"Brian, it is no good prejudging one liners or stories before they have been told."

I'm not prejudging Jeff Warner's stories, Dick - I've heard and been entertained by them many times. Jeff is of course also funny, and a great judge of the right song for the moment. The point I was trying to make (as Jim Bainbridge has just done) is that 'entertainment' doesn't have to mean 'lowest common denominator', or to exclude anecdote or history. Jim B is equally right about the deadening effect of a succession of doleful ballads or endless introductory lectures, but it's the prescriptiveness of Davenport's original remark that I dislike.