Well, John, I'm really not quite sure what point you're making here. (That's not intended to be snide. I genuinely don't understand.) I didn't see Braveheart. Celtic myths have already done too much damage in recent years for me to encourage their propagation by some silly Australian mummer with a painted face. Trainspotting I found original, powerful & funny. If you tell me young Americans were encouraged to take heroin by seeing it then they must be more perversely suggestible than even I had imagined. I'm sorry you find the world tastes like a shit sandwich. Anyone who does my job can hardly fail to recognise the sorrow that's the lot of very many people. I'm not one of them, though. I've had some bad times - almost all the results of my own folly - but apart from these relatively brief moments I've had one hell of a time & would be chuffed beyond measure to be starting all over again. What a shame my writing has such a debilitating effect on everyone. It must be my Scots predeliction for the gallows. I should really try to convey more of that exhilaration & buoyancy which seems to infect everyone when they meet me personally. Scottie B.