Words: weird, adj., v. and n.

MY THREE tokens yielded a copy of Uncut and its interview with Bob Dylan. It must have been weird to perform with Gregory Peck? "Well, listen, everything's weird. You tell me something that's not weird."

He's right. In compiling the abeyant "News of the Weird", I found the world madder at every turn. As for weird, it has got weirder over the centuries. Originally Old English wyrd, it was destiny or the ability to predict it, and is a crux in Macbeth: both weyard and weyward sisters figure (amended by Theobald to weird), and so wayward events are weird - actual, madcap events rather than probable events of any hue.

But Uncut's cover-disc has weirded my life: I shall be buying Dave Alvin CDs. Weird to have missed him. A veritable Dylan.