Welcome to this week's Picks. There, you see, short and to the point. No messing. Because we at Picks Central know that you, gentle surfer, want web winners and you want them fast. So we have declared a pogrom on prolixity and decided that plain-speaking shall be the new order of the hour.

In short, we plan to use a phrase much loved by Staffordshire potters, to call a spode a spode. Which is convenient because few ceramic wares have aroused so much interest and affection as Spode blue. Books are written about it, learned papers and ceramic societies devoted to it and collectors throughout the world eagerly seek and treasure specimens. Now all the information you could possibly want, concerning this 200 year-old bone china art form, is available on the small, but perfectly formed Story of Spode website. Here you can learn about its history, where to contact the Spode Society and how to arrange tours.

Such a tour may well one day be found in Out and About the UK, a monthly newsletter highlighting places of interest around the British Isles. What we like about webmaster Clive Hawes is his economy with words. His entry on the Natural History Museum in London, for example, reads simply: "Not been there for years!" There might be better UK guides on the web, but none, we are sure, are as brutally honest as Clives.

Our campaign against excess verbiage will no doubt be boosted by some well chosen slogans -- a cheap and cheerful method of conveying large amounts of information in a short sentence. For example, who can forget the term "Glasgow's miles better" with its miles/smiles interplay, which no doubt earned some consultant a fat finders fee. In the early 80s, some clever marketing allowed the largest city in central Scotland to eclipse Edinburgh -- its more glamorous neighbour in the East. But Edinburgh fought back, billing itself as "Scotland's capital city". Its cultural heritage, cheap restaurants and the fact that it was the location for the cult film Trainspotting have made it a particular favourite among students, who have now produced their own guide.

Trainspotting, of course, introduced its own set of slogans (the most famous of which being the heavily ironic "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career...", and centred around a group of friends battling boredom, drug abuse and death. Tackling some of the same problems in the real world (i.e. you don't get to hear Iggy Pop singing Lust for Life in the background) is Scotland Against Drugs, whose site focuses on the upcoming Drugs Awareness Week from June 21 - 28. The Scotland Against Drugs Campaign was established in May 1996 with funding from The Scottish Office and the support of local political leaders. It aims to impact on drug culture in Scotland using various approaches, targeting as many audiences as possible.

The campaign is based on three principles: education, provision of alternatives and harm minimisation. It attempts to present truthful information in a balanced and factual manner -- the result being harm minimisation through education. A worthy aim, and only the small-minded would point out that the URL -- www.sad.org -- does them few favours.

Addictions come in all shapes and sizes. Robert Palmer was addicted to lurve, -- and life at Picks wouldn't be worth living if it wasn't for a daily infusion of doughnuts. However, we wonder whether anyone will become addicted to Cheestrings? To our mind it's a strange-sounding snack selling itself with the slogan "The Peelable Stringy Cheese". Their site doesn't actually go into a great deal of detail about what a cheestring is (a g-string made of cheddar, perhaps?) or how you can get hold of one -- the less charitable might think for the best if the graphics on the front are anything to go by -- but it does contain a number of simple games (requiring the macromedia plug-in) and a few offers of the t-shirt and baseball cap variety.

Strange to think that someone, somewhere, will own the concept of the Cheestring. A faded piece of paper somewhere in a dusty filing cabinet will outline the unique combination of chemicals and -- if there are any -- organic compounds making up the snack. And it will have a patent to prevent anyone stealing the idea. Now the UK's Patent Office has its own web presence -- more than 400 pages outlining the 500-year-old history of the office and giving easy-to-understand explanations of the legal concepts behind patents, designs, copyrights and trademarks.

It also has a special feature. This week, for example, it blows the lid off widgets -- a small object which "promotes a good head on canned beer, giving it an appearance similar to that of draught beer". Technically, widgets are defined as a "device for promoting froth", which, as a slogan, leaves something to be desired, but stands as a pretty good definition of our own purpose in life. Until next week, we bid you a fond adieu.

Sites featured in Picks of the Week

• The Story of Spode - the 200-year tale of bone china.
  
• Out and About the UK - as the name suggests: Out and indeed About in the UK.
  
• A student's guide to Edinburgh - in our day we didn't have time to have fun. Times change.
  
• Scotland Against Drugs - S.A.D. by name, noble in intent.
  
• Cheestrings - do they melt? Could you put them on toast?
  
• The UK Patent Office - has your brilliant idea already been patented?.
  

Yahoo! is a trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
Copyright © 1994-2000 Yahoo! All Rights Reserved.