with me on this one)...

So I went to iTunes and dowloaded 2 tracks by The Crisis - one early song called Christian, and another truly lovely hit called Wishful Thinking . 2 songs I remember from my youth with affection, and both conveniently on a compilation called The Hits Of China Crisis from 1999 that happened to come up first via an iTunes search

Imagine the sinking feeling in my gut on buying then playing these tracks and realising neither are the originals, but from a crappy 10 year old poorly recorded LIVE album instead. I appreciate a lot of old bands get zero royalties from their original hits and have to put out alternate recordings to get some money coming through, but this felt like a right old stitch-up, and I can never listen to the Crisis quite the same way again. If these aren't the original studio recordings for sale , please have a massive disclaimer saying so.

So have YOU been the unsuspecting victim of an unoriginal recording purchase? If so, please share.

Many years ago when Q Magazine used to be readable, I recall an entertaining regular feature that would list the top 10 of a random subject, be it the top bottled ciders, coolest laughs on rock songs, or even best characters from Wacky Races. A recent discussion on here about Camp Coffee reminded me of one particular Q List which detailed foodstuffs that only our elderly citizens still consume.

I remember finding this piece hilariously spot-on, but am darned if I can remember half of the items mentioned. However, with the collective genius of the Word Massive, I'm damn sure we can repllcate this list of foody comestibles that can only be found in a pensioner's pantry.

I'll start this off with Piccalili - a jar of pus-coloured fluorescent yellow spiced vegetables of indeterminate origin used to ruin many a cold meat buffet at Nan's on Boxing Day

Any more?

Following on from an entertaining thread on here by Uncle Wheaty posing which businesses still mysteriously exist, I'd be interested to ask The Massive which consumer products continue to baffingly survive.

I ask this after repeatedly spotting packets of razor blades for sale in a fair few convenience stores in my manor. You can also still buy the old double headed Gillette-style safety razor in Boots, but my own experience of shaving with these is that unless you have the steady hand of a surgeon, you're always in danger of ending up looking like Tony Montana. So who still buys these? (apart from self-harming Emo kids maybe) They may work out a slightly cheaper shave than a pack of quality disposable razors, but I'd rather pay the minimal extra for a pack of Gillette Blue II and avoid the risk of heavy scarring.

So which consumer products do you still see for sale that should've vanished ages ago? Do share.

Was listening to Simon Mayo on Radio 2 tonight when he played I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea by Elvis Costello. I immediately thought of David Hepworth and his hilarious story about accidentally insulting Costello's dad during a shared drive with Elvis through London.

After the record was over, Mayo did a feature on live gigs and the correct length of time a band should perform. Who should be the guest phone-in guest to discuss this but...David Hepworth :0

Has any one else here had any bizarre Word-related coincidences?

Sad to see another Redgrave go. Lynn was great in Georgy Girl, The Virgin Soldiers and Gods and Monsters.

But for ageing Mods like myself, her finest moment was her starring role in the brilliant Smashing Time from 1967 - a fab satire on Swinging London scripted by George Melly which has aged wonderfully.

Check out this great scene where the record company make a random talentless Northern bird an overnight pop sensation. Timeless groovy stuff:

As someone currently trying to cling on the water wagon, I'd be interested in hearing Word readers personal anecdotes on the most disgusting alcoholic beverage they ever imbibed in the desire to get squiffy.

These may be recollections about your ugly 1st teenage encounters with the demon brew (usually cider or Thunderbird wine-based), or when you simply returned home from the pub wanting to continue the alcoholic tone, but having a lack of drink in the house force you to glug the only bottle of booze-based liquid in the building (probably some unspeakable foreign liqueur brought back from holiday)

2 experiences stick in the throat for me: Going back to a student friends house and resorting to drinking an ancient bottle of Ouzo diluted down with tap water out of teacups. And running out of wine at a New Years Eve bash years ago and only having 4 cans of Tesco Economy Range Bitter left to drink - this foul stuff is only 2% alcohol too, but went down like toilet cleaner.

Your own experiences please.

There - I've said it. Why are there barely any all-guitar combos that are any good?

It's weird because most of my favourite bands - the Velvets, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, etc all have girl members. But I can't think of any all female guitar group bar one* who are half decent.

Bands like the Runaways have a couple of ok songs maybe, and groups like The Raincoats and the Slits are critically lauded, but would anyone ever want to listen to a whole album by any of these bands?

So am I horribly wrong in holding this opinion? Discuss.

(* Sleater-Kinney )

Listening to Sir Danny Of Baker talk about The Dame on this week's Word podcast (plus the mention of his own cameo in the TOTP clip for Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick) made me think about Bowie's supposed appearance as an extra in the underrated 1969 Brit war comedy The Virgin Soldiers.

I've watched this fine film a fair few times before, but could never spot The Dame, and wondered whether this was all an urban myth or not. But thanks to the magic of Youtube, one Davie Jones can indeed be spotted in this brief scene.

Can you see him?

Surely the winner must be Song 2 by Blur?

Tonight I caught some ITV trailer for a new extreme sports program hosted by Jack Osbourne (yawn), and was gobsmacked at the unoriginality of the person responsible using Song 2 over the titles for the kazillionth time.

I've lost count of how many times I've heard this song used on a multitude of programs - from Ground Force to The One Show.

Is there even another overused song that comes close ?