Leech-based economy? In the UK, we already have one! Ours doesn't do anything useful, though...

Awww! I grew up with a Grundig reel-to reel tape recorder in our living room flat in London, where my mum used to record the daily sounds of her and two toddlers (my brother and me) learning to talk. I was fascinated by the little green light on the front of the machine, and the odd, plasticky smell it emitted when it was warm.

Many years later, I managed to find one in a local second hand store, for a bargain £15, and I'll never get rid of it.

It actually came in very handy a couple of years ago when my Uni drama company was doing a production of Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", and I lent it to them. They thought they'd never find one, and were really grateful.

I love the way it has a carrying handle on it, too. It weighs a tonne.

I haven't seen Two Girls One Cup, and, having checked up on urban dictionary, I probably won't endeavour to, but having just read this, is it just possible that the two ladies in question were engaged in a life-saving, therapeutic procedure?

This is hilarious - poor old Lynch. I'm a great fan, but it never ceases to amaze me that a man who dreams up such bizarre and sometimes disturbing images for his films somehow remains gullible and innocent in his persona.

I can't say that I expected his talking about TM to go particularly well, though. I once recorded a delightful interview of his where he was asked about his famous "eye of the duck" scene reference. Having claimed that every one of his films has some such iconic scene, he then failed to be able to remember or cite that scene in any one of his films, resorting to mumbling and "...I used to know"!

I couldn't have predicted this, though. I was half expecting the little man from another place to emerge through the curtain, and explain it all, forwards-backwards!!!