ThursdayNext : www.jasperfforde.com
A discussion of all things Thursday !
Re: Happy Next Year!
Posted by: Rob Johnson (---.leeds.ac.uk)
Date: January 03, 2003 03:16PM
<HTML>And a Happy New Year to one and all from me.
My prediction for the year is that England will not come last
in the Cricket World Cup. They'll scrape a victory against
Kenya, Holland or some such...</HTML>
My prediction for the year is that England will not come last
in the Cricket World Cup. They'll scrape a victory against
Kenya, Holland or some such...</HTML>
Re: Happy Next Year!
Posted by: All-American-Cutie (---.dalect01.va.comcast.net)
Date: January 03, 2003 10:41PM
<HTML>Rob, my husband wants to know how it feels to be a backup quarterback in Tampa Bay after being the starter in Buffalo?</HTML>
Re: Happy Next Year!
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: January 04, 2003 12:00AM
<HTML>Oh God, it's that weird version of football that is, in an inspired but futile grasp of logic, played with a ball and, er, hands...
Yup, it's rugby for motorcycle despatch couriers who have swapped the tedium of city traffic and pizza delivery for padded shirts and big fat blokes. Oh and a bunch of guys dressed as zebra's for added amusement...
Add in terminology such as 'scrimmage', which is related to the English 'scrummage' but said in a girly squeal; 'lateral pass' - which on this side of the Atlantic would get you arrested if you tried it in a public park; 'personal fouls' (and are impersonal ones worse?) and 'Tackle' - which is a person rather than an action (or part of a person, for those of a certain mind); and it's clear that American Football is a highly dubious game.
Obviously this a bit rich coming from a country that invented cricket - the only sport where commentators can say 'silly mid-off' with a straight face - so I must point out that I love Baseball (especially Barry Bonds' inspired attempts at fielding in the last World Series...) and Ice Hockey (I mean - come on - how can anyone fail to appreciate a sport where teams employ specialist brawlers, sorry, 'enforcers' to smash hell out of their oppo?).
I even think that I might prefer watching Baseball to Cricket due to the fact a result comes in less than half the time with the same amount of tension and inability to assess who's going to win (with the caveat that 'Australia' appearing in a cricket team's name might give them an advantage). There, should piss British sports fans off at the same time....
But American Football is beyond me. Baseball - easy to pick up, lots of subtleties to learn later. Ice Hockey - lots of fighting and easy rules to follow. Cricket - subtle game, seems to go on for ever but provides a chance to escape for a while, which any good sport should provide. Anyone who gets bored watching cricket would be surprised at how much more interesting it is on the radio - it's true, I swear. Rugby Union - fnatastic - power, speed, no stopping and starting - currently my favourite sport(League is a bit dull, with all that five tackle nonsense. What you want is to get him on the ground and give him a good shoeing...) Football - fast, open, tense (I am a Coventry fan, remember).. But American Football? I can't even work out where the ball is (and, in fairness, neither can the camera operator)...
and, this is the clincher, no self-respecting rugby player ever had a 'fumble'....</HTML>
Yup, it's rugby for motorcycle despatch couriers who have swapped the tedium of city traffic and pizza delivery for padded shirts and big fat blokes. Oh and a bunch of guys dressed as zebra's for added amusement...
Add in terminology such as 'scrimmage', which is related to the English 'scrummage' but said in a girly squeal; 'lateral pass' - which on this side of the Atlantic would get you arrested if you tried it in a public park; 'personal fouls' (and are impersonal ones worse?) and 'Tackle' - which is a person rather than an action (or part of a person, for those of a certain mind); and it's clear that American Football is a highly dubious game.
Obviously this a bit rich coming from a country that invented cricket - the only sport where commentators can say 'silly mid-off' with a straight face - so I must point out that I love Baseball (especially Barry Bonds' inspired attempts at fielding in the last World Series...) and Ice Hockey (I mean - come on - how can anyone fail to appreciate a sport where teams employ specialist brawlers, sorry, 'enforcers' to smash hell out of their oppo?).
I even think that I might prefer watching Baseball to Cricket due to the fact a result comes in less than half the time with the same amount of tension and inability to assess who's going to win (with the caveat that 'Australia' appearing in a cricket team's name might give them an advantage). There, should piss British sports fans off at the same time....
But American Football is beyond me. Baseball - easy to pick up, lots of subtleties to learn later. Ice Hockey - lots of fighting and easy rules to follow. Cricket - subtle game, seems to go on for ever but provides a chance to escape for a while, which any good sport should provide. Anyone who gets bored watching cricket would be surprised at how much more interesting it is on the radio - it's true, I swear. Rugby Union - fnatastic - power, speed, no stopping and starting - currently my favourite sport(League is a bit dull, with all that five tackle nonsense. What you want is to get him on the ground and give him a good shoeing...) Football - fast, open, tense (I am a Coventry fan, remember).. But American Football? I can't even work out where the ball is (and, in fairness, neither can the camera operator)...
and, this is the clincher, no self-respecting rugby player ever had a 'fumble'....</HTML>
Re: Happy Next Year!
Posted by: Magda (---.dialip.mich.net)
Date: January 04, 2003 02:41AM
<HTML>Living in the greater Detroit area, I have little choice but to be an ice hockey fan. In part because european football isn't terribly big here as a spectator sport (although loads of kids play in school), the Detroit Lions (american football) haven't had a winning season since the 1970s, and the Detroit Tigers (baseball) haven't done a lot since they won the world series in 1984.
On the other hand, the Detroit Red Wings are the current Stanley Cup champions, and one of the best teams in the NHL. So whenever they're in the playoffs, red and white paraphanalia of all sorts pops up everywhere, including on the <a href="http://philc.ncms.org/images/RW/spiritdet.jpg">Spirit of Detroit statue</a>, which wears a <a href="http://www.freep.com/art/0610/0610_RehangJersey.jpg">size 360 Jersey</a> during the playoffs. Mind you, I do recall being amused a few years ago when they won their first cup in my lifetime. They were called to the White House to meet with the President, who who congratulated them for setting a great example of American sportsmanship and athletic excellence, or some such thing. The reason this amused me is that I believe there was only 1 player from the United States on the team that year. Along with the "Russian Five" were players from Canada, Sweden, and so on. Even team captain Steve Yzerman is Canadian.
Of course, since I work at University of Michigan, I do watch college football (american) occassionally, but while I know enough to follow the game, I don't by any means know all the details, positions, or rules. I do know that when the quarterback gets sacked, he still has a job. Of course, if it happens often, that may not be the case for long.</HTML>
On the other hand, the Detroit Red Wings are the current Stanley Cup champions, and one of the best teams in the NHL. So whenever they're in the playoffs, red and white paraphanalia of all sorts pops up everywhere, including on the <a href="http://philc.ncms.org/images/RW/spiritdet.jpg">Spirit of Detroit statue</a>, which wears a <a href="http://www.freep.com/art/0610/0610_RehangJersey.jpg">size 360 Jersey</a> during the playoffs. Mind you, I do recall being amused a few years ago when they won their first cup in my lifetime. They were called to the White House to meet with the President, who who congratulated them for setting a great example of American sportsmanship and athletic excellence, or some such thing. The reason this amused me is that I believe there was only 1 player from the United States on the team that year. Along with the "Russian Five" were players from Canada, Sweden, and so on. Even team captain Steve Yzerman is Canadian.
Of course, since I work at University of Michigan, I do watch college football (american) occassionally, but while I know enough to follow the game, I don't by any means know all the details, positions, or rules. I do know that when the quarterback gets sacked, he still has a job. Of course, if it happens often, that may not be the case for long.</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: January 04, 2003 10:28PM
<HTML>Well, actually I rather like American football, funnily enough. Channel 4 used to televise it over here, and our family got rather caught up in the fortunes of the Washington Redskins (Downtown Charlie Brown! Joe Washington! Joe Theismann! and of course the very great John Riggins!). Yes, there is brutality and brute force, but there is also amazing skill, and once you knew what you were looking at, I found it very entertaining. Of course we only saw the highlights of games (Superbowl excepted), and believe you me it's way better without all the time-outs and stoppages and other guff surrounding it. It isn't really shown over here any more, and I've lost touch, but the Skins coming from way behind to turn over the Broncos in the Superbowl is one of my favourite sporting memories. Never really been exposed to baseball, and I can't see the damn puck in ice-hockey (although I used to really enjoy seeing Czechoslovakia getting wired into the USSR at the Olympics ... talk about a needle match ...) and I think basketball one of the most monotonous pastimes known to man.
Other than that I like cricket, but find all the attempted razzmatazz in the modern game pathetic. (It's cricket! Leather on willow and old maids on bikes! Shut the @!#$ up!) I used to love watching the John Player League on BBC2 on Sundays - I still remember gaping with astonishment at Botham taking 16 of the last three balls to win the match by two runs. I like football (sorry, "soccer") obviously, a lifelong attachment to Liverpool fading as the greed and cynicism of Premiership football gets worse, and being replaced by a frankly worrying devotion to Torquay United. (And the brother has it even worse ... Manchester United and Hull City, would you believe). I like Gaelic football, which is something else Channel 4 don't show us anymore, and would like hurling too if I could only see the sliotar (ball .... see ice hockey above).
And as for rugby ... what was that about League having all the stopping and starting? Union's all right played well, but it isn't often played well. A typical Union game has far too many stoppages, for scrums (what is the point of a scrum any more?) line-outs (ditto ... now lifting is allowed, why bother?) and way too many penalties. And I refuse to believe that all the forwards lying on top of the ball while everyone else takes a break constitutes 'action'. Oui, oui, je suis une treiziste, though one not blind to our game's faults; ten metres is too far apart, and re scrums, either bring back proper scrums or get shut. Anyone who thinks being tackled in League can't result in a good shoeing has clearly never met Keith Senior. One of the problems with top-flight Union is that us Leaguies have taught 'em to tackle, and with 15 men lined up across the park, there ain't no room out there. Still, give it time and TV pressure will force the codes together anyway, at least at pro level. And do you know what's really bad about that? No-one will ever beat Australia ever again ....
PS - if I eat any chocolate between now and the brother's wedding, I have to take Claire breakfast in bed every Sunday. If she has any drink (other than birthdays/holidays), then she has to come and watch Oldham rugby, home and away, all season. Boy is she ever on the wagon.</HTML>
Other than that I like cricket, but find all the attempted razzmatazz in the modern game pathetic. (It's cricket! Leather on willow and old maids on bikes! Shut the @!#$ up!) I used to love watching the John Player League on BBC2 on Sundays - I still remember gaping with astonishment at Botham taking 16 of the last three balls to win the match by two runs. I like football (sorry, "soccer") obviously, a lifelong attachment to Liverpool fading as the greed and cynicism of Premiership football gets worse, and being replaced by a frankly worrying devotion to Torquay United. (And the brother has it even worse ... Manchester United and Hull City, would you believe). I like Gaelic football, which is something else Channel 4 don't show us anymore, and would like hurling too if I could only see the sliotar (ball .... see ice hockey above).
And as for rugby ... what was that about League having all the stopping and starting? Union's all right played well, but it isn't often played well. A typical Union game has far too many stoppages, for scrums (what is the point of a scrum any more?) line-outs (ditto ... now lifting is allowed, why bother?) and way too many penalties. And I refuse to believe that all the forwards lying on top of the ball while everyone else takes a break constitutes 'action'. Oui, oui, je suis une treiziste, though one not blind to our game's faults; ten metres is too far apart, and re scrums, either bring back proper scrums or get shut. Anyone who thinks being tackled in League can't result in a good shoeing has clearly never met Keith Senior. One of the problems with top-flight Union is that us Leaguies have taught 'em to tackle, and with 15 men lined up across the park, there ain't no room out there. Still, give it time and TV pressure will force the codes together anyway, at least at pro level. And do you know what's really bad about that? No-one will ever beat Australia ever again ....
PS - if I eat any chocolate between now and the brother's wedding, I have to take Claire breakfast in bed every Sunday. If she has any drink (other than birthdays/holidays), then she has to come and watch Oldham rugby, home and away, all season. Boy is she ever on the wagon.</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: January 05, 2003 12:58AM
<HTML>re: beating australia - best reason going for keeping the codes seperate...
As for football (ie the game played with the feet and all) if you think your borther's bad, my father has recently starting going to Cheltenham Town matches as well as the odd Coventry fixture....
Has anybody been listening to the Aussie version of TMS during the Ashes? I can't help but enjoy it in spite, or possibly because, of phrases such as 'fair dinkum'. And after they nicknamed John Crawley 'Creeper' after a particularly slow innings, I nearly split my sides. And you still get the Shipping forecast, and thus gt a double dose of legendary radio. If only they could make it last a minute without deviation, hesitation or repetition and then throw in Samantha on the scores, we'd have the ultimate Radio 4 LW experience...</HTML>
As for football (ie the game played with the feet and all) if you think your borther's bad, my father has recently starting going to Cheltenham Town matches as well as the odd Coventry fixture....
Has anybody been listening to the Aussie version of TMS during the Ashes? I can't help but enjoy it in spite, or possibly because, of phrases such as 'fair dinkum'. And after they nicknamed John Crawley 'Creeper' after a particularly slow innings, I nearly split my sides. And you still get the Shipping forecast, and thus gt a double dose of legendary radio. If only they could make it last a minute without deviation, hesitation or repetition and then throw in Samantha on the scores, we'd have the ultimate Radio 4 LW experience...</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Rob (---.leeds.ac.uk)
Date: January 06, 2003 12:17PM
<HTML>A-A C: I think you must have confused me with someone else. I'm THE
Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues. Ok I died from poisoning /
stabbing / the devil taking my soul in 1938 but no one's perfect...
PSD (and everyone else): Did you see a new series of Just A Minute
starts tonight ?</HTML>
Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues. Ok I died from poisoning /
stabbing / the devil taking my soul in 1938 but no one's perfect...
PSD (and everyone else): Did you see a new series of Just A Minute
starts tonight ?</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: January 06, 2003 12:21PM
<HTML>That was deviation, surely?</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: dave (---.addleshaw-booth.co.uk)
Date: January 06, 2003 02:13PM
<HTML>Does it count as repetition too, as he told me yesterday?</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Sarah (---.vip.uk.com)
Date: January 06, 2003 02:19PM
<HTML>I wouldn't consider death to be an imperfection in the usual sense of the word. After all, it happens to the best of us (unless, as Legolas reminds me, you are an Elf).</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: dave (---.addleshaw-booth.co.uk)
Date: January 06, 2003 02:21PM
<HTML>Do elves (elfs?) not die then? Surely a well-placed arrow through the noggin has got to at least slow them down a bit? ;-)</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Sarah (---.vip.uk.com)
Date: January 06, 2003 02:28PM
<HTML>Er, they can be killed, but they don't die naturally (ie from illness or old age). And it would be a brave Orc who thought he could put a well-placed arrow through Legolas' noggin before Legolas did as he would have been done by first... ;-)</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Adam (212.137.30.---)
Date: January 08, 2003 01:46PM
<HTML>I went to watch the Mighty Tigers (Hull City FC for those who don't know, all bar our Jon I suspect) on New Years Day in Bury (it's a jet set life I lead). Anyway it was cold, wet and miserable, the match was terrible and we lost 1-0. On the bright side the pub was open before and after the match and Man U scored twice in the last 10 mins to beat Sunderland.</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: January 08, 2003 02:36PM
<HTML>Aha, I can top that. Went to see the Mighty Gulls (um, no, that doesn't work, does it?) aka Torquay United at Bury. It was cold but dry, and we won 1-0. Did you go in the Swan & Cemtery?</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Adam (212.137.30.---)
Date: January 08, 2003 03:00PM
<HTML>Went in:
The Paramount (Manchester) for lunch time refrehments.
The Waterloo (I think, Bury) for post-tram refreshments.
Pub near ground with big screen TV, next to The Staff of Life (Bury) for pre and post-match refreshments.
Bar at Piccadilly Station (Manchester) for pre-train refreshments.
Refreshments are good!</HTML>
The Paramount (Manchester) for lunch time refrehments.
The Waterloo (I think, Bury) for post-tram refreshments.
Pub near ground with big screen TV, next to The Staff of Life (Bury) for pre and post-match refreshments.
Bar at Piccadilly Station (Manchester) for pre-train refreshments.
Refreshments are good!</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: January 08, 2003 03:21PM
<HTML>You should have gone in the Swan & Cemetery, which is the regular 'away' pub; the beer's very good, and they do food. As William Blake so very nearly wrote
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame the Swan & Cemetery?
There's a clever link back to literature then. BTW, does anyone agree with my theory that Blake was a Brummie, as there is no other way of making eye and symmetry rhyme other than in a Brum accent?
(Note for colonials - Brummie, native of the city of Birmingham, England. Speech patterns made famous by Ozzy Osbourne. Note also the genuine French idiom 'etre de Birmingham', meaning to be bored beyond belief.)</HTML>
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame the Swan & Cemetery?
There's a clever link back to literature then. BTW, does anyone agree with my theory that Blake was a Brummie, as there is no other way of making eye and symmetry rhyme other than in a Brum accent?
(Note for colonials - Brummie, native of the city of Birmingham, England. Speech patterns made famous by Ozzy Osbourne. Note also the genuine French idiom 'etre de Birmingham', meaning to be bored beyond belief.)</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Sarah B (---.cableinet.co.uk)
Date: January 08, 2003 06:50PM
<HTML>Nowt wrong with comin' from good old Brum. Yow gotta speak propa, like wot way dow.
Ar. Like a propa brummie!</HTML>
Ar. Like a propa brummie!</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: January 08, 2003 08:59PM
<HTML>Let me make it clear at this point that some of my best wives are Brummies. (Although she did move to Torquay age 8. I believe the rest of her family caught up with her after a bit.)</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: Sarah B (---.cableinet.co.uk)
Date: January 10, 2003 10:12AM
<HTML>Right-o.
plock.
Or, as us brummies might say, ploik.</HTML>
plock.
Or, as us brummies might say, ploik.</HTML>
Re: Wide World of Sports
Posted by: fuzz (---.cableinet.co.uk)
Date: January 12, 2003 03:20PM
<HTML>PSD: so your dad's supporting the robins then is he. That should just about double the home crowd.
Anyway, my favorite sport on tv at the moment is the Paris->Dakar rally. You've got to admire the logic of making the support trucks race as well.</HTML>
Anyway, my favorite sport on tv at the moment is the Paris->Dakar rally. You've got to admire the logic of making the support trucks race as well.</HTML>
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