Firstly, there's a new story up, Counterspies by Adam Gauntlett, which you can find here.

Secondly, some of you may be aware of a dalliance entitled World of Warcraft (1). Well now, one feature of this global pastime is something called the armory, wherein you can look up all manner of things. And search the player database by character name. So, a little gander(2) displays the following

3 Tisamons (a priest and 2 paladins), 2 Stenwolds (priest and shaman), 2 Thalrics (warlock and paladin), 1 Cheerwell (rogue, weirdly enough), an assortment of 9 Tothos, 6 Tynisas (5 of whom are rogues), 7 Achaeoses, 7 Balkuses (3), 4 Scutos and a Sperra.

Now, lord knows I can't claim credit for some of these — names like Totho and Balkus are the sort of thing that people can happen upon quite happily by themselves (4) but even so… the wonder of it all…

(1) Alternatively, a highly contagious life-eating plague called World of Warcraft. Lord knows I'm still not over my case of it.

(2) is that right? Is "gander" look? Is this rhyming slang, and if so, what on earth is it rhyming with? Or is it dadaist rhyming slang: "Goose and gander — look"?

(3) You never think you'll need to work out what the plural of a character's name is…

(4) Case in point: there are at least 20 Felices.