Nextian Chat

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:35:47 +0100

If you like American football you'll love Scottish 'Shinty' and its Irish equivalent. Both of which had some point to them at some stage, I think.

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:11:22 +0100

I know it's stupid but the gladiatorishness gets me. Plus Peyton Manning is so dosh garn cute with his little commercials...

Re: Hello!

MartinB — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:30:25 +0100

Heh. They actually got one of our kickers in the early/mid nineties in. He failed miserably.... But the game makes no sense to me. Line two groups of people up and say "Go!" (or "hut!" or whatever it is...) and they charge into each other. If you are going to do it properly, give them sticks to hit each other with.

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:38:06 +0100

bunyip Wrote: -------------------- > What other game replaces most of the team depending on whether they are going forwards or backwards. < I will have to mention that next Sunday. Hysterical! Oh well, I've liked many a stupider thing (no really, I have)...

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:56:58 +0100

Sanity is defined by the normal behaviour of the culture against which the individual's actions are compared. Back in the USSR the Russians used this definition for, as they said, that dissidents would be crazy to become public focusses. So those who did were sent to mental institutions. American football is not crazy. It is a public demonstration of phone box stuffing, except that there is less point. What other game replaces most of the team depending on whether they are going forwards or backwards. I think that this is partly to blame for the cock ups of American military endeavours in Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, because the soldiers expect to swap over depending on whether they are shooting or being shot at. This is not to denigrate individual soldiers who performed admirably on the whole, just the management systems and attitudes.

Re: Hello!

MartinB — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:37:56 +0100

Which is soo much saner.... :P

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:23:58 +0100

I remember when ESPN first started they didn't have enough content to fill the 24 hour period (only one SportsCenter per day, imagine!) and so they used to show "Australian Rules Football" a lot. My dad and I loved to watch it - it seemed so utterly insane compared to ours...

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:44:13 +0100

Re Aussie Rules. The original inventors, whoever they were (since seeing a program on ABC about the inclusion of a aboriginal game which used a stuffed possum skin as a ball and which was kicked to a person further down the ground) included the 'behinds' posts for a very specific reason. That is the encouragement of old jokes. For example: Two old ladies seeing their first Aussie Rules match and one of them said to the other 'We must go now'. The other lady asked: 'Why?'. The first old lady replied 'Because I just heard one of these supporters say 'We've only kicked five behinds since half time' and I don't want to get away before they reach us. But if you like perversions consider the Awfully Fatuous Lot who allow carrying forward of past nonAFL history into the AFL era - eg The Brownlow Medal - and allowing Victorian clubs to brag about their VFL histories as though they were AFL but denying Port Adelaide the same right. I think AFL will be nonexistent in fifteen years as it masturbates itself right out of public favour and the individual states return to their local competitions with a new national league of club games as is done with SBS type football.

Re: Hello!

robert — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:36:49 +0100

I'm not sure that I want to defend AFL per se - when I were a lad growing up in NSW the Victorians' insistence on ignoring Rugby League (instead, playing what we refered to as aerial ping-pong) was seen as a sure sign of their degeneracy as a separate Australian race. However, if we are talking about 'perversions' then surely picking up the soccer ball and running with it was the first perversion (perpetrated by some cove at Rugby School, if legend has it right). Moreover, making the main aim the scoring of tries (aka: touchdowns) by flopping over a line when in possession of the ball, instead of the kicking of goals is perhaps an even greater perversion of the original game. AFL, for all its faults (that absolutely no-one understands the rules, being the main one) at least removes the latter rugbyesque perversion by returning the game to its goal-kicking roots... though allowing a point for missing is admittedly curious.

Re: Hello!

MartinB — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:51:43 +0100

AFL.... The most bizarre perversion of rugby that I have ever seen aside from Yank football. Apologies for the sudden absence. Ubuntu updated and used about 3 times my allowed quota so I was cut off for two weeks.

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:46:09 +0100

Hi numbers! Ah, how I wish I had a new PC...

Re: Hello!

198505 — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:46:53 +0100

And I'm back, my PC went bang over the weekend and now I've got a new one! Hello !

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:36:36 +0100

Not really. There's a huge market for imported stuff among the intellectually challenged in Oz.. Bring it out and sell it - make a fortune. Just keep the valuables to yourself.

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:47:51 +0100

I wonder how hard it would really be to emigrate? Gawd a lot of my stuff would get thrown away if I did...

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:45:42 +0100

Not yet, but like cane toads and the AFL, its only a matter of time.

Re: Hello!

Bonzai Kitten — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:09:47 +0100

And we don't have those *everywhere* throughout the country.

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:29:31 +0100

Anton, might I suggest a lifestyle that allows you to spend some time in the YUK, or even OZ or Kiwifruitland, as it appears that even us colonials within the olde empitre still get things faster than does the New World. Come to Oz - a pie floater isn't sufficient deterrent to a dedicated Beeb watcher.

Re: Hello!

Anonymous User — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:35:56 +0100

Disregard the last post, continue to name at will, I'll endure the pain and write them down somewhere, I'll find a way to watch them My lobby for getting cable or satilite TV has started up again, but I'm having trouble, we could get the @#$%& one if we gave up Blockbuster, I might be able to handle that with the free DVR thingy on the deal, but the package that includes BBC America (or maybe the real BBC is available in the "International" channels) costs double. And the fact that a friend of the family used to have the Dish and it went down at the first sign of rain shoots down the idea, thar be some rain down here in The Bluegrass State

Re: Hello!

Anonymous User — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:29:57 +0100

Stop naming Shows! I know Blockbuster Online does not have many British* shows! And when they do it takes a while, I want to see "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" sooooooo bad but it is on Long Wait In Other news. I finaly updated my list on the first post. *I recently got shot down, I was so excited that they had Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, then the next day they removed it from the system!

Re: Hello!

OC Not — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:20:53 +0100

Help! was on Sundance channel night before last. I can say no more.

Re: Hello!

robert — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:15:45 +0100

"Hamish MacBeth", now that was a great show. I loved the 'pomade' episode - can say no more or I'd be a spoiler.

Re: Hello!

Bonzai Kitten — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:59:31 +0100

You weren't there, man. You weren't there...

Re: Hello!

Anonymous User — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:51:00 +0100

BibwitHart Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My whole family love Red Dwarf! Wow! sadly, mine dont really care about most of the British stuff, some pop through, like The Thin Blue Line(must add that to the list!), a little Monty Python and The Office (There's another one!) The new version of Dr Who is going over well (we've seen the first three episodes, and are waiting for the rest to come off of Short Wait on Blockbuster Online) I had a bit of a Brit nerd moment with Who when I had to explain the Naples/Cardiff joke in The Restless Dead. I spent two minutes prior to watching the episode with the family explaining the reason Cardiff is not as exciting as Naples to a Londoner (which was wasted, the joke flopped)

Re: Hello!

Anonymous User — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:06:21 +0100

Christopher Timothy is starring in the dreadful 'Doctors' daytime soap on the Beeb isn't he? And his ex-wife Carol Thingymejig, who also played his wife in ACGAS, runs a vineyard in Tuscany or something.

Re: Hello!

CannibalRabbit — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:13:22 +0100

The Last Detective - nice understated British crime series, complete with Peter Davison. What a fantastic way of whiling away a few hours. And All Creatures . . . whatever happened to Christopher Timothy? It seems like Seigfreid is everywhere at the moment - popping-up all over the place.

Re: Hello!

BibwitHart — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:22:51 +0100

Anyone who loves Red Dwarf is a friend of mine! My whole family love Red Dwarf! Re-reading is good, it saves my life. I should be able to finally allow myself to get TFAS!!! I had to throw my heart away for the past few months, and finally have been able to ring my dear friend the Little Bookroom (Christine and the others). I will have a tete a tete with the book shortly I think! Hooray for finishing my course!

Re: Hello!

nettie63 — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:19:24 +0100

Hi ANton Im new here too but have been a JFf fan since buying TEA (1st ed) yonks ago, in Manchester (UK) I bought it on impulse because of its conncetion to Jane Eyre (I am a self confessed Lit Classics anorak, just about to finish a dissertation on Jane Austen at Uni). I now have precious HB copies of every JFf book incl a signed 1st of TFB. I also have several versions of all the books in soft back, incl some US copies, some UK eds which are very tatty, which I occasionally loan out in order to reel in others. But Jasper is my only sci-fi/fantasy vice. I can't stomach any other I'm afraid. And when Ive gone through them all, as I do annually, I then revert to the classics (often reading the TN books prompts me to reread ones I've forgotton about for a while- thanks JAsper) I apologise to all in advance if my spelling/grammar is not what it should be, and I'm on lthe lookout for bookworms to rectify my problems.

Re: Hello!

Anonymous User — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:56:55 +0100

Thanks! I like it to! Thanks to my slow memory, and the fact that I have both read and finished The Fourth Bear, Going Postal, Thud!, and Equal Rites since I posted the first time, I have a couple more things to add I forgot to mention that I also like Bones (the show, I have not read the books yet, but the Fforde mention has gotten me interested) Boston Legal (Mad Cow!) Red Dwarf All Creatures Great and Small and The Last Detective (just started the show actualy) the last three are pretty much covered by the blanket "Anything British" statement but who doesnt like lists?

Re: Hello!

MuseSusan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:23:51 +0200

Hiya, Anton! (belated welcome) I like your taste in literature/tv/movies!

Re: Hello!

bunyip — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:10:16 +0200

Let us cast these sporting insults to the ashes. Brings back a memory of when in the yuk. Irish jokes were all the rage. (So were the IRA and wonders who else has had the lovely experience of being trapped in the upstairs bar of a pub for 4 hours because there was an IRA bomb threat down stairs and nobody came to look for us until about 11.15pm. My friend and I had 22 empty pint glasses on the bar when we were found and had plaqyed about a million games of darts.) I had a sheet of Irish jokes printed on broadsheet in about 10 pitch. One of the last was: Q: Why do the Irish think that the wheel barrow was one of the greatest inventions ever? A: Because it taught the English to walk on two legs. The last joke was: Q: What is black and blue and floats of Milford Haven? A: An English person telling Irish jokes in Dublin.