I just got this press release. And as we’ve promised to keep you updated on all stories about endowment I thought I’d better blog it.

New extra large condoms for well endowed men are to go on sale across the UK from tomorrow.

The condoms which are sold in packets off 12 will exclusively go on sale at Tesco stores in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland.

The launch follows overwhelming consumer demand in the last year for a larger size condom. (more…)

For those who don’t know, stoozing (18) is the name for making free money from credit cards (see the stoozers guide). You may therefore be surprised at the title of this blog (7), as it’s something I’ve long been associated with: I was the first person to broadcast a system on how to do it way back in 2000.

Yet last night Mrs MSE put “Stoozers” down on a triple word score square in Scrabble, scoring 103 points (she had two blanks!). Normally (13) of course I would try and dispute any slightly non-conventional word that’s not universally in all dictionaries, but it’s quite tough in this case (especially after my An easy way to win at Scrabble blog)

Until then I had been comfortably in the lead, now we’re neck and neck (due to finish it tonight). Bah (8) humbug (14).

Comment (13) and Discuss (10)

PS. I actually wrote this yesterday morning. We finished the game last night, and thankfully I got three 7 letter words so thankfully I recovered and the final score was 500-438 (our highest ever combined total).

Recently had the sweetest email come through…

“PLEASE Martin can I have your ashes hat.My oldest son is 46 and cricket mad,a welsh england supporter,he would wear it with pride………..” (name withheld)

The hat she’s talking about is this one in the logo at the top of the site:

Sorry to break the news, it’s only a virtual hat, but I asked my designer what he could do…

Best we can come up with I’m afraid.

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Mid-afternoon on Tuesday, as we were all beavering away checking, correcting and writing this week’s money tips email; our designer MSE Darren came up with this fantastic image to go in it.

On first glance it looked great, then we looked again… and changed it (scroll down on the weekly e-mail).

Comment and Discuss.

It staggers me quite how many grammar fiends take the time to e-mail about the apostrophe in ‘Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert.com’ in the site logo, arguing it should be ‘Martin Lewis’s’.

So it’s time to blog on it, so we can simply link here every time we get a complaint. While you may not agree, at least it shows we’ve thought about it.

MSE Judy’s grammar masterclass

My own spelling and grammar leave a lot to be desired – one of the reasons I originally chose to be a broadcast rather than a print journalist. So to take this further, I’m handing over to MSE Judy, a confirmed member of the Eats, Shoots and Leaves brigade, to go through the grammar issues:

“It’s grammar purists who would say technically our logo is incorrect, and this method is only acceptable for classical names, such as Niklas. But language evolves, and many now tend to ignore the ’s’ after the apostrophe.

“Check out Wikipedia’s take on best practice:

If a singular noun ends with an /s/ or a /z/ sound (spelled with -s, -se, -z, -ce, for example), practice varies as to whether to add ’s or the apostrophe alone. A widely accepted practice is to follow whichever spoken form is judged better: the boss’s shoes, Mrs Jones’ hat (or Mrs Jones’s hat, if that spoken form is preferred). In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers.

“The Times Guide to English Style and Usage (1999) also says:

Beware of organisations that have apostrophe variation as their house style, e.g., St Thomas’ Hospital, where we must respect their whim.

“And while you could argue that even on pronunciation it’s wrong, far more important is that the extra ’s’ looks hideous in the logo, and with language being fluid, both arguments are quite strong.”

Self-definition is crucial

As Judy rightly says, the logo does look awful with the extra ‘s’, and that’s a key reason for not doing it. Ultimately, whatever the grammar situation, this is arguably a branding and design issue. In which case, grammar is firmly relegated. Just ask eBay, iTunes or npower.

Comment and Discuss (I’m sure you will!)

For the first time I received a Who’s Who entry form the other day, which is quite cool, and as it’s free I thought… why not.

Then I answered my own question… because filling in the form is more difficult than you might think. What’s my job title, is it just “Money Saving Expert” or do I include the website, journalism & broadcasting? Then the careers section is about “main positions” so what counts as main, do you stuff it with things or keep it sparse? Is it a matter of career reference for everything, or just absolute major jobs.

However all of that’s easy compared to “Recreation”. To help, I peeked at some existing entries, and they varied from simple “Golf, Tennis, Books” type to the “Climbing Kilimanjaro backwards wearing leather pants and singing show tunes” type. Since near the entry form it lists some “unusual recreations”, I wanted to be a bit creative, so I ummed and ahhed and finally came up with:

“Recreations: Trying to get my average Scrabble score above 400, Reading historic novels, Very poor golf, Anything with lists, Jive, Watching athletics.”

My favourite bit though was under the “Clubs” section, I just put Manchester City FC.

Try the recreation one yourself… it’s not easy

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Imagine a US female voice, “So I met him, fell in love, and decided to come to the UK with him. When I got here, I realised the thing I like most about him was that he was English. And there were lots of them here. We split up.”

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As you’ll have read in the weekly e-mail, last Friday was Samaritans Stress Down day, and we were giving away 50 pairs of Samaritans green monster stress-free slippers to celebrate.

As such, and because I was one of the campaign’s supporters, I thought I’d better support the cause, so on Friday afternoon, I put and kept them on, wherever I went (I didn’t do it in the morning as I was at ITV doing the voiceover for Tonight!).

As you can see from the picture below….

they’re pretty obtrusive. So when I went to the cafe/bar at the centre of the office complex where MSE Towers is located, I got more than a few strange looks and bizarre enquiries.

It also meant I had to do something for the MSE Team. Sadly, as saving money – not stress – is my area of expertise, I left it too late (I had tried to book a masseuse for the office but couldn’t get one) due to my busy morning.

So on the way back I stopped off at the supermarket and bought enough satsumas, kiwis, and grapes to fill all stomachs, and brought those in instead – after all, good nutrition helps relieve stress. Then an e-mail round to say we’d all finish 45min early and table football and a drink in the bar.

Now I’m just blocking my ears from calls to do it every week…

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I’ve blogged before about the Chuckle Club, a fantastic MoneySaving central London comedy venue. While the entry price is around a tenner, the key is it’s in a student bar, though it’s not a student club, which means you can order a round and get change from a fiver.

As I mentioned last time (see Never, ever heckle when you’re known), it’s based at the LSE in Holborn, and I was involved in bringing the club to the Uni when I was students’ union president, and even performed there during my mercifully short-lived stand-up comedy stint. As such I’m still on friendly terms with ‘Eugene Cheese’ who runs the club. So now you can understand why the following happened…

Come along, we’ve a REALLY big name…

Last November, out of the blue Eugene called to say “you have to come tonight, we’ve a massive massive act on but I cant tell you who.” It sounded intriguing and there’d been some good names on in the past, but the MSF and I were going to a friend’s birthday so couldn’t go.

On Saturday, I found out who it was, and my jaw dropped. Seems I wasn’t the only one surprised though, on the night, a group of five people had been outside debating whether to come in, and people told them there were rumours of a really big act on… possibly “Steve Coogan” or even “Robin Williams”.

Persuaded to come in, but more than sceptical, they sat down, ridiculing the concept either would play the club. Two minutes later, as Robin Williams sat down next to them, on the only empty seat in the place, they changed their tune, he was there doing an hour long warm up for a big charity set….

This Saturday, no Robin Williams, but Andy Parsons from Mock the Week did pop-in as a surprise guest, to test out his new set too… much cheaper than going to see his Arena tour.

Comment and Discuss.

I’ve got to share a moment from my summer hols in Southern Spain last week.

The MSF and I, along with a couple of friends were walking back along the beach.

In front was a bleached blond, seriously tanned girl with large boobs, a tiny bikini, red leggings on her left leg and green on the right. She was with three well built guys. All four were English. The guys were discussing the luminous pink nail varnish on her toes.

She then turned around, and said…

“Can you believe it girls, I’ve spent four effing grand on these tits and all these guys do is talk about my toes!”

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