ps. Does anyone know how to change one's email address on these Google
groups?. I'm sick to death of being offered ways to extend my whizzer
or fill in the bald patches etc - on my head.

Alan, the problem is, they're not specifically Google groups, Google
just provides access to read/write to them. As Google makes you
specify a valid email address in order to activate and use your
account, the only way to get around this problem is to use a different
news reader such as Outlook Express (perhaps configured through your
ISP) which will allow you to specify a duff email address.

Luke