Why is a raven like a writing desk?

You've probably seen them: the ones where James Dyson says: “I was vacuuming at home one day, and I was really amazed by the lousy suction.” Whenever I see this advert I find myself wondering how many takes it took to get it, and if JD really had to fight not to call a vacuum cleaner a hoover. You can just imagine it, can't you…

[Take 1]
“I was doing the hoovering at home…”
“CUT!”
“Sorry, sorry, OK.”

[Take 2]
“I was vacuuming at home one day, and I was really amazed by the lousy suction. So I opened up the hoover…”
“CUT! James, the script…”
“Right. OK. Sorry.”

…

[Take 47]
“I was vacuuming at home one day…
…
…the first hoover that doesn't lose suction. DAMN!”

Boomania! A blast from 1990 from SecondSpin.com via Amazon shops.

So here I am, browsing through mp3s, and I'm in the 'B' section of course and I idly click on the 80s classic “Love in the First Degree” by Bananarama. Hold on a minute… that sounds familiar… isn't that? Yes!

A wikipedia hit later, I issue the following challenge to : obtain as many tunes as possible based on Pachelbel's Canon in D major. There are a lot of them.

Note: for this meme I am omitting Mrs Elbeno from my friends list. Otherwise it's a non-starter, really.

Hmm this meme seems like a bit of a typical “aren't I quirky?” self-congratulatory affair. Well let me tell you something, f-list: no matter how much of a rebel-against-society-norms, emo-classical-acid-jazz-loving, “my-favourite-homestar-character-is-strong-sad” type you are, there are 100000000000000 people like you (approx) out there on the Internet. That said, let's have a look at my totally normal life. I have a short f-list, so this will be easy.

Name a CD you own that you think no-one else on your friends list does.
CD? Now you're taking me back… Oh all right then, something like the Best of Sonny Boy Williamson? There's a definite chance that the Ben-n-Em-Entity has a CD very similar, but I'm betting no-one strictly on my livejournal f-list does, so that's OK.

Name a book you own that you think no-one else on your friends list does.
Fiction or non-fiction (easy)? For fiction: hmm, a tricky one; let's try Selected Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant – I think that's the one I have. For non-fiction, how about The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte.

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that you think no-one else on your friends list does.
Shaolin Soccer. Mrs Elbeno doesn't like it, but I think it's great.

Name a place that you have visited that you think no-one else on your friends list has.
The Isle of Skye? I doubt that has been there. What makes this list a little difficult is that my f-list includes and , which means I can't just say any old place that probably none of you USians has been, like Ripley or Abinger Hammer. Come to think of it, I could just say: my house.

Name a piece of technology or any sort of tool you own that you think no-one else on your friends list has.
Well I don't technically own this PS3 devkit on my right. But it's hard to think of anything wouldn't have. How about this: somewhere I have a thing for playing keypad tones down the phone. It's for use on old pulse-dial phones (or was, when they still existed) when dialling into a new-fangled tone-driven menu system such as credit card agencies and airlines use.