Barometer

Tottweiler!

Meet Tinky, a remarkable little crossbred mutt. Dad is a dachshund (called Rusty) and mum is a Rottweiler (by the name of Cassey). Have a little think about that. The owner, Dale Adams, clearly underestimated his stud sausage dog. "Rusty has always had a bit of an eye for Cassey but I didn't think she needed to be spayed because Rusty didn't appear to be up to it." Get down, Rusty, get down.

Devil woman

Or should that be Living Doll? Cherie Blair is understood to be a "long- term fan" of Sir Cliff Richard. Sir Cliff has been asking the Blairs to help make the millennium a more godly affair and they all had a spiritual think-in last week. Cliff says: "The Prime Minister is marginally disappointed that they can't do something spiritual at the Dome on the night. But he did say that he was very much in favour of my making a Christian statement. As soon as I talked about it, he was enthusiastically behind me." Power to all our friends, as Cliff put it in the title of his 1973 hit single, a lyric which nowadays has a curiously strong Blairite flavour to it.

Millennium maternity

Tonight's the night. If you want to have the best possible chance of making a millennium baby, born on 1 January 2000, then the experts would advise you to get your buns in the oven this evening. Good luck.

Emu opt-out

The late Rod Hull and Emu. As Keith Harris (who rose to celebrity on the back of his puppets Orville the Duck and Chuckles the Chimp) rightly pointed out, Mr Hull was a rather underestimated entertainer. He was also no mean political analyst. An Emu (in the euro sense) sceptic, Mr Hull nevertheless delivered this brutal verdict on the Tories: "I'm not a member of the Conservative Party and I'm not a fan of William Hague. He doesn't have the drive and vision and he's not showbiz enough for my liking."

Image of the week

John Prescott in a wet-suit makes for a striking photograph. Here he is, undertaking some "first-hand environmental research" in the Maldives. It seems so churlish to point out that touching the coral reef is really awfully bad for it.