OOPS. Someone at IKEA will be getting a telling off.

The furniture giant raised all our hopes by indicating York could soon be the new home of a Swedish superstore, and the Evening Press was keen to pass on the good news for shoppers.

Alas, this story was not all it seemed, thanks to a wrong click of a button. When the Evening Press spoke to IKEA a temp working in the head office "should have supplied a generic statement that we use when we do not have any current plans for a store", according to the company.

Okay, with you so far.

Unfortunately the nameless person getting all the blame instead "used the statement that we issue when we have purchased land and are in discussions with the Local Authority".

Oh dear.

Please accept our apologies for this error, implored IKEA. Only if you promise to make coffee tables which come already assembled.

So it looks like IKEA isn't coming to York after all. Which is good news for those who would rather not self-assemble their shelves and believe that a screwdriver is some sort of cocktail.

HE is York's most notorious son.

So it's probably no surprise for many city people to learn that Guy Fawkes was the 17th Century equivalent of an Al-Qaida terrorist.

As the countdown to the 400th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot begins to gather pace, it's interesting to note the parallels of 1605 with 21st Century Britain.

The Catholics were the Muslims of 2005, writes Adam Nicholson in The Guardian - most were settled and happily integrated in a larger society, bar a small cell of bombers who wanted to wreak havoc in the heart of London.

Guy Fawkes' vision was to blow up the symbol of the British state - The Houses of Parliament. And he learned the tricks of the gunpowder trade abroad.

His actions brought two centuries of pestilence down upon Britain's Roman Catholic minority. They say history is cyclical. Let's hope not.

BLINDINGLY obvious statement of the week. Tesco's Brazil Nuts: Allergy warning - contains nuts. All such potty observations welcome.

SPURIOUS website watch. Fans of our star-studded line up of columnists at the Evening Press will know that some of their number have a strong predilection for our feline friends.

You've probably heard about how they are a woman's best friend, are more intelligent than dogs, clean up after themselves and invent cures for cancer while you're out and so on.

What you don't know is that they hate you. They'll pull faces at you when you're not looking and could turn a saucer of milk with a single well-aimed glare.

The evidence? www.mycathatesyou.com - possibly the funniest collection of cat snaps you can ever hope to see.

Enjoy.

Updated: 10:50 Monday, August 08, 2005