We Interrupt Our Scheduled Programming…

Not quite sure about the relevance of Hooters, mind.

…

Fuck The Pope

Tim Minchin (with a heavy debt to South Park) offers robust musical criticism to the Catholic Church’s response to the paedophilia scandal.

Sport in Black and White Film

From my sports blog, but cross-posted here for its sociological aspects!

Some videos from the olden days of sport, mainly from the awesome BFI channel. A short documentary on the ban on women playing football, a ban which would last from 1920 to 1970, a piece on a Scottish Cup game from 1920 between Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline (note the referee’s outfit!). Wales beat England at Rugby Union in 1922 (though the introductory frame looks much more like football). Short film about the legendary West Indian cricketer, Learie Constantine, one of the first black players to supplant British colonialists in the West Indies time. Clapton Orient play their last game of the 1915 season before, almost en bloc, joining the army. The poor groundsman has to deal with soldiers marching over his pitch. Accrington play Church at cricket in 1902. The Manchester to Blackpool walk race from 1903. Good to see that the technique for competitive walking has stayed consistently ridiculous for over a century. And finally, the almost hallucinogenic Ladies on Bicycles.

Men are from Mars…

Player of Games

Looking for some time wasting distractions? Of course you are.

Drench. Very simple, very addictive, very difficult to describe. Just press the colour buttons, watch the top left blocks and working it out from there.

This game manages to capture the experience of playing cricket while very drunk exceptionally well. For the Chris Tavare fans who’d rather stonewall a big score you can play it without the time limit here.

Jam today

I’m currently writing epic and doubtlessly hugely influential posts on reforming the UK electoral system and vegetarianism. But while you’re waiting, some more links.

I’ve not watched any X Factor this season (and only under duress in previous series) but Jack Seale’s blog on the Radio Times site is so good that I just read it all the way back to the start. Most recent update here, click on “previous” for earlier entries. Amusingly, most people commenting make no reference to the articles, but simply lay in to Simon/Louis/ITV for whatever iniquity they have been responsible for this week.

Garfield minus Garfield, remove Garfield from Jim Davis’ tedious comics and suddenly an existential nightmare envelopes Jon … with hilarious results. Well, quite funny results, anyway.

The ever-excellent Pitch Invasion site has a genuinely touching article on supporting the Chicago Fire and their play-off game against the New England Revolution, plus the sites trademark quality photos. A useful corrective to anyone who likes to mock US soccer (like the idiot who wrote the last blog entry on here).

Lastly, congratulations to Wales on winning the Korfball Eurobowl Western Division and qualifying for their first ever European Championships. It’s reported with trademark lack of flair on the IKF site.

Soccer a game for sissies?

Elizabeth Lambert tries to prove otherwise.

Update: Jennifer Hewitt from the consistently interesting From A Left Wing blog points to the more serious issues involved.

…and your enemies closer.

Just look at the last endorsement. Obviously plenty of Americans do get irony, but good that some people out there are keeping up the stereotype.

For even less highbrow humour, reportage that pulls no punches. This is years old, but I still laugh every time.

 

Crazy Taxi

When you’re living in the countryside getting a taxi is a bit more complicated than in the city where all you need to do is stick out an arm. No, invariably you have to book in advance, sometimes more than a day beforehand. One of the reasons why this might be is the taxi company in Church Stretton doubles as the undertakers, and when I was younger they drove the school bus too. The Welfare State may no longer guarantee to look after us from the cradle to the grave, but Morris and Son are willing to fill the breach. When I did manage to get organised enough to book one of their taxis I did think about asking them if they ever had to bring the hearse out for a taxi trip – perhaps if their regular car(s) broke down, but I guessed they’d probably heard the joke too many times.

Perhaps they also need the money on the side because they have broken the cardinal rule for taxi companies – having a name that goes right at the top of the alphabetical list in the phone book. This desperation is now getting to ridiculous levels. Old favourites like A2B and ABC taxis are being pushed down the list by more imaginative firms. I’m looking at the Shropshire Yellow Pages now (time hangs heavy) and A2B are only 4th, with ABC behind them. Just ahead are AAA Shrewsbury Taxis which at least looks like it could stand for something, but they are trumped by AAAAAA R&J of Shrewsbury who have abandoned all pretence of dignity in a desperate bid to get first place. Sadly, their efforts are in vain as they still fall behind AAAAAA 1st 4 Taxis who are clearly masters of the post-literate txtspk world. The multiple ‘A’ trick undoubtedly works, but I’m a little unsure that calling your firm something that resembles a scream of terror is going to encourage business.

One trick no-one seems to have used is going from the start of the dictionary and having Aardvark Taxis. Perhaps they fear that it will give people the impression of some kind of rickshaw, pulled by one of these:

These Channel Islands All Look The Same Anyway

It’s well known that one way you know you’ve made it to the super rich is to be able to buy yourself an uninhabited island in the Caribbean or even the Aegean. But it’s surely indicative of the ridiculous salaries in modern day football that a player can not just buy an island with a population of 65,000 people, but then give it away.