Triffids Attack American Landmark

Terror hit the formal gardens of the ex-residence of the ex-captain of industry, ex-founder of Kodak and general ex-eccentric, George Eastman this afternoon. Terrorist spores, which it is suspected had been launched from Northern Korea and lain dormant for several weeks, grew at a blistering pace into lumbering tentacled carnivo-plants. Hundreds of them hurled themselves at the walls of the Eastman House, an American institution, in an attempt to spread fear and panic in the run-up to the Presidential election. Courageous locals armed with pitchforks and weedwhackers attempted to stem the tide of vegetable viciousness, but to no avail. Many were pulled from the clashes covered in sap. At the moment it is not clear how many lives have been lost, but the final number is widely expected to be higher than the redundancies announced by Kodak earlier this year.

In the light of these events, President Bush has declared a "war on nature" which will commence with the burning and felling of dark wood trees all around the country. Responding to claims that his surname suggests he was in some way involved with the plant life insurgency, the President said "I am in no way, and never have been a vegetable, nor have I ever had relations with a vegetable. I ain’t got no magic beans, neither."

Courtney and I finally visited the Eastman House today. It’s very good. Cameras from all eras including one that looked like a cannon and some lovely Leicas; a world travel themed photograph exhibit with some great snaps by Robert Doisneau and Martin Parr in particular; the formal gardens, which are currently in full bloom; and the house, a good quantity of which is preserved almost exactly as it was when George Eastman was alive. I swear the man was slightly eccentric. Anyone who regards this as suitable decor for a conservatory is a couple of banana trees short of a plantation.

And we rounded it all off with a screening of The Ghost and Mrs Muir, a Joseph Mankiewicz melodrama with a stirring soundtrack from Bernard Hermann, in which the ghost of an old sea captain (Rex Harrison) dictates a book of memoirs called "Blood and Swash" to a young widow (Gene Tierney). Marvellous.