Manly bulges and so forth

If you want to see a bit of smart marketing and have a quiet gurgle of glee, go to http://blog.figleaves.com/2008/01/pants-for-paxo.html.

Everyone in Britain will understand the jokes, but I‘m afraid I must give a boring explanation to those who are not British.

The word “pants” is slang for “no good” and “Paxo” refers to two things: a self-important, humourless TV interviewer who has been marooned up his own arse by success, and a brand of stuffing. Stuffing is what the English stick in chicken and turkey before roasting it.

The link I gave you is to the blog on a site that sells underwear. I thought it an excellent piece of opportunism. It’s one of the few commercial blogs that’s any good. Make sure you go and read the piece in The Times it refers to. Very good light journalism, which is hard to do.

Incidentally, Paxman is right. M & S underwear is lousy, and they will end up regretting the way they have ignored quality.