Luke Spacewalker

There's a British astronaut going spacewalking at the space station today, which reminds me of a picture I'd like to find from an old Beano comic, some time in the early eighties. The Beano often liked to boast that Mark Hamill was a member of the Dennis the Menace Fan Club, and one time on the letters page some editor (who clearly knew nothing at all about Mark Hamill except what he could deduce from the names 'Star Wars' and 'Luke Skywalker') quipped that he should remember not to pin his fan club badges on his spacesuit when he next goes spacewalking, illustrated with a picture of an astronaut being blown away into space by a puncture. It was a really impressive attempt to show that the Beano was down with the kids!

It begins!

Qualification for the world's coolest memory tournament is underway! Week one is the coolest discipline, speed cards!

The way qualifying works is that you have a week for each discipline, in which you get to make five attempts and choose your best time. Attempts have to be videoed and comply with specific rules to prevent cheating, which means the world gets to see everyone sitting at computers and remembering things...

Here's my first attempt, 25.85 seconds, which would be an entirely okay time to submit even if I don't manage to go any faster in the remaining four.



Cards is the one where I really need to set a very good time to start off with, because people are going to catch up and overtake me in a big way on some of the other disciplines. This one, though, I'm still one of the best at - I hope.