Diplomacy - with a vengeance!

As always, we're charmed to see America's sweetheart threatening to use diplomacy, but we fear that it may not have the desired effect, for reasons that Prof Blankenship has outlined elsewhere. Suffice it to say, this may have all the pulling power of "An Evening with Alistair Campbell".

But how it brings back memories of an earlier, more temperate age. It was 1967, and our own Lars Kefauver had passed the high water mark of his career. He was beginning what was to be a six-week run at Jimmy Wong's and had hit on the idea of trying to "re-tool" contemporary popular music.

Suffice it to say, his own brand of strident patriotism, free-jazz and abuse missed it's mark. Few who were there will forget the sight of a red-faced, sweaty and goggle-eyed Lars being dragged off the stage, screaming "Go to hell you f****ing beatniks! I claw your eyes out!", and then tossing raw meat into the audience, exhorting them to "smoke that!".

Will Ms Rice's intervention have the same effect on her desired audience? Only time will tell...