Cynical Ben, the friend who keeps on giving

Returning from another dispiriting union meeting (the university doesn't know how much it's being penalised by HEFCE for accidentally or deliberately misreporting student module completion modules so has guessed, and appears not to know how many people are employed here), I'm cheered by more parcels. The remastered edition of REM's Reckoning, Tim Wohlforth's memoir The Prophet's Children: Travels on the American Left, and two CDs which can only be part of Cynical Ben's attempt to widen my musical taste - Snoop Dogg's R & G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece and Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/Lovesounds. I shall of course give them a go in a spirit of enquiry. Does he think I'm lacking in contemporary black culture, or just need more funk.

Meanwhile, Emma has rumbled the cricket ploy.