culture rows and street fighting

I've spent the last fortnight in ancient Macedonia, sunning myself, getting bitten to death by mosquitoes, checking out ruins that make our Stop the Rot properties look like five star hotels and drinking copious amounts of the local beer and wine.
Meanwhile back at home, the debate over how to pay for 2008 has rumbled on - as I discovered when I gave in and logged on to the Echo website in a Greek internet cafe last week.
I also missed BT being named as a Capital of Culture sponsor (although to be fair I'd had an fair inkling of that some time ago), and the Echo branding up the Kings Dock Arena (ditto).
And the moment I get back I discover Joe Anderson has done a runner from the Culture board.
He seems to have done a lot of soul-searching before quitting, although Warren Bradley of course doesn't see it that way.
I thought Warren's great-grandfather Ike would have recognised his talk today about standing your ground and fighting for something rather than stepping away.
Talking of fighting, I went to review Richard Herring at the Unity last night.
That was a tricky one since most of his material was unprintable in the Echo, particularly the stuff about Jesus's stigmata, a car wash called the Hand Job Centre and rather a lot of talk about his private parts.
Anyway, according to Herring's own blog, he went for a drink with a few audience members (mostly young ladies by the sound of it) afterwards and got into a girly fight with a nerdy trainee lecturer from Liverpool University who was trying to hit on them!
Apparently some nearby bouncers had to intervene, and a couple of Merseyside Constabulary's finest were called. Herring ended up with a ripped T-shirt and a few bruises in unmentionable places.
I told him how much I'd enjoyed reading about the late-night grapple and he replied:
"Glad my pathetic life entertains! If the bloke gets in contact I will arrange a rematch for next year on stage."
So, if you're the idiot who took him on, give us a bell at the Echo and we'll happily arrange a rematch......
I'm off to the one man Star Wars show tonight.
I hear Darth Vader is waiting for him outside Ma Boyle's.