28 November 2009

Daily Chat 28/11/07


A bond of £40 was paid for the marriage licence of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in 1582.  The Royal Society was formed in 1660.  The Times was printed by steam-powered presses for the first time in 1814, making newspapers available to a wide readership for the first time.  Women in New Zealand voted in the general election in 1893, marking the first time in any country that women were allowed to vote in a national election.

Born today:  Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), William Blake (1757-1827), Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) and Berry Gordy, Jr. (1929).

It is Independence Day in Albania and Mauretania.

143 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Dunno why I like Blake..he can't draw donkeys and all his women have Joe Frazier's shoulders...but apart from that..

    Apparently it was WB who tipped off Tom Payne the authorities were keen on having a word or two about his vexatious blogging activities whereupon he high-tailed it for Calais and a second revolutionary entanglement.

    Just looked back at last night's revelations. Hermione Gingold's a fella huh? That's another little image blown..I had a vision of a daffy old ginned-up Miss Haversham type tootling around a flat full of doilies and stuffed marmosets..now I just see some big fat geezer leaning on a goalpost and scratching his bollocks while he reads Nuts.

    Still, he/she is a class act...bit "Allan Clarke" for some people's tastes, but a class act none the less...(that's the footballer btw).

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  3. Allan Clarke? Was he not a goalhanging c***? I hope you're not suggesting.. No, of course not. That would be rude. Not the sort of thing that well-bred and attractive Untrusters ever do.

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  4. When Cath was ill recently, I got the impression from Hermione's supportive messages that she is a woman... Doesn't matter a jot, really, but I'd got used to thinking of her as 'batty but wonderful great aunt' in the CIF family dynamic, might have to have a rethink.

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  5. Nah that's just blind prejudice. Ol' Sniffer's all round contribution, work ethic and willingness to drop back into midfield when required were legendary...as were Norman Hunter's commitment to the Corinthian ideal and Second Wave feminism.

    I just mentioned it was the footballer, in case anyone thought I might have been referring to the aristocratic political diarist and 'humourist'.

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  6. ah, a homeopathy thread. perfect reading for a saturday morning...

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  7. Bed, monkeyfish? Sweet dreams.

    Philippa

    Less stressful than thumb screws & racks, perchance?

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  8. have mild hangover and am just amusing myself being silly, mschin! rowr...

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  9. monkeyfish,

    Sniffer Clarke is the only 'dirty' Leeds player that Clough has any time for in 'The Damned Utd', the book that is. By all accounts a nice bloke and a top striker.

    As I looked at the latest comments (500+) on Montana's thread something has just struck me.

    Does anyone else notice that it is only Untrusted contributors of a certain gender that get ATL gigs?

    -BB
    -annetan
    -Montana

    Now I may have been hanging about with my good mate GIYUS for too long but I smell a Bindel/Bidisha/Bea plot here.

    I think we have an undercover mole at work here (deep throat if you will) slowly destabilising the anti-gender issue consensus here.

    The mole is giving the UT women access to ATL gigs to spread the anti-male agenda through the UT.

    Guaranteed Philippa, Sheff, Thauma and MsChin are next for ATL duties.

    I demand the recall of the Committee for Public Safety Gender Splitting Division (CPSGSD) for those accused to prove their innocence.

    And for Jay or Hank to write a denunciation on the UT2

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  10. your grace - you're missing the most obvious pointer - "UT", the first two letters of "uterus". There's no fighting biology...

    No womb, no room (ATL).

    Just the way it is...

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  11. Oh 'eck, Pip, our plot has been uncovered & we have a rebellion on our hands.

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  12. This article was in this week's Guardian Weekly - v interesting after Montana's UT2 piece.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/12/united-nations-us-property-fallout
    The Guardian search engine is atrocious, though - this didn't come up at all, I had to use google to find it...

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  13. mschin - quick, let's distract them! You ask them to take the bins out, I'll start crying...

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  14. Good tactics, Philippa.

    But first - I've been avoising the doom & gloom economic stuff, but is this really what they've been spending people's bank charges on?

    "For two years running, Lloyds TSB rewarded its top employees with a Stars in Their Eyes party, with guests sipping champagne on a flotilla of Thames riverboats to the O2 arena, to be met by chef Gordon Ramsay, who organised the menu. Senior executives took part in a singing competition, followed by performances by the Sugababes and McFly.

    A spokeswoman for Lloyds says that a Christmas do on such a scale would be "inappropriate" this year. "We have set a modest amount if business units want to reward colleagues," she says".

    F*ucking charming.

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  15. MsChin - ay, I knew the credit crunch was kicking in when the old firm's Christmas party changed from being 'hire a pub, free bar for beer and wine, buffet throughout the evening' to 'herd everyone into the largest meeting room, make them wear party hats, buy two packets of mince pies from the sainsburys local bargain bin'.

    Mind you - McFly? Clearly there is some form of retributive karma going on there...

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  16. As I suspected. Sheff's drinking dalliances with the CiF gender elite last night confirms the treachery.

    Gentlemen, dust down the tumbrils, peal the bells and unsheath the blade.

    Let justice be virtuous but terrible.

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  17. Look Duke, it's either do the bins or clean the toilet.

    I can't have you dissing me mate sheff like that, she's met Cath now, for goodness sake.

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  18. And look, you've made Pip cry.

    Naughty Duke.

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  19. Fence & Duke are going to be upset. Our conspiracy theorist has new friend.

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  20. Well I can't sleep.

    Here's a 'good read'..from a Scots Tory

    http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/7766/

    #From smoking bans to sin taxes, Brian Monteith finds that Scotland has proved itself a willing victim for the practices of the nanny state’s angrier successor: the bully state.#

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  21. Interesting article monkeyfish.

    However it's a bit rich of Monteith to moan that the nanny state is ruining devolved Scotland.

    As a hardline Thatcherite he was happy to watch his country ruined by the Conservative party with no mandate here from 1979 onwards.

    In 1997, he then became chairman of the 'Think Twice' campaign bitterly opposed to devolution.

    So although he does make some valid points, you'll excuse me if I don't see him as a 'champion' for the good of Scotland.

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  22. Phillipa didn't know Cath had been ill - popped over to her site and saw her daughter had been assaulted in what seems to be a random loony attack in a library.

    monkeyfish many thanks for the spiked link, is new to me (though Brendan O'Neill and a few others aren't).

    Agree with Our Grace about Monteith - the Think Twice campaign was the most doomed political campaign in Scottish history, unaided by the oddballs fronting it.

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  23. Edwin - this was a while back, which is why I can't track down the comment (thanks again to the G-search engine, which is as good at finding the articles you want as I am at finding the right lightbulb in a supermarket).

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  24. "mschin - quick, let's distract them! You ask them to take the bins out, I'll start crying..."

    This made me LOL :o)

    Pottering about today trying to put off doing some work. I will prolly end up doing it tomorrow evening by which time my window of procrastination will have disappeared.

    If His Grace calls me a woman of a certain age again, though, I will twat him. If 50 is the new 40, then my life hasn't even begun yet! Cheek! :o)

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  25. Morning all - really good evening @ the JH once I'd plucked up the courage to go in... very warm welcome from TigerDunc (who is lovely) and GegenBeispiel and then Sheff turned up and everything was all right... :) was a tad strange to (briefly) meet someone you've recently accused of editorial cowardice, but Matt was v amiable! Had a great conversation with Cath & Sheff about the one-dimensionalness (?) of getting to know someone on a forum like CiF... really good to put pseudonyms to faces!
    And it was a Fuller's pub. What more could any sane marsupial ask. Thanks again to Tiger, & here's to next year! x

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  26. Sounds like it was a fun night. I wish I had stirred my stumps and made the effort really. If I had been working in London yesterday I would have done, but it is a bit of a shlepp in and out.

    Good that you met up with Sheff and Cath. Did Ally turn up in the end?

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  27. shaz - 'morning'? feeling a bit fragile? tee hee.

    agree that it's odd to 'get to know' people on CIF or here - I had pictures in my head of people, and then when the avatars went up, that made life even more confusing. far as i'm concerned, it's very impressive that so many of you with paws can type...

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  28. Yes he did, and Imogen, Jessica, Biskieboo, Rowenna, Brian W, Damntheral, msvirago... er... memory faltering here... Sheff, help!

    Last train home leaves @ 11.03, so didn't have time to get plastered... probably a good thing, but it would have been good to have stayed a bit longer. Bought book on maligning of Richard III at Victoria, so good night all round!

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  29. BB,

    I didn't say you were of a 'certain age' I said you were of a 'certain gender.'

    Again, typical of the obfuscation that those who wish to push the gender agenda use.

    The evidence is all stacking up ;)

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  30. Hello Philippa - no, only three pints (mm, Chiswick) but no dinner, so may have been a little...er...chatty.

    Re paws - if I keep the claws at the right length, I can use a standard keyboard. Not sure how HighlandCoo manages tho.

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  31. Sod, just realised what the time is!

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  32. Shaz,

    did GIYUS turn up? Just wondering because I daresay he was barred but kept turning up at the door in a new disguise.

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  33. Arse.

    You are right. I proffer my abject apologies, Your Grace.

    Reading things that aren't there again. Sigh.

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  34. HighlandCoo presumably is 'hunt and peck' with his horns...

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  35. it's freewoolly's little lamby hooves that puzzle me most...

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  36. Your Dukeness... haha no, I don't believe he did - but Damntheral said that he had planned to pretend to be him. Not sure how long he'd have managed to keep up the conversational style, although he did a spirited 10-second burst!

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  37. Wow what a few days! And I missed it all due to crappy 'puter. Montana congrats on the Cif piece - it is brilliant - you should def do a regular blog.

    13th Duke: ''Guaranteed Philippa, Sheff, Thauma and MsChin are next for ATL duties.'' I shall try not to take it personally :)

    And then MF - Gingold - a bloke! I cannot get my head around that.

    Right - quick warning to anyone on here who banks with Abbey. Funnily enough after all the bank charges stuff I had charges of 280 quid on my statement this month. And I have not gone overdrawn. They had applied loads of charges to some DD's when i was in the allowed O/D. They have sorted it but they said their system has been doing this to some accounts. So any Abbey customers check your statements.

    Right am off again as trying to get my laptop sorted as this PC keeps dying on me and/or not letting me online and it is doing my head in. Seriously - think I am going through withdrawal!

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  38. Hey PCC - hope you get it sorted soon.

    On the day of the Bank ruling, NatWest emailed me with changes to their Ts & Cs which were actually more favourable - for example, they won't charge for the first £15 of unauthorised overdraft, which makes sense as very often people find themselves going over by a few quid by mistake. Clearly they thought that they would stand no chance at all charging £30 for someone who had gone over by a fiver...

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  39. princesscc,

    sorry for missing you out on the list. I did ask for you to get an ATL gig on WDYWTTA once. Hope that makes up for it!

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  40. Hi All

    Just had a despidering session. I leave the webs till empty and dusty so I know they are no longer used. This then becomes massive cleaning job - takes time to check egg purses for spiderlings - I have to wash round them. It has obviously been a good year for spiders.

    Re, ABL - several times on WADDYA it has been suggested that a weekly column from different plebs would be a good idea. This seems to me to be an estimable - and fair - suggestion.

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  41. Leni

    You leave the webs til empty and dusty for the sake of the spiders?!

    Yes!!

    I now have an excuse for being an appalling housewife! :o)

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  42. BB

    I got my excuse in early - when I lived in polite Sussex and my sons were young most of their friends had immaculate houses - and mothers. Mine had me !

    Too many visitors at a time could cause constenation as we hurriedly emptied woodlice and beetles from mugs and hid the salad bowl which contained garden snails among the lettuce leaves.

    My sons believed me when I told them I was housewife of the year .

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  43. Housewife shmousewife. Sounds like you are a fantastic mum! :o)

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  44. Leni's suggestion

    'Re, ABL - several times on WADDYA it has been suggested that a weekly column from different plebs would be a good idea. This seems to me to be an estimable - and fair - suggestion.'

    I obviously can't make the suggestion on waddaya but what about encouraging the cifmeisters to look seriously at this -

    - regular posters only

    - random selection

    - normal fee

    To make it even more fun, once a month a poster will be asked to do a blog but other posters will be asked to vote on a topic beforehand.

    Imagine

    Any of Ben Goldacre's groupies on evidence-based medicine's greatest blunders

    Berchmans on the joys of Zionist poetry set to Klezmer music

    MAM on getting it wrong sometimes

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  45. Clearly they thought that they would stand no chance at all charging £30 for someone who had gone over by a fiver...

    Hmph! My bank charges $25, even if you only go over by a few cents -- and they're a not-for-profit credit union!


    Leni, you sound like my kind of housekeeper!

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  46. I'm still here! o/

    Just responded on your thread re scratchyoureyesouts's suggestion that you can just walk off a plane if you do any of the jobs in the list he provided.

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  47. Housekeeping? What's that?

    What a glorious day: Ireland 15 - South Africa (so-called world champions) 10. Wales were shite though.

    Highland Coos are gorgeous creatures.

    Shaz and Sheff, do spill some more beans.

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  48. DEANO's BACK! :o)

    I was beginning to get a bit worried about him...

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  49. Bloody hell, Montana, even ngavc congratulated you, albeit in a somewhat back-handed manner!

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  52. Bleeding hell double posted by mistake then deleted two by mistake! Duke - please do not worry, I cant do anything for money anyway! And messy ladies I salute you! (that was it in a nutshell). Oh and hello Deano! Hope you are well?

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  53. Where's Deano? I've just scrolled right up the thread in case I missed a post and no, I still don't see him....

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  54. Thaum - he has posted on Montana's thread, but he is being a bit coy round here for some reason... come on Deano, tell us what you have been up to since we last spoke! :o)

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  55. Oooh

    "Sunshine" is on telly tomorrow night. Not a bad sci-fi film in itself, but made a gzillion times better by the Underworld soundtrack. :o)

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  56. This may be a double post as Blogger seems to have taken to eating them in much the same way as Cif, but...

    Deano said a while ago that he was taking some time off and would be back in mid-December, I think.

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  57. ahhhh - thanks, Thaum. I was wondering where he was and hoping he was ok.

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  58. All well here friends - the briefest of visits today though.

    Just had a great hour and a bit reading the last 8 days of UT.

    The place goes from strength to strength. Great to see the return of some resting members and regular contributions from the new recruits.

    Chin - finally decided against York (no decent seats left). Happily they are doing the Messiah at Beverley Minster on Dec 5th and the parking is easier and I can get a taxi or walk it (at a push) back to the van afterwards. Some great ale next door to the Bev Minster!

    Stoaty - Glad to see you back. A complete month without a post, that really is discipline!

    Montana - I join with everyone else in saying how pleased I was to see you ATL. I've only just seen and read it so my congrats were late in the day, but at least I got them in before the thread closed.

    I'm intending to be back as a paid up member around Dec 10th (ish)

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  59. Deano has also said before that sometimes he can comment on Cif, but not here. Summat to do with his dongle.

    Thauma -- what did ngavc say that was somewhat complimentary? I must have missed that...

    A guy named Norfolkian just posted a perfect illustration of the right-wing American mindset. It will read like parody to most of you, but I guarantee it's a genuinely held view by many.

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  60. Hello, Deano! Thanks -- as you've seen, many of my compatriots were less pleased to see me ATL.

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  61. Montana, from 12:54 am:

    You've stirred good debate, but I still found the article took too many cheap shots. But from the number of postings, you're likely to return.

    ... [blah, blah, I like big houses and cars] ...

    Congrtas on asuccessful post. At least you're not from a foreign country like New York or California.

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  62. Oh, yeah. I guess I did see that -- responded to the bit about the big houses and cars, even.

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  63. Good to see you back Deano, even if it is only a flying visit.

    Montana - I saw the post from Norfolkian and I believe you when you say he is for real. I have met people like that here in the UK too. Utterly self-absorbed and "me mine ours" attitude to life. My dad is a bit like that, but I still try and knock the old codger into shape a bit.

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  64. Evening all,

    Montana, I must say, your thread continues to rumble along nicely, most entertaining.

    If anyone fancies a bit more rootin-tootin Team America shenanigans, the 'young' gun NRA thread is where it's at.

    Sitting here with a few Belgian numbers kindly brought over by a mate.

    Drinking 'delirium' at the moment so can I get my apologies in just now for the no doubt nonsensical posts that will gush from these fingers a bit later on? Cheers.

    Hank, if you're reading, Forest are looking very tasty at the moment. Daring to dream yet?

    deano, nice to see you again.

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  65. Pestinpest has just made me laugh. And congrats to MW for getting her long overdue ATL "C"ommando status :)

    The toilets at a site I worked on a while ago all bore stickers proudly proclaiming that "this facility has been serviced by Commando". I just kept picturing all these knickerless blokes with machine guns changing the toilet rolls....

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  66. Just e-mailed the Graun about the complete impossibility of using the site for long threads as scrolling becomes so slow and erratic you often cannot read longer posts in their entireity.

    I've given up its exhausted me!

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  67. BB -- what I especially love about the attitude of the Norfolkians of this world is the "You can't have your vision because I won't pay for it" business. In other words, he doesn't really want democracy -- he wants a right-wing capitalist authoritarian state -- theocracy, probably. The fact is, most Americans actually hold somewhat left-of-centre (left of the American centre, anyway) views on most major political issues, when you ask them about the individual issues. The problem is when you get to the labelling. The neo-con blowhards have done such an effective job of stigmatising the labels, that people will deny that they're liberal/progressive and vote against their own self-interests.

    Your Grace, I think I'll give the NRA thread a pass. NRA members are fucking unhinged. Enjoy the Delirium.

    I'm a 'C'ommando now, huh? That's funny. I have to admit, it's kind of weird to see that blue 'C' by my name!

    Annetan -- repeat after me:

    What do we want? Pagination!
    When do we want it? NOW!

    Now -- someone please explain this to me:

    that will come as some relief to Gary Megson after a run of four defeats in five games. (emphasis mine)

    I was once taken to task on this very site for referring to an episode of football playing as a 'game'. They're 'matches', I was reminded ('cos I did actually know that). So why is the Graun referring to them as 'games'?

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  68. Your Grace -- precious, aren't they?

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  69. Just went over to that gun thread, Your Grace.

    What a bunch of tossers.

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  70. Ah, Montana, that is because footie fans are very sensitive to the fact that soccer is less of a sport than, say, diving: it's the 'beautiful game', after all.

    Watching the effete rugger today, I saw two players get injuries that required stitches but who yet played on (bit of vaseline on the wound; the stitches can wait), and one who had his dislocated thumb manhandled back into place and who then carried on.

    (Where's Hank, anyway?)

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  71. Hi Montana,

    they certainly are. Although it's always easier to be a blowhard when you're anonymous.

    I didn't comment on your excellent piece but what I did want to say was that your views on the USA chimed exactly with the Americans I met when I was in the States.

    I spent a year travelling around the US after Uni and almost every single American I met was polite, inquisitive, intelligent, accomodating and fantastically generous.

    For me the American people are badly let down by a horrendous media and Govt by corporation which we see increasingly in the UK.

    There is no way anyone can stereotype a nation of 250 million people despite the best efforts of the yahoos on Fox news etc, and this is the best aspect of your article: It helps to dispel the European stereotype of the American as either being a redneck or a North Eastern seaboard elitist liberal. An American citizen who wishes to question the political and media consensus of the US and to explain that there are millions of Americans who are broad minded and don't think of their nation as being automatically number one.

    More power to your elbow and hope to see many more articles. And I think Bolton will be safe!

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  72. Thaum

    I once saw my bro get a broken nose on the rugby field, blood streaming. Grabbed his nose with both hands, crunched it back into place again and played on... I was bloody screaming at him from the sidelines!

    He broke his nose so many times the local hospital told him not to bother going back until he gave up playing cos they were fed up with seeing him.

    One of his mates had a kneecap that used to dislocate quite a lot too. He used to whack it back in with his fist and play on.

    Then you get the big girls blouses on the footie pitch that roll on the floor and cry like babies when someone bumps into them. I know it is all part of the theatre of it to try and gain a penalty, but they do look like fekken sissies in comparison, really.

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  73. Duke,

    almost every single American I met was polite, inquisitive, intelligent, accomodating and fantastically generous.

    Dunno where you went, but that certainly wasn't my experience living there for all too many years. Oh, certainly I met some Americans who had some of those attributes, and a few who possessed them all, but those were a minority. ("Inquisitive" is the one that really leaps to mind, unless you mean, "Gee, do ya really mean there's electricity in Iyerlann?")

    'Course, I'm just being slightly evil and I think you'd struggle to find a majority of the populace who possesses all those attributes in any country.

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  74. BB,

    the only thing that was missing from the post I copied above was a reference to ''goddamn pinko liberals'' and it would have been 10 out of 10.

    It's a yeehaa fest on there. Every time I open it this keeps playing.

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  75. thauma,

    Well I travelled 'coast to coast' and genuinely was impressed with most the people I came across.

    And I've never met as many great, great, great, great great, great, great, great, great grandsons/daughters/nieces/nephews of Mary, Queen of Scaatch as I did there...

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  76. Can hardly believe I'm posting this but, years back I had a long and quite tiresome 'debate' with Norfolkian..not sure why as he comes over as a complete twat..and tbh, the sort of person with whom I will generally have no truck. Just watch yourself if you decide you're gonna have a real go..he's actually far from stupid...has he mentioned Nietzsche yet?

    He's not racist or even especially bigoted, as I recall, just exceptionally taken with the 'superman' self-realisation / determination thing and he's got a shit load of automatic weapons, the reason for his ownership of such an arsenal is...and he's quite right.."no other fucker's business" when such ownership is a constitutional right...as is his right to refuse to be pressed on his rationale for living his life like a wised-up, badass but law-abiding regular citizen straight out of Elmore Leonard.

    You won't change his mind, dent his confidence or manage to walk away feeling anything less than total revulsion...although you've gotta admire his logic and consistency. I'm not even sure he's a good 'American' in the sense you were hinting at. Every nation has pathologically self-confident and reliant individuals...at least his is a considered stance...he isn't at all mindless.

    And I suppose "each to his own" is what that particular constitution was made for.

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  77. Enough with the football/rugby bollocks. I like both sports but this pseudo-macho rugby crap is extremely tiresome. What about fake blood capsules down the socks, so that you can pretend to be injured? What about scalpel cuts behind the ear in the dressing room, so you can pull the stitches out on the pitch and pretend to be injured? What about organized cheating sanctioned by the manager rather than just diving in the box for a penalty? I don't think football need learn any lessons from rugby about honesty and integrity.

    I'll still watch them both, of course, but let's not be naive about what highly paid sportsmen do.

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  78. Oh I agree with you scherf. It has changed since it became a money game. Back in my bro's day in the 80s he played for Harlequins but could only afford to cos he worked for BT, and they sponsored him for his outings and kit allowed him the time off for training and stuff.

    Now that it is a professional sport and there is big money to be made, it has got nasty.

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  79. Hehe Wybourne, actually I quite like that song. Had a boyfriend who had toured with the post-crash remnants of Skynrd, and he said they were all in fact huge Neil Young fans - they were just a little miffed about Young's song.

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  80. Very true, Scherfig. And they're taking to diving now as well - I've seen Ronan O'Gara kick the ball away and pretend to be hit late by the guy who was charging at him. Rugby's well and truly lost the moral high ground on that one.

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  81. thauma,

    really, your old boyfriend toured with the Skynyrd? Most impressed.

    And as for being fans of Neil Young. When Wybourne becomes President for Life of this sceptred isle, laws shall not exist EXCEPT that every citizen will profess dying love for Neil Young or death.

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  82. In keeping with montana's thread:

    God and Guns

    or, even better, the old stuff:

    Saturday Night Special

    I love Lynrd Skynrd!

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  83. Your Grace: Perhaps your experiences were somewhat affected by the fact that you were probably not in any one place for terribly long? I agree that, in some ways, Americans can be all the things you say, but many of the Americans who were probably very generous and hospitable to you, a foreign visitor, would begrudge a homeless person on the street so much as the price of a cup of coffee. I agree that the US media share a huge chunk of the blame, though, for the way issues are framed. And I'm glad to hear that you think Bolton will be safe. I've not been following them as closely as I should, but they've been scaring me.

    Thauma: Imagine how my Zambian and Kenyan friends at uni felt when they were asked if they lived in mud huts!

    Monkey: Thanks for the warning, but I've no intention of engaging with him any more than I already have. It just wouldn't be healthy.

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  84. scherfig,

    if it's guns and music we're discussing, it's got to be Fur Q- Uzi lover.

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  85. 13th, the BF's own band did a fucking brilliant half-hour version of Down by the River. They were all Neil Young freaks.

    If my puter didn't need such serious rebooting at the mo, I'd try to find a version of my favourite Skynyrd song, That Smell.

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  86. that smell

    Can there ever be too much coke and too much smoke? Answers on a postcard.

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  87. BB -- there's a question in your inbox.

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  88. Oh fuck me..I'll never get a grip of this being nice shit..

    Just looked at the waddaya thread..

    Bottle of Champagne winging its way from la la land..

    And here was me thinking the way to rehabilitation, when you've made a terminally degenerate shitbag of your reputation, was maybe an apology..an admission of wrongdoing...or even lying low for a bit..

    But no!! It's throwing a bit of cash around in "such a lovely gesture"
    Nope..I'll never get it!

    Someone help me out here...someone fucks up really badly; demonstrating that they are completely insensitive, manipulative, conniving and materialistic...

    ..then they're all lovely again by throwing a bit of money around in a "wonderfully thoughtful, 'well bred and attractive' gesture"..Nope doesn't square with me at all..must be because I'm all churlish/chippy etc.

    Nothing at all to do with the fact that spending all the fuckin money in the world can't replace a lack of moral courage or genuine remorse...that's just the old fashioned debased Lefty in me talking no doubt?

    Jeezus..no wonder CIF barred me...

    Least I'll fuckin say it..I bet I'm not the only one thinking it....and if I have upset you all by bringing this up...don't think I'm sending out any cans of lager to make up for it

    Sheesh...etc...ad nauseam

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  89. thauma,

    hadn't heard that before. What's interesting about it is that the essence of the song is pretty much the same as bling bling hip hop 25 year down the line.

    Montana- point taken, as a traveller you're bound to get a skewed vision of a country but as I said before I think a regular article from yourself would be good as a counterpoint to the stereotypical image Europeans have of Americans.

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  90. Down by the River strikes me as a pretty good commentary on blog sites! (Link is a good version with unfortunate distortion.)

    Be on my side,
    I'll be on your side,
    There is no reason
    for you to hide
    It's so hard for me
    staying here all alone
    When you could be
    taking me for a ride.

    She could drag me
    over the rainbow,
    send me away
    Down by the river
    I shot my baby
    Down by the river,
    Dead, oh, shot her dead.

    You take my hand,
    I'll take your hand
    Together we may fly away
    Too much madness
    Too much sorrow
    It's impossible
    to think about today.

    Down by the river etc.

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  91. You are not alone, monkeyfish, but what the hell, it's a bit of a laugh.

    your loveliness goes on and on

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  92. Monkeyfish - no, you're not alone there.

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  93. "dedicated" is a prime example of one of the reasons I have no intentions of ever going to the US to live. If he was only in a minority it wouldnt be so bad. But many American friends confirm that there are just too many of the gits.

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  94. MF - no, you're not alone. If I was going to do something like that I would have done it anonymously, or stuck some money behind the bar anonymously. But that's just me.

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  95. Monkeyfish -- well, I must say that my reaction was similar to yours, but that probably comes as no surprise.

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  96. Oh, but BB! How would everyone know just what a fab person you are if you did it anonymously?

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  97. BB,

    dedicated really didn't need to have gone to the trouble of writing that much when the message of his post could have been encapsulated into three words:

    ''Ignorance is strength''

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  98. Can I just say that I sent 6 bottles of champagne anonymously because I don't want anyone to think that I'm fab (although I am). Because that's just the sort of super guy I am. I did send them! Honestly!

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  99. Montana - This is better than Skynyrd. - far, far too country for me, sorry!

    Scherfig - well, if you're going to go all Mountain on us, might as well go for the prototype!

    Oh, and while we're at it: the bane of all American musicians.

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  100. My god, there are even eejits signing up especially to have a go on Montana's thread now! Someone must have put a link up on the Freepers website or something! :o)

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  101. But scherfig, you haven't mentioned how extremely tiring it was to send all those e-mails to set it up.

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  102. Change of subject (briefly): am I the only to be disturbed by how much the mask in the pic at the top of the thread looks like BiteThePillow's avatar?

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  103. #Can I just say that I sent 6 bottles of champagne anonymously because I don't want anyone to think that I'm fab (although I am). Because that's just the sort of super guy I am. I did send them! Honestly!#

    Actually scherfig, when I rang the guy at the pub he told me about your 'little gesture' and FYI..Albanian sparkling cider isn't champagne... strictly speaking.

    I told him to bin your 6 bottles and add another 6 bottles of Cristal to the two cases that I'd anonymously donated...I wasn't even going to let on but your ill-bred and unattractive ostentation forced my hand.

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  104. Ooh Thaum - you've got a point there!

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  105. Not a mask..click on the picture for a close up

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  106. thauma, I never set up Emails. I'm much too busy for that sort of thing. If I want to talk to anyone, I just use Cif.

    And I'll stick with the late great Skynrd, thanks all the same. There's only so many times you can hear 'Smoke on the Water' in one lifetime, and I ran out of crap-vouchers many years ago.

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  107. Can I also add that the two blokes behind the woman on the picture look like they're having a dick measuring competition.

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  108. Do men have dick-measuring competitions?!!

    You have got to be kidding me!

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  109. And the woman looks like Eric Cantona with long hair and a shave.."Ven zee bats follow zee trawler zay ees...ow you say...out doggin"

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  110. Scherfig - have just watched/listened to your DBTR - a nice one!

    Was that Joan Baez I spotted dancing around?

    Problem with the older recordings is that they're just not as good, fidelity-wise: NY is an expert at crunchy guitar (or Master of the One-note Solo, depending on your opinion), and I don't think it quite comes out as well in the older ones.

    Love CSN/Y though, especially Steven Stills.
    Whilst we're going for the oldies: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.

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  111. they can't help it

    http://www.jesusandmo.net/2009/11/24/apace/

    and let me be the first to wish you all a convivial winterval..

    http://www.jesusandmo.net/2009/11/26/time/

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  112. Albanian sparkling cider isn't champagne

    Jeez, these bolshie uncouth scousers! The word at all the high profile bun-fights in Tirana is that sparkling cider is the new Dom Perignon. The bon viveurs swill nothing else at the dog fights in Kukes.

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  113. #The bon viveurs swill nothing else at the dog fights in Kukes.#

    Bon viveurs my arse..

    The real movers and shakers are at the bear baiting...get a grip. Who are you anyway? Gossip monger for the Chavscum Weekly Herald?

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  114. Duke: Can I also add that the two blokes behind the woman on the picture look like they're having a dick measuring competition.

    I thought they were just two hookers preparing for a scrummage.

    BB - I have the impression that there's a subtle dick-measuring competition going on every time a bloke goes to a public bog. But I could be wrong.

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  115. God, your blog has been linked all over the bloody place, Montana. No wonder there is a stack of randoms turning up and commenting on it! Fame at last! \o/

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  116. ''And we have a full time score just in from the south side of Glasgow:

    Belgian Beers 1- Duke staying up past midnight- 0

    The favourites just edging the unfancied outsider there.''

    Night all.

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  117. Thauma -- do you know that Americans are sometimes wont to call out "Freeeeebirrrrrrrd!" at random concerts? If I'd been able to make it to one of the Specials' reunion tour shows, I'd have been sorely tempted to do it, just for a laugh. Somehow, I think Terry would've appreciated the joke.

    I've had it to my eye teeth with my own damn thread now. And I think it's still open for another 19 hours.

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  118. God, your blog has been linked all over the bloody place, Montana. No wonder there is a stack of randoms turning up and commenting on it! Fame at last!

    I just hope the fuckwits don't show up here. We might have to open up the Phonebooth again.

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  119. Montana - yes, that's what I meant by 'bane'!

    Am off to bed too, night all!

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  120. Joan Baez it was. Big Sur in 1969 was perhaps a version of America we could like a bit better than some of the versions we're seeing on montana's thread.

    btw Suite Judy Blue Eyes is my favourite CSN track. Written for this woman:

    judy collins

    GODDAMM HIPPY SHIT!

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  121. Montana - just do what the normal ATLers do and ignore the rest of it :o)

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  122. OK possums - time I was in bed.

    Cooking lunch at my dad's tomorrow so will catch you later on x

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  123. Can't do that, BB! Scratchyourarse referred to one particular comment which montana apparently met with a deafening silence (sign of guilt and arrogance). Apparently you have to respond to every single comment individually. Who knew? (And for fuck's sake, don't tell Lady Bea.)

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  124. Well, Scherf, it was just such a brilliant comment that my tiny, little brain couldn't argue with it!

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  125. "oh fuck me...I'll never get a grip of this being nice shit..."

    The trick is, MF, not to care about anything very much. Been pretty busy this week but have alighted on one or two of the little scandals of the Cifosphere this week, where lots of poses have been thrown, elegantly-shod feet stamped etc, but no offence has really been offered or indeed taken, because, well, we don't really care as such, it's just something to pass the time while we're at work.

    I didn't make it to the Jack Horner the other night but as Lady Bountiful seems intent on advertising her glittering social diary together with the munificence she showers on the thirsty, champagne-deprived poor, I will make an effort to attend her Xmas visitation on the great unwashed.

    @The Duke - just back from the game and the 7-hour debriefing session. We take it very seriously! Tbh, the automatic places are gone already, I think, but we've got every chance of making the playoffs.

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  126. Hey, Hank! Did Forest win? Haven't looked back at the results since finding out Bolton drew again.

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  127. We won 4-1, MH. It wasn't as good as that might sound tbh. We've played some good stuff this season, and the consensus has been that we were due to give some bunch of saps a good seeing-to, but today we played like dogs and won convincingly. Funny old game!

    Anyway, where's martillo? I want to get some pre-match goading in before our favourite game of the year kicks off at Camp Nou tomorrow...

    No pasaran! Y venceremos!

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  128. Goad away -- I think he often reads even when he doesn't comment.

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  129. Nice.
    Here's the Jazz Butcher

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eY0zDnvVDs

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  130. Sorry
    hes a mate, and I thought it worth including...
    ;-)

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