Brothers in blood

A Teddy Boy lights up

You're a teenager. You want to fit in. But when a pact is sworn in blood, not all make the cut, says Laurie Taylor in his weekly column for the Magazine.

My teenage problem was that I could never swagger. Where as my mates Jim and Dave could walk along the pavements of Dale Street or Lime Street with a degree of assurance that could send passing pedestrians into the nearest gutter, my own attempts to look big rarely induced any other emotion than mocking laughter.

Matters weren't helped by my clothes. Whereas Jim and Dave had parents who allowed them to strut the city streets in Teddy Boy velvet-collared jackets and drainpipe trousers, and bootlace ties and crepe-soled brothel creeper shoes, I was restricted to a brown sports coat, heavily creased gabardine trousers, and a pair of Freeman Hardy and Willis Brogues.

FIND OUT MORE Hear Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 at 1600 on Wednesday 31 December Or download the podcast here

I'd made matters even worse for myself by trying to cover up my Sunday morning at church uniform with a large white, heavily epauletted riding mac. It was a style I'd seen worn by the hero of a popular comic strip of the time - "Dick Tracey the 'Tec' with the bulldozer chin".

It looked fine on Dick Tracey. But sadly I lacked the bulk of my comic strip hero so that I ended up looking less like a famous detective than a walking bivouac. As Jim once said to loud jeering laughter in the saloon bar of the Grapes, I looked more like Dick Head than Dick Tracey.

Half pint

When I now look back I feel that I was quite fortunate in being the butt of such jokes. As I couldn't hold my drink half as well as Jim and Dave, and certainly couldn't emulate their prowess at chattering up women, I was only allowed to be in their gang for the amusement I inadvertently provided.

Around the group went the pen knife. Would it be passed to me? Was my blood good enough to pass muster?

Matters only came to a head on the night I was out drinking with Jim and Dave and their two mates, Vin and Big Bing. They'd all drowned five or six pints and finished deriding my last round request for "just a half", before going into a drunken sentimental trope about the meaning of true friendship; about how they were going to stick together for the rest of their lives; how they were "blood mates".

That was the point when Vin took out his penknife and flipped open the big blade. "Blood mates," he said, as he swiped the blade across the tip of this thumb, and watched as a bubble of blood appeared. "Blood mates," said Dave taking the knife, swiping his thumb, and then melding his blood with Vin's.

Around the group went the pen knife. Would it be passed to me? Would I be brave enough to make the cut? Would my blood flow properly? Was my blood good enough to pass muster? My anxieties were soon resolved. The knife never reached me. After Jim had let his blood, Vin simply leant over the beer-slopped table, took the knife from him, clicked the blade shut, and slid it back into his pocket.

I'd failed the initiation rite, failed my first test of manhood, failed to become a member of the gang. It was the worst moment of my adolescent life. From then on I knew that I'd have to grow up all by myself, without the support of a solid blood sharing fraternity.

But at least when I grew up and became a criminologist it did allow me to feel complete empathy with all those adolescents who for centuries have sought the excitement and comfort of gang membership. It allowed me to understand that teenage gangs were never a passing phenomenon. For many boys and some girls, they were an historical and contemporary necessity.

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Collect life lessons as you pass go

By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine

In the era of the high-def DVD and the ubiquitous game console, the board games unwrapped around the world on Christmas Day are a refreshing throwback. But is it all just a bit of fun or can we learn any valuable lessons from the roll of a dice?

Games are not good. Or at least that's what many people would have you believe. In English idiom, the exhortation to "stop playing games" implies manipulation, prevarication, even procrastination.

LEADERS AND THEIR GAMES Tamerlane - Bloodthirsty 14th Century Turko-Mongol conqueror, loved chess Claudius - 1st Century Roman Emperor, loved dice Churchill - 20th Century British prime minister, loved Bezique WOPR - fictional 20th Century military computer, disliked noughts and crosses

But this is a time of year when games are ascendant. Many will have played a board game over the festive period.

Monopoly is perhaps the quintessential family board game. There can't be too many people in the Western world who are completely unaware of the existence of the game.

It will have been yanked out of millions of dark cupboards over Christmas, dusted off and played. And played. And played. And played some more.

The most obvious life lesson in Monopoly is about patience. Games can last hours. Interminable circuits of the board go on as each player looks for the right roll of the dice to finally buy Bond Street and start getting some houses. It ebbs and flows as fines are paid and then recovered.

Gruelling marathons

For the parent playing Monopoly, the appeal might lie in the ability of Monopoly to swallow a whole day, to neutralise a usually fractious but now ultra competitive child.

In fact this whole vision of Monopoly as the recreational equivalent of spending the night on a mountain looking for enlightenment is a fallacy. Monopoly should really only take about an hour and a half, says retired fireman and tournament player Alan Farrell.

'You'll give me Bow Street for The Strand? OK'

"The main rule that tends to get ignored is the auction. If you land on a property and don't want it, it goes to auction. That's what tends to slow things down and put a lot of people off. If you don't get houses built it will go on forever."

Of course, developing steely patience in children (and adults) is a quality with useful application in both academe and the workplace, whether it's for trawls through textbooks, three hour exams or tackling voluminous reports.

But patience is a side effect of Monopoly, and indeed of any board game. The real raison d'etre is bringing the family together. Where conversation may stutter and fail, the game marches on triumphantly forcing social interaction.

It might be bickering over whether dad's all-conquering laying down of the word "muzhiks" is allowed in Scrabble or fighting for the right to ask all the questions in Trivial Pursuits, but it all still counts as quality family time.

Carrot and stick

It is the same with Pictionary, Ludo, Cluedo, Risk, or anything else.

The carrot is a chance for the competitive children and teenagers to crush the older opposition. The stick is that some form of conversation is necessary for the game to progress.

When you are at the office you are not manning the Maginot Line - you are not worried about Germany invading Belgium by surprise Allan B CalhamerDiplomacy inventor

Many games, like Monopoly, take this social interaction to new heights by placing a premium on negotiation. In Monopoly, deals to waive interest, exchange property and form strategic alliances are common in multiplayer games.

Even at tournament level, Mr Farrell says, these skills are important. "It requires a little bit of negotiating the right deal, unless you are very lucky."

But the king of negotiating games might well be Diplomacy. Perhaps not as well known as its less intense rival Risk, Diplomacy pits seven players against each as nation states fighting over a map of Europe as it was prior to World War I.

While the military element of the game is simple enough, its central attraction lies in the negotiations, alliances, betrayals, poker faces and backstabbing that follow. No player can win - or even hope to survive - without engaging with others and learning to smell false promises.

Learn to be economical with the truth

"The moves side of the game is more or less like checkers or chess," says inventor Allan B Calhamer. "What's different is the negotiation. Nobody is required to tell the truth. It should make you more careful and more alert."

Unlike many games, where the key is simply to play the best moves, without the need to second guess the opponent, Diplomacy requires the playing of the opponent as much as the game. As a result it has found favour outside the home as an educational tool.

"There is a saying in chess 'respond to his capabilities, not his intentions' but in Diplomacy his intentions may make a lot of difference," says Mr Calhamer.

"I've been told that it has been played in the Pentagon and the State Department."

Of course, it's possible to over-egg the idea that life's battles are mirrored in board games, says Mr Calhamer. You might compare your office politics to Monopoly or Diplomacy, but a lid should be kept on that comparison.

Games teach us to win and lose with grace

"When you are at the office you are not manning the Maginot Line. You are not worried about Germany invading Belgium by surprise," he says.

And away from hard-to-quantify skills like negotiation and patience, concrete improvements have been claimed by some games.

There is a long history of studies claiming a link between playing chess and improved memory, analytical skills and other academic abilities in children.

But perhaps we should prefer to laud the "soft" skills that games teach us. How to win and lose with grace, how to play nicely with our families, and how to dissemble, cajole, and gull our way to victory.

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It's not all about price

THE BIG IDEA 60 seconds to change the world

Can a simple idea help make the world a better place? Each week we ask a guest to outline an idea to improve all our lives. Here, statistician Jeffrey Rosenthal suggests looking at more than just the price tag when shopping.

When consumers are making purchases, they should consider more than just the price.

There is a tendency in this information age to compare prices, and say whichever company will sell me this product at the cheapest price, must be the one that I should purchase.

But people carry this too far, to the point where the competition on price is so severe that there is no margin of error for companies to, for example, innovate with new products or new ways of doing things.

Or more importantly, to put effort into customer service - answering their telephones, or helping to resolve a client's complaint.

FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE More from The Forum

Or ethical and environmental considerations, such as whether they treat their employees well, or do charitable works for their communities.

I think there is a real sense that everything else has to get pushed out because we are just competing on the basis of price.

Whereas if people consider these other factors - even just a little bit and say OK, maybe we should go for the company with good customer service - then the companies would have to do better. And it would help make the world a better place for all of us.

Jeffrey Rosenthal is the Professor of Statistics at the University of Toronto.

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Below is a selection of your comments.

Sorry, but don't most of do this? My 90 year old gran on benefits goes to the corner shop rather than Asda (where she is offered a lift every week) because she gets to chat to the ladies behind the counter. I shop at Poundland, Wilkinsons and Waitrose - and find that each shop offers good and bad service, if you reciprocate. Clare L, St Albans

Buy cheap, buy twice! That is something that sticks in my mind when I purchase certain goods. I would pay a little extra here and there to ensure better customer service though when looking at the way companies treat their employees, that's a different story. Price of goods does not directly equate to better employee treatment or other factors surrounding, just look at Asda, consistently providing a good service to its employees and customers. Pay

Writing on the wall

Friday's cartoon - the EU to thrash out fishing quotas

By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine

For three days, artist Dan Perjovschi is finding time away from his Tate Liverpool exhibition to compose a newsy cartoon for the Magazine index. It's a challenge he's relishing.

It's not the years of training that make Dan Perjovschi the artist he is, it's the years he spent trying to forget it.

THURSDAY'S CARTOON The story: UK jobless figure rises by 137,000 Read more here Tate Liverpool's Ideas Taking Space

Born in communist Romania in 1961, he was hot-housed at art school from the age of 10, specialising in painting, but when he left after 12 years of study he had fallen out of love with art.

"I was highly trained from an early age, in the way you were in communist countries when you had a talent," he says.

"By the end of it I no longer liked art. I knew I had to change the way I thought of about it and find a new way of expressing myself, a new language."

At 47, he is now internationally renowned for his simple, distinctive, cartoon-type drawings which feature stick-like figures. Often humorous, they range from observations of everyday life and to social and political commentary.

Over the next few days he is taking part in the Fifth Floor contemporary art exhibition at the Tate Liverpool, which marks the end of the city's year as European Capital of Culture. He is treating its walls as a blank canvas, taking inspiration from the city and the country.

Graffiti

He will also be creating original drawings for the Magazine over the next three days, with one published on the index each day, taking inspiration from the news.

"My work is influenced by what is around me," he says. "I look at the media, chat to local people I meet. There's no obsessive researching, I just take from what I see and hear, things like the credit crunch.

WEDNESDAY'S CARTOON The story: MEPs vote on the UK's opt-out of EU laws limiting the working week

"I look at things with a critical eye, but not a cynical one. I use humour to get people to understand, I don't use my work to pull things apart."

The simplistic style of his work is what gives him the freedom he relishes, he says.

"My style gives me freedom, I can draw whatever I want, wherever I am," he says. "It's low budget and I don't need anyone to help me."

He works on whatever he is allowed to, often the walls of buildings like New York's Museum of Modern Art. In 1999 he represented Romania at the 48th Biennial in Venice, covering the floor of the national pavilion with drawings and graffiti.

But in the Tate Liverpool he is doing something he has never done before - inviting the public to draw alongside him. After just two days of public participation - which lasts for a month - the wall is already full.

"It's been crazy, the space is full," he says. "At first people were putting superficial statements but that's progressed in such a short time into deeper. There is a lot of sensitivity on that wall, a lot of humanity."

His favourite piece of public work so far is a single line written upside down, which reads "this way up". It's simple but clever, he says.

Now the problem is what to do with the wall.

"I like the idea of providing sponges so people can remove what they want and replace it," he says. "This is an ongoing dialogue and I really like that."

52 weeks 52 questions, part one

Quiz of the year's news

'Tis the season to sit back and cast an eye over 2008. But how much do you remember? Test yourself with the Magazine's four-part compilation of the best of the year's quizzes. First up, January - March.PLUS a special bonus question each day - see below for details.

1.) Multiple Choice Question

What the blue blazes is this mystery object, discovered at the end of January?

1. Asteroid 2007 TU24, which passed close to the Earth
2. Cotton wool bud stuck in a boy's ear for nine years
3. Droppings of elusive Arctic wolf, filmed swimming for the first time

Info

Jerome displays the offending cotton bud (left), and the pixelated object on the right is Asteroid 2007 TU24, which passed just outside the Moon's orbit in January.Click NEXT to continue.

2.) Multiple Choice Question

It emerged in February that Prince Harry had been in Afghanistan since Christmas, fighting the Taleban and acquiring pseudonyms. Which was he NOT known as?

1. Bullet Magnet
2. Harry Houdini
3. Budgie
4. Widow Six-Seven

3.) Multiple Choice Question

"I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake." Who kicked off the New Year with this admission?

1. Gordon Brown, confessing he'd blundered over the "will-he, won't-he" election last year
2. Jeremy Clarkson, who lost £500 by printing his bank details in a bid to rubbish the lost data discs furore
3. Sam Allardyce, replaced by Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United after just eight months

4.) Multiple Choice Question

It's March, and Russia has elected a new president - Dmitry Medvedev (centre). But what is the accepted BBC pronunciation of his surname? (Capitals indicate the stressed syllable.)

1. muhd-VYED-uhff
2. MED-vuh-dev
3. mid-VHOY-duv
4. meed-viyd-OV

5.) Multiple Choice Question

When Jeremy Paxman griped about the state of M&S pants in January, the chief executive waded in. But the BBC presenter also grumbled about its socks, saying they wear away too quickly at the big toe and ...

1. ...wear at the heel
2. ...shrink in the wash
3. ...are no longer ribbed around the top

6.) Multiple Choice Question

Which Katie embarrassed Home Secretary Jacqui Smith after she said she didn't feel safe walking alone on London's streets at night?

1. Her aide, who told the media Ms Smith had "bought a kebab in Peckham" at night
2. Katie's Kebabs and Burgers in Peckham, the establishment where Ms Smith purchased said kebab
3. Katie Price, aka Jordan, wading into the debate with a comment on the minister's oft-discussed cleavage

7.) Missing Word Question

Bogata museum celebrates *

1. happiness
2. sadness
3. laziness

8.) Multiple Choice Question

Grange Hill's last ever school bell sounded in September. But news of the axing came in February. Which other TV show did it shares its original theme tune with?

1. Terry and June
2. Junior Kickstart
3. Kenny Everett Video Show
4. Give Us a Clue

9.) Multiple Choice Question

The McCartney-Mills divorce was settled in late March. What was the difference between what Heather Mills estimated she needed for living costs and what the judge awarded?

1. £2.65m per year
2. £2.85m per year
3. £3.05m per year

Info

Kosovo declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia in February - and unveiled a new flag. It's pictured here WITHOUT its outline map of Kosovo...

10.) Multiple Choice Question

....so which of the following maps is Kosovo?

1. Map 1
2. Map 2
3. Map 3
4. Map 4

Info

And here's the finished article.Click NEXT to continue.

11.) Multiple Choice Question

"The Tripod" - a nickname for who or what which emerged in early March?

1. Three Lib Dem MPs - Alistair Carmichael, Tim Farron and David Heath - who resigned from the front bench
2. Duchess of York and her princess daughters Beatrice and Eugenie
3. Mick Jagger, according to his FBI codename, after a 1969 plot to kill him was unveiled

12.) Multiple Choice Question

And finally, who was seen dueting with ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash?

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Bill Gates
3. Republican presidential hopeful Mick Huckabee

Info

Here they are, laying down some riffs - or such like - ahead of Bill Gates's keynote speech in Las Vegas.

Answers

1. It's the cotton bud. Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear aged two - but his hearing suddenly returned when the wax-encrusted bud popped out. Click NEXT to reveal.
2. It's Harry Houdini. Bullet Magnet is self-explanatory, Widow Six-Seven his call sign and Budgie "was [a commanding officer's] joke," said the prince, "stringing it in with the air thing. But the first morning I was flapping like a budgie."
3. It's Clarkson. A reader used his bank details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK. Brown admitted he had blundered over the will he/won't he election, the same week Allardyce lost his job managing the Premiership club. He was replaced by Kevin Keegan, who didn't last out the year.
4. It's number one, muhd-VYED-uhff, according to the BBC Pronunciation Unit.
5. It's that M&S socks are no longer ribbed around the top. "These are matters of great concern to the men of Britain," Paxman said in his complaint.
6. It's the name of the kebab house - the owner has said that he didn't call it that in honour of any particular Katie, he just liked the name.
7. It's laziness. A museum in the Colombian capital has held a week-long event encouraging people to indulge in that maligned trait, and reflect on its opposite - extreme work - to find a happy medium.
8. It's Give Us a Clue. The tune is called Chicken Man by Alan Hawkshaw, and was used by Grange Hill from 1978-90. The BBC swung the axe in February - its 30th anniversary.
9. It was £2.65m. Ms Mills had wanted £3.25m per year, including £500,000 for holidays, but the judge said £600,000 would be adequate.
10. It's Map 1. Map 2 is Belgium; Map 3 is Estonia and Map 4 is Finland.
11. It's the duchess and her daughters. Princess Eugenie told the Tatler "Mummy, Bea and I call ourselves 'the Tripod' - they are my best friends in the world."
12. It's Gates, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Click NEXT to reveal all.

Your Score

0 - 4 : Welcome to the Jungle

5 - 10 : Chinese Democracy

11 - 12 : Paradise City

In addition to the 12 questions above, there is also a bonus question for each of the four parts of this quiz. That's how we reach the magic total of 52 questions.

With each part of the quiz we will publish a photograph - the first is on the right. What is the link between them? You may, if you work out the answer, tell us using the form below. But there will be no prizes except a Christmas helping of kudos. The answer will be published with the fourth part of the quiz on Tuesday 23 December.

Think you know the link already - tell us using the form below:

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For a complete archive of past quizzes and our weekly news quiz, 7 days 7 questions, visit the Magazine page and scroll down.