Yahoo! UK & Ireland Picks of the Week

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Picks of the Week: 21st May 2001

The Evil Gerald
The Evil Gerald began in the pages of the University College Dublin student rag, until it was, "Discontinued in favour of an enlarged scribble-box." It's a collection of spoof news stories that veer from the sublime ("Regularities discovered in Fianna Fail accounts") to the ridiculous ("RTE slams Angelus blast"). Our favourite reported Saddam Hussein's plot to wreak havoc using screechy TV puppet Bosco's magic door. If you're smelling something familiar, it might well be an Onion, but even if this has been done before, it's well written enough to get away with it.
brecon-beacons.com
With more bank holidays on the way, and the week that counts as summer in Wales just around the corner, things are hotting up for the National Parks. This guide to the Brecon Beacons includes history, safety and weather tips, a list of attractions, and information about activities from golf to hang gliding. Everything is simply presented, and it looks a bit retro, but it's easy to navigate, and it's more comprehensive than Grange Hill. The even better news is that it's going to have competition soon from the still-developing official site.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
It girl, society columnist and general posh-gal-about-town Tara, who for no discernable reason has become a household name, has launched her official site. Of course, when you don't really do anything in particular, you face something of a challenge when it comes to finding content, so they've gone for the sensible option of filling the site with the minutiae of Tara's life. There are plenty of photos (which will keep the male portion of the audience happy), an advice column, an events diary, and plenty more amiable fluff, the apogee of which is surely Tara's star chart. Not exactly brain stretching stuff, but you'll find yourself staying here much longer than you expected.
Theatre-rites
Theatre-rites do theatre, puppetry, and installation art, taking over building like mills and cellars and creating richly textured worlds in studio theatres. Their mission is to offer, "Theatrical experiences which are challenging and inspirational". What makes them particularly unusual is that all this creativity is targeted at kids - their current tour, Sleep Tight, is for ages 3-6. The small but nicely presented site has details of this and their past productions, from the sleepy Pilloworks to the questing Lost and Moated Land.
Search For Scotland
Aunty Beeb's ten-part series on Scottish history from the Stone Age to the 20th Century has finished, but the information is presented here separated into time periods as they appeared in the episodes. So if you're curious about the "Iron Age Ideal Home exhibition", the spectacularly grim death of William "Braveheart" Wallace, or whether David Hume really could out-consume Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, this is probably the site for you.

Sites Featured in Picks of the Week:

The Evil Gerald - green onion.
brecon-beacons.com - welcome in the hillsides.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson - you're It!
Theatre-rites - rite of spring.
Search For Scotland - it's the bit at the top.

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Previous Weeks' Picks:

[ 14th May 01 | 7th May 01 | 30th April 01 | 23rd April 01 ]