Well Done, Cavendish. Good on Ya'.

Just a short post to update those who aren't following the the Tour de France. After having secured another stage of the race, Cavendish is no longer in the competition. Yet, he has achieved more than any other British cyclist. So, "Good on Ya', Mark."

I remember when I was a kid, the cool bike to have was an "English racer." Today, that term doesn't seem to mean much -- maybe a reference to Nigel Mansell or something.

Of course, the 23-year old cyclist has performed so well, the usual suggestions about drugging have been made. I guess no one can be a great athlete anymore and not have that finger pointed at them. And if everyone thinks that he has been drugging, maybe he should have done. But at this moment, it seems as though he's clean ... even though his kit leaves a little to be desired (see left).

Anyway, to celebrate Cavendish's heroics, I shall embed below, a favourite Style Council video. The plot features, inexplicably, a bike race. That Weller was a bit daft during this period, but fab music nonetheless.

And for all those looking for more sport on this blog, result! Football season is just one month away. Go Arsenal. Go Tottenham. Go Man U! For those looking for less sport: unlucky!

Straight away

Right. It's an obsession. It's a quirk. A glitch in the old wiring. Something between crossdressing, a penchant for Dungeons and Dragons, and scholarly curiosity. Anglophilia.

For some it's so acute that they move there. For others (to stretch the transvestite metaphor to its limits), we don't want to be British, we just want to act British sometimes.

There are lots of entry points: music, literature, britcoms. For some of us it's an obsession that started with the Beatles and Monty Python reruns. From there it can run into all kinds of estoterica (if can call it that -- I mean everybody should listen to Jonathan Ross's radio show now that you can get it on iTunes).

For me, the moment when I decided to explore this impulse was when I got a special thrill while reading Nick Hornby's book How to be Good (which, of course I was reading because it's so British) and I caught a reference to Melvyn Bragg (he's a presenter on Radio 4) and knew who he is.

Is Doctor Who better than an American scifi show just because of the accents? Or My Hero? Or As Time Goes By? What make you pick up a Hornby or Mark Haddon novel before a Yank equivalent? Do you have a wave of righteous indignation when someone asks you who Paul Weller is? Can you name the current mayor of London? Maybe you sign off emails with "Cheers."

You might have the same disease.

So let the gates open. I'm going to try to explore my crazy interest in all things British, trying to understand the impulse a little better. And you add to the conversation.

Let's see what we see.