Published yesterday: 37,943,069 views

Sometimes you just have to give in to the hype; Wimbledon's finest on web-slinging duties notwithstanding. See Icons passim.

As Bitcoin hits $10k

The £4.21 transaction in my Bitcoin wallet (£4 plus a 21p fee) from 17 July is coming up as being equivalent to £22.11 today. See Icons passim.

Widget courtesy of https://www.bitcoin.com/widgets

Diary of a nobody

Here, for your listening pleasure, Tina Brown recalls her time as editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair magazine from 1983 to 1992.

I heard it on Radio 4 as I was driving back from Cardiff. It is drivel, but hilariously self-importantly and name-droppingly drivelious; "war broke out with Iraq, just as we were on our way to a dinner with, of all people, Henry and Nancy Kissinger." God give me strength.

Winners

The Ruts Colts beat London Welsh 38-20 away at Old Deer Park yesterday. I had hurried up the M4 to catch it.

Andy H sent me the photo below. it is the school team that beat Christ's Hospital the other week. Boys to men, it is worth saving these memories as they will be seniors soon.

Anthem

Here's the anthem from the Wales New Zealand game yesterday.

I'm interested in all sport, not just rugby

UPDATED 14:10, 27 JUL 2017

Kiwi shearers beat out a furious haka at yesterday’s Royal Welsh Show as they sought to salvage some pride against their Welsh counterparts.

The New Zealand team stripped off their vests to perform the traditional Maori war dance in front of huge crowds at the Meirion Shearing centre.

They were applauded loudly but the moment was soon drowned out by a rousing rendition of the Welsh national anthem.

And the haka was soon forgotten as the Wales test pair of Richard Jones, Corwen, and Gwion Lloyd Evans, Denbigh, romped to victory.

New Zealand will now have to wait at least another year for an away series win against Wales after losing the first three tests in their current CP Wool UK tour.

On a good day for Welsh shearing, domestic bladesmen occupied the top four places in the machine shearing open final, relegating the Kiwis to the minor spots.

Heading the list was Richard Jones, who capped a superb event by also clinching the Champion Shearer of Wales title.

The day’s results reflected the growing power of Wales in the shearing world.

Although the country has yet to beat the Kiwis in a shearing test in New Zealand, the latter have now failed to clinch a series win in Wales since 2011.

Following victory in the opening match of this year’s series at Cothi Shears, Gwion Lloyd Evans and teammate Ian Jones, from Llandrindod Wells, then wrapped up the second match at Lampeter Shears.

Gwion was yesterday joined by Richard Jones to grab a third successive win against the New Zealand pair of John Kirkpatrick and Rowland Smith, who have both won world titles.

The final match in the four-test series is at Corwen Shears on Saturday.

I wonder how it turned out.

deeply inappropriate drunken behavior

MOST IMPORTANT TO BE EARLY: GATES OPEN @14.15

WRU

It is more important for fans to arrive early for Wales' clash with New Zealand on Saturday than it has ever been.

This weekend's Under Armour Series match sees the first sold-out rugby event at Principality Stadium since newly enhanced security measures were introduced in April 2017.

'Gates open at 2.15pm… get in early!' is the message from Stadium manager Mark Williams ahead of the third round Under Armour Series clash.

The sole intent of the enhanced checks is to maintain safety and security for fans attending the stadium, taking into account the current security climate and more specifically UK terror threat levels.

The match-day experience boasts a Haka and the live showing of Scotland versus Australia on the stadium big screens and concourses (which kicks-off at 2.30pm) to draw fans in, alongside 'early bird' deals at food and beverage outlets and entertainment at several fan zones inside the ground.

But Williams has warned, despite a positive reaction from fans ahead of the match with Georgia last weekend - who arrived at the stadium earlier to avoid the risk of missing kick-off which had become a reality for some a week earlier at the Australia game - channeling 74,500 supporters through turnstiles in three hours this weekend will be the greatest challenge yet.

I'm going down on Friday, but I think the scientific approach to meeting up with people who are coming by train on the day is to meet them inside the stadium over early-bird-deal food and beverage rather than in a boozer outside.

The Funky Butt

I went to see Five Guys Named Moe last night. It was in the Marble Arch Theatre, a venue of which I had never previously heard. When I got there I realised that this was because it is a pop-up theatre specifically designed for the production and to look like a New Orleans jazz bar.

The second act is a show within a show set at the Funky Butt night club. I remember a club with that name in Rampart Street from my Nawlins visit all those years ago.

I imagine I would have long forgotten if it was not for the laugh that my brother let out when I informed him that I was "just going to stick my head in the Funky Butt to see what's going on."

#willselftooting

I will be there. Will Self at the Antelope seems a bracingly unlikely contrast with Monday's quiz. Tickets over by yer http://fatso.ma/mr7b

prescient: having knowledge of events before they take place.

Launched in 1995, the year the movies turned 100, V.F.’s Hollywood Issue can be judged by its covers: artful, innovative, prescient.

Artful, innovative, prescient but also, in the light of Weinstein-Spacey-Toback-gate, extremely creepy. Personally I think that that 2006's offering above takes the Blue Riband, but looking over the whole series it is a close call.

See a photo time line of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood covers since the beginning.

And make up your own mind.

Uncontested

It pains me to write this, but if Wales restricting Georgia to an uncontested scrum (offering no tight head replacement after Francis was sin-binned yesterday) wasn't cheating, it will do until some real cheating comes along.

Also Ben's game was cancelled today as the opposition cried off, this means he missed my traditional sing-along to Radio 2 in the car on the way back as Elaine Paige presents the best of Broadway, Hollywood and the West End. I imagine he will be able to cope with the disappointment.

Eastern Bloc

I was in the National Stadium in December 1988 when Romania beat Wales 15-6. At the time they were unreconstructed Stalinists. Ceaușescu was not to fall until the revolution in 1989.

Georgia are bowling up to the Millennium Stadium today and I fear another banana skin. Wales have got a green front five and the Georgian team is built around a monster pack who mostly ply their trade in France.

Personally I would like to see promotion to, and relegation from, the Six Nations to give the Eastern European rugby nations a focus for their ambitions.

Still with rugby, I was happy to see Ben help Rutlish to a win over Christ's Hospital School last night. Always good to put one over on posh boys.

Oh, and there is still time to put your hand in your pocket for Old Ruts Kenya.

Sometimes just pretzels and beer, But I'm here.

To the Wimbledon Odeon last night for the NT Live version of Follies. I remember seeing it in Festival Hall in 2002, well lubricated and consequently anxious to get out to the gents in the at half time. This time as I was settling down with my wine (Icons passim) I learned that this production didn't have an interval at all. Needless to say I didn't make it to the end without a pit stop.

Next up, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; February 22, 2018.

All Those Women

Looks like @BBCRadio4 are repeating series 1 of All Those Women tonight at 6.30. Sheila Hancock, Lesley Manville, Sinead Matthews & Lucy Hutchinson all brilliant. Never had a show on at 6.30 before. Might not work. Exciting.

— Katherine Jakeways (@katherinejake) November 15, 2017

For what it is worth, I heard this yesterday evening while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen to the accompaniment of Radio 4. I thought it was great. Fill your boots here.

Pound Shop

The Roots of Rock: From Cardiff to Mississippi and Back 

by Peter Finch 

Kindle Edition: 99p

Can't go wrong.

The sensitive naked man

Louis C.K.: Wait a minute. Something's wrong. I can tell.

Cathy: [ sighs ] No. I'm doing great. Really.

Louis C.K.: What's troubling you, Cathy?

Cathy: Nothing! Nothing!

Louis C.K.: Hey, come on. I can always tell when something's bothering you.

Cathy: [ sighs ] Well.. if you really want to know.. it's because you're not wearing any clothes. And it really freaks me out.

Louis C.K.: Hey, come on. What's really bothering you?

These are deep waters.

Vicar in a tutu

Grauniard

Boys should be free to wear tutus and tiaras, says Church of England
Guidance for schools urges teachers to let children ‘play with the many cloaks of identity’ rather than conform to stereotypes

It was Morrisey, but of course and more than thirty years ago, who saw that this day was coming.

A vicar in a tutu

He's not strange

He just wants to live his life this way

storied

This is David Bishop at 57 - a unique Welsh rugby talent who has an extraordinary story to tell
It's 33 years since David Bishop won his only Wales cap in an autumn clash against Australia. His memories remain vivid - and much has happened since.

As brought to my attention in the Claude on Friday night by Phil and Tim. You can't be too rich, too thin, or have too many David Bishop stories (Icons passim).

Synchronicity

BBC

An Italian song used in the 1990 film Goodfellas will be performed non-stop for five weeks on an organ in Cardiff.

The 1960s hit "Il Cielo in una Stanza" - The Sky in a Room - will be played by 10 singing organists on one of the Britain's oldest organs, as part of an art installation by Ragnar Kjartansson.

The organ, originally made for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn in 1774, is a permanent fixture in National Museum Cardiff's historic painting galleries.

The song will be played 3,000 times.

I'm back in Cardiff myself, but I don't have to go out to hear the same thing again and again and again.