ABlog. �Childhood living is easy to do, The things you wanted I bought them for you. Graceless lady you know who I am, You know I can't let you slide through my hands��..lyrics in a song from a 1971 album�.but what was it�.and what was the band

Welcome to the second ABlog, where social commentary, in depth political analysis and news coverage�are completely ignored. Instead you will find a collection of generally unconnected tit-bits and updates from the AB-universe designed to get you through a few minutes of your Friday.

Before I get on with other matters, I would like to take a moment to extend my sympathies, and those of the whole of AB, to yinyang whose Dad passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with you at this difficult time and we wish you well.

Here is an update on how the tech people have been getting on. They have been working hard to correct some technical issues. After plugging away round the clock, they have now made sure the site is not only working as it should, but even faster than it was before.

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Another development to announce is the trial of a new private messaging function on Sports AnswerBank. This will be available as of Tuesday 9th October and will allow users to send private message other SAB users, much like you can on MSN Messenger . You�ll also have the ability to build your own individual profile, add friends to your messaging list and see who, out of your friends list is also online�impressed So don�t hang around get over to the SAB and get your chat on (after you�ve finished reading this blog of course). We need everyone to get testing and let us know what you think, if it proves a hit then you never know it may even find its way onto the regular AB. Please post all your comments and suggestions under the thread I�ll open in AB Suggestions on Tuesday afternoon.

One last thing to announce, is that the highly acclaimed cryptic quiz, entitled �Birds and B�s� is in its last month, but there is still time to get your copy if you�re quick. Send an SAE and �1.00 to the Organiser, Mrs Pauline Ward of 9 Hassop Road, Reddish, Stockport, Cheshire, SK5 6ST. Proceeds to go to the Dragonfly Project which provides support for seriously ill children.

There was a suggestion that AnswerBank may be for sale and there was even an offer put forward by meredith101. The final offer was a generous 5 million. We debated the offer in great detail over the week, until we realised it could be 5 million squid, mushrooms or even used nappies. There was no mention that money was involved in Meredith�s post, so sadly we will have to turn down the offer. The upshot of all this is that AB is not for sale, sorry about that.

My moment of the week is starring Hollywood icon Nicholas Cage. According to reports, the star of such films as Face/Off and City of Angels was faced by a naked intruder in his California home. Well that�s not completely true. The man wasn�t completely starkers, but was wearing one of the star�s leather jackets. I don�t know about you but I would freak out if I came downstairs in the middle of the night to see a naked man wearing one of my jackets. It must be a fairly normal occurrence in Hollywood though, as Cage simply asked the man to remove the jacket and then marched him outside. The man has pleaded not guilty and I�ll be interested to see how he follows that up. �Oh well yes I went to visit Mr Cage, but once I had entered his house I realised that I had forgotten to put on any clothes. Fortunately there was a leather jacket on one of the chairs and I put it on to spare my blushes��Maybe.

And that�s it. ABlog is finished for another week. Let me know if you want anything mentioning in the next one, and any ideas are welcomed. There�s just enough time to say that a Croatian mum has chosen to sue her son�s school after they repeatedly gave him bad marks. She apparently claims that the teachers were ordered to give him low scores. The school did, however, point out that the low marks were given because he wasn�t a good student. �Til next week.