GeT RICH QUICK

Which singer invented the modern pop song, wrote the soundtrack to the Sixties, inspired Frank Sinatra and the Sex Pistols and earned praise from the Pope and Elvis Presley? The answer, my friend, will be blowin’ out 72 birthday candles later this year. After 500 songs, almost 50 albums albums and 100 million record sales,… Continue reading

Back in the dim and distant 1990s, rubbish recycler to the stars Benjamin ‘the binman’ Pell was living proof that grime really does pay. A modern-day Uncle Bulgaria, making good use of things that he found, Pell built a reputation on rifling though celebrity bins and selling their secrets to the press. From Richard Branson’s… Continue reading

One of comedy duo Mitchell and Webb’s funniest television sketches sees two Nazi soldiers worrying that the skull insignia on their caps might be sending out the wrong message. Enviously pointing out that the Allies’ uniforms have friendly lions and shiny stars, one anxiously asks the other: “Erich, are we the baddies?” The British National… Continue reading

Ever been handcuffed to a bus stop in Blackpool? Stripped to your boxer shorts in Brighton? Or bundled onto a North Sea ferry bound for Zeebrugge wearing a pretty pink dress? When it comes to his final night of freedom, there is often no end to the ritual humiliation endured by the hapless groom-to-be. If… Continue reading

It’s easy to dismiss Yiddish as a relic of a bygone age when Jews schlepped around in shtetls, moaning about their tsores. But recent news from Canada proves it’s not just boobas and boffins who still rely on the old mother tongue. Devotees, it seems, turn up in unexpected places. Police their have banned citizens… Continue reading

From the blue lagoons of Borneo to the isolated islands of Langkawi, Malaysia has long been one of the world’s top honeymoon destinations – a once-in-a-lifetime location where romance cannot fail to flourish. But there is much more sparkle to this Asian jewel than swaying palms and sunny shores. Paradise, it seems, has been unfairly… Continue reading

By day, Universal Studios theme park in Orlando pulsates to the screams from its 60-mile-an-hour roller coasters, high-tech thrill rides and epic film and stunt shows. But when the sun goes down during October, the screams become the bloodcurdling kind as this family-friendly holiday destination transforms into a twilight zone of terror. Americans love Halloween so… Continue reading

I have three excuses for crashing my snowmobile into a tree. 1) I was blinded by the Arctic sun’s glare. 2) I was knackered by a night in an ice hotel. 3) I really like Die Hard films. I didn’t feel much like John McClane while being detached from the thorny branches of a birch tree… Continue reading

Passport control at Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport, and I’m braced for a grilling from a immigration officer trained to make innocent holidaymakers feel like KGB spies infiltrating Cold War West Berlin. But a quick glance into this particular border guard’s booth suggests I’m in for an easy ride. He has stylishly accessorised his cubicle with… Continue reading

The Caribbean has many seductive selling points to tempt British tourists. There’s the laid-back beach life, tin-roofed rum shacks, tropical fruits to tingle the taste buds and the most exotic oceans this side of the equator. Add local smiles as warm as the weather and a makeshift cricket match on every street corner and it’s… Continue reading