THERE was an item on the WML recently about product loyalty and how you would behave if you found a snail in your beer can.

There have also been a number of other humorous mickey-takes, even the idea of having a hooligan enclosure where those who delight in the excesses of gestures, chants and obscenities can be corralled with stewards, dressed and acting as parents, tut-tutting on the perimeter.

Perhaps it was the variation of the old reactionary idea back in the late 1960's that police should take all the gesticulating football fans onto a plain or large field and then pull out, leaving the rival groups to punch some sense into or out of each other.

Certainly the modern concept has some humour whereas the older one was intended to be treated in utter seriousness. Bring back the birch, national service and all that, eh what!

I also quite enjoyed the debate over Harry Hornet and his ape-like appearance, particularly when someone linked Dai Thomas's fall from grace with the subtleties of Harry's changing behaviour patterns.

Humour remains a personal thing and while I enjoyed some of the above, I find myself a little out of step with those who delight in Harry the Hornets' dance routine before the match. A remarkable display of stamina but to my mind, once was a novelty; twice was OK but is that the sum total of the thinking on pre-match entertainment?

But I digress so, to return to the mailing list, there are so many creative thoughts and potentially humourous articles dashed off by fans who return home and have a quick surf, it is a pity they are restricted to what, at the moment, is a limited audience.

It seems ironic that Watford, unlike many clubs, is struggling to maintain a couple of fanzines. They sell well enough with the likes of Clap Your Hands Stamp Your Feet, attracting more readers than many mediums.

The fact is that the fanzines are struggling for contributions, tend to print what they receive, when they could do with being spoilt for choice.

I make the point because someone suggested that fanzine people are not Internet people and that never the twain shall mix.

Having not contributed to a fanzine since the Hornets News back around 1975 when Steve Kitchen was upsetting a few inside Vicarage Road, and only just contributing to the Internet, I feel I am relatively objective in arguing that while there is the advantage of immediacy on the Net, the humour and observation is the same as the broad spectrum of fanzine humour.

In fact football fans are pretty much the same all over the ground, whether you are referring to what the WML contributors have described as "the quiet people" in the Rous, and presumably the Main stand, or the more vociferous element in the Vicarage Road end.

The accents, backgrounds and salaries may differ but football fans share the same gallows humour (if not the delivery) and similar concepts of the game.

When it comes to fanzines, the best articles, a view based on their humorous, cynical, objective, enlightened or original content, are grouped together and published in various magazines.

The best of the Internet quips etc, are lost, so perhaps a conduit to a fanzine is not such a bad idea.

If you have a question to pose or a point to make to me, then send it through to: news@WatfordObserver.co.uk

So far I have not had any questions passed my way. Indirect references to me and my observations have been spotted and brought to my attention, along with a couple of complimentary E-Mails and Mailing List mentions (thanks Siggy, whoever you are).

I could do with some feedback or response, positive or negative if I am to maintain a column exclusive to the Internet and not duplicating things I have already written in the WO.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.