W – the 23rd letter in the Roman alphabet, or a hospitality anomaly? This single letter has come to stand for a concept that has become commonly known as the "lifestyle hotel". But What does W mean? The concept was plucked from the middle of the Starwood name 13 years ago to conceive a new brand for the international hotel operator, created squarely with Manhattan in mind.

The BBC television commentator Ted Lowe played a significant supporting role in one of the greatest yet most improbable sporting dramas, when on 28 April 1985, the snooker world championship culminated in the most nail-biting climax there had ever been or, to date, would ever be.

"When will I see you again?"... So sings the self-styled diva and raconteur Sandra Bernhard, acknowledging that the answer is probably in about two years' time given her biennial visits to the UK in recent years.

The London launch for the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival offered stars past and present, reflecting a programme that will run from veterans such as Frank Carson to bright young thing Russell Kane.

"It was the fault of the government," barks Mark E Smith on The Fall's version of "Jerusalem" that is played before and after Luke Wright's new show. The 29-year-old poet's series of ballads, structured verses for Broken Britain, are similarly blunt in their assault on the national malaise, with media manipulation and the pursuit of easy fame among the other ills that Wright sees as afflicting our senses and sensibilities.

Three young men wearing white shirts and ties acting out themed scenes while their relationship dynamic changes through petty jealousies and annoyances sounds par for the course for the sketch genre, but there's enough of a twinkle in the eyes of performers Kieran Hodgson, Joe Parham and Joe Markham, and in the lines crafted by the cast and co-writer Tom Meltzer, that make this show a little above the average fare.

Dressed casually in jeans, Doug Stanhope looks less uncompromising US stand-up and more potter about to start work on some clay. Meanwhile, the trademark alcoholic haze that steadily creeps up on Stanhope (his poison for this performance is a double cocktail of beer and Jagerbombs) makes for the usual mix of the unfocused and the inspired.

Cor blimey! Cockney rhyming slang may have originated as a cryptolect to confound outsiders, occasionally including the law. If so, it failed, as most of it is widely understood far beyond Bow Bells.

Given she released her fifth album last month, it seems unfair to call Macy Gray a one-hit-wonder. Still, nothing she has produced has come close to breaking into the public consciousness the way "I Try" did when it was released back in 1999, and although she has kept on making music, it is not too much of a surprise that tonight this intimate venue is not completely full.

When Jimmy Greaves turned up to take part in an advertisement for Burger King in Leicester Square, the film company had arranged a body double for what they imagined would be the hard part: volleying a football through the doors of the restaurant and into the street. Even with two reconstructed knees, Greavsie insisted on doing that himself and executed 50 in a row bang on target. He can't have been using the Jabulani.