Good afternoon.
My favourite of the monuments In Washington DC is that erected to the memory of Thomas Jefferson - the third President of the US, he was a brilliant man who wrote much of the glorious Declaration of Independence. It is circular, topped with a perfect dome and, in Spring, surrounded by delicious cherry blossom.
Mozart's "Lacrimosa" from his powerful Requiem is one of my favourite pieces of classical music.
And , though not a mathematician, even I can admire the awesome simplicity of Einstein's E=MC2 - the equation that allows us to measure the very energy at the heart of the Universe.
All these hero-geniuses of mine are thought to have suffered from Asperger's syndrome, an extreme form of the disorder autism. Despite that, they did truly great things.
So it left us all gob-smacked when we learned that a private school in Purley which had initially found a place for young sufferer Charles Hall turned him away when he turned up for his first day.
They'd offered him a place, sent him a starter-pack and had banked his parents' cheque for the fees.
There must be an explanation but, like Soliari's jealousy of Mozart and Einstein's quantum mechanics, it is beyond me. Phil plays Dr Barnado to this apparent failure of a young boy.
Also in Washington, fiscal failure, at the time of writing, remains the order of the day. Despite the truly bizarre image of their equivalent of our Alastair Darling going down on one knee to their equivalent of our David Cameron, begging for support for the multi-billion dollar bank rescue package, the package remains "blocked" by Congress.
As Einstein's tiny quarks are to the mighty molecules of mass, so too are the 500 job losses at HSBC's Canary Wharf HQ, to the failure of the Yanks to sort out their toxic banking mess. Like Bradford and Bingley's people yesterday, it leaves men and women, who've done nothing worse than work for less than brilliantly-run banks, on the temporary scrap heap of humanity. Nick offers a shoulder to cry on and a microphone to moan into.
I don't moan about buses, I just don't use them. A woman, queuing for a bus at Waterloo, my station, was struck by an air-conditioning unit that fell from the sky. She survived but is injured. My objection to buses are crowding, inconvenience, noise, smell and "stop-start" progress. This poor woman has dramatically added to my case. Faye, (mid-length black top, slightly easier-on-the-circulation jeans and red piped tiger slippers), says this is in bad taste. I apologise but I think there is still a logic to what I am saying.
Tottenham's current performance sadly doesn't defy logic as the team continues to fail to defy gravity - they are rubbish at the moment and are in the basement of the Premiership, heading for the Championship - a generous way of describing what is really the Second Division of years gone by. Perhaps Juande "One Day... to Go" Ramos has some answers. Paxo is all ears.
Myleene Klass is far from "all ears" - she has "all a beautiful and talented woman" needs, to be a vision of gifted and charming perfection. Partial, me? Yep. I steady my nerves to tell you she is with us, live, in the studio. I don't care what she is talking about -she's been there, done it - yet still finds new frontiers to surge gracefully and elegantly through. I'd hold the door open for her, anytime.
Salma will offer What Not To Miss. It is her birth-right.
James will explore if movie "Righteous Kill" is a "criminal waste of talent" as one of his competitor critics suggests. De Niro and Pacino may take a dim view but, nevertheless we will be answering De Niro's "you looking at me?" question in the affirmative.
Also on James' ballot-paper is "Swing Vote" which features Kevin Costner as the sole US voter upon whom the outcome of the American Presidential election hinges. Given the nature and structure of the US Electoral College which determines victory in that mighty contest, this is nonsense and so, too, is the movie by many accounts. Perhaps it will sink like Waterworld or James may throw it a lifeline. I'll hang on his every word.
Hope you do too, and those of Robin on the weather. It is lovely outside but be sure you are inside at 6. Else all of this will be a waste.
Alastair and Salma
