Plug

Readers of this blog may have noticed references to a certain newsletter called The Friday Thing throughout my time writing here. It's a weekly e-mail which gets delivered to your inbox every friday, thus guaranteeing that any other work you have to do that day goes flying out the window. Its parent company is called The Friday Project, and even though it is similar in name to the Friday Night Project, it has nothing to do with that turdpile, and even less to do with its supporters.

It's better than PopBitch, Private Eye, and any other satirical publication you may care to mention. It runs to about 25 pages of a Word document, so there's plenty to keep you entertained, and with a letters page at the end, there's plenty of opportunity for feedback. Just be prepared to have your missive cut to ribbons, which was once what almost happened to me.

I started reading this one day early in 2001 when someone I worked with sent on the link to me. In those days, it was little more than a campaign to get friday off work, and the accompanying newsletter, then free, amounted to about 8 to 10 pages in Word. Even if we couldn't get Friday off, these people reckoned, we could certainly find distractions for ourselves at that time of the week. Then an extended edition became available, but you had to pay a subscription fee (to be fair, it was only £10 a year at the time). Then the short version was discontinued, so it became subscription only, but it was still worth it.

Well, because of the success of the parent company, from the 2nd June the full weekly newsletter is now being offered for free. So, all of you who like your writing witty and bitchy, go to the Friday Thing site on that day and sign up. I'll try and remember to post a reminder on that day too.

For a taster, go here, a rather good essay on the nation's hopes for the world cup.