There's always something that's smoldering somewhere I know it don't make a difference to you But oh! It sure made a difference to me You'll see me o… - Elvis Costello

Cook was then very handsome in a fey English way and dressed in floor-length, striped djellaba. In the role of the dead-eyed Spiggott, he intoned lines like “You fill me with inertia,” while appearing utterly indifferent to the beauties who danced in attendance. It was a scene that might have provided the basic blueprint for what would later become the Pet Shop Boys’ career.

When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there.

I took my better nature out, drowned it in a babbling stream/took the blossom of my youth and blew it all to smithereens.