The good old days post brought to mind those practical jokes that you could buy from the classified adverts at the back of the comics. X Ray Specs, black face soap etc. This brought to mind (nostalgia being what it is) the article from the NME of the Viv Stanshall guide to Practical Jokes. See enclosed. Did you buy any more importantly did they work? I once rung a friend up when I knew he was away and taped his answer machine message. I then rang back and played his message back onto his answer machine. I always imagined he’d got home, played his messages back and started hitting the machine thinking something was wrong with it. I never found out if he did.

http://www.shuttleworths.co.uk/sirhenry/pranks.html