pap

Ah, brilliant. So if I go and watch The Sound of Music, I'm immediately able to talk about Austrians with more authority than you, who actually lives there and presumably deals with real Austrians on a day-to-day basis? Thanks mate - I've had a laugh. I now know that your Bible to understanding scousers is in fact a 1980s TV programme. Great effort!

How is that question even relevant?

I actually don't think they have. As has been stated before, Liverpool make a request which so far, has been granted. The club holds a memorial service each time the anniversary comes around, usually attended by some of the playing staff. Remember that Liverpool has a relatively small population ( around 400,000 at the time of Hillsborough ) and that most people knew someone affected by the tragedy. Have some of their fans over-reacted on Twitter? I'd say so, yes. Think Alan Davies was a bit of a nob for retweeting all the death threats. It's the classic "I'm right because I'm being attacked by nutters" defence. This wouldn't even be an issue if Davies had not raised the subject on the podcast. I've listened to it myself, and although he states that Hillsborough was the biggest footballing tragedy in his life, this statement is drowned out in his overall flippancy. If I was related to a victim of Hillsborough, I don't think I'd have been happy at the way he handled the situation. Same old scouse-bashing on here though. S'pose Rickie is a victim wallowing in his own self-pity as well, eh lads?

It is a total candidate for Viz's Up The Arse corner. In fact, I believe I may have seen it there already.

Sports journalist of the year? Who was he up against? Alan Partridge?

Hypo - that is very good news. I've met loads of people in your position and I give them all the same advice:- "if you've got nothing tying you down, go for it". As others have said, get yourself a working visa so you can roll with it. If you really want to know a country, the best thing you can do is work there - otherwise you're just window-shopping.

My understanding is that Liverpool make a request to the FA when the date happens to coincide with a football match, and that the FA has approved each request. I don't think it's a case of Liverpool refusing to play. Now, as an issue that has got him so animated, I'm sure that Alps has already petitioned the FA to find out exactly why these requests are approved each time. We may yet hear the true story from the horse's mouth. In lieu of that, it's not exactly hard to work out. There's usually no good reason not to grant the request. We move games all the time to suit TV interests, so clearly, the organisational capability is there to be able to re-arrange a fixture. The competition concerned, the FA Cup, doesn't even have an easily quantifiable number of fixtures. Replays have to be sorted at relatively short notice. So, if Liverpool made a request to move the fixture out of respect for the dead, and the FA refused, how would that make the FA look exactly? After all, they've moved games for TV, created games because of draws but won't do it when it involves Britain's deadliest football tragedy. Wouldn't this be something the papers seized on? Wouldn't this be held up as an example of the callousness of commercialism in football? In short, it's a hell of a lot easier to move the fixture than it is not to move it.

Why don't you ask them? http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/WhoWeAre/ContactUs I'm sure you're more likely to get an answer from them than on here.

Indeed, and we are looking to places like Scandinavia and the Far East for new ideas when it comes to entertainment. The Killing has a US version, while Wallander has been re-made with British actors. If movies are a form of escapism, then foreign movies offer some of the best escape possiblities - allowing you not only to leave your own life for a couple of hours, but just to swim in someone else's culture for a bit.

Is he right to say that Liverpool should play on the 15th? Yes. Did he choose an appropriate format and/or tone to discuss it? Most definitely not, which he himself has acknowledged. Would we be as touchy if 96 of our fans were killed in a stadium disaster relatively recently? Probably.

Listened to the game on Reading's version of Saints Player last night. Though it would of course be amusing to start with the old "Brighton lied down and took it", doesn't really tally with what I heard on the radio. Remember that Brighton had a pen last night and that Reading were holding on for dear life by the end. Reading commentators were absolutely bricking it.

I've heard all sorts of stats trumpeted about lately about Reading's form, stuff like "if the league had started in November they'd have been n points clear". We also had wee Gus blurt on about Reading being the best team in the league. They deserve a massive amount of credit for overhauling most of the league the way they have done, but I think we're a better team. I want a good win on Friday and the league title at the end of the season to prove it.

Brighton just denied a clear cut opportunity. Reading commentator reckons Gus did himself no favours by sarcastically applauding the referee earlier on.

Reading denied a penalty but 1 - 0 up a minute afterward anyway!

tbf, I think they are going to let West Ham try to win games too, so the gap could theoretically still be six. Theoretically.

So in essence, we're looking for a niggly, bad-tempered performance from Brighton featuring tackles that'd make Chopper Harris blush, play-acting good enough to grace the RSC and a couple of Reading players to get sent off or suspended after the referee receives vituperative criticism from a crowd of tear-p*ssing Brighton players. Do you think Gus has that sort of tactic in his locker?

Well, it's a step up from "bell end".

Guilty as charged. My tolerance for outright crap has disappeared lately.

TDD -> English Translation:- "I've got a secret. But I'm not telling you"

What was it dune of the right said yesterday? More reverse gears than a tank. You thought the article was real. You posted it here. You've made a fool of yourself. Your options:- 1) Carry on being a plank 2) Fess up and admit that on this particular issue, you got it so very wrong Fill your boots mate - I don't mind which.

Yeah, we've been down this little cul-de-sac of debate many times before TDD. "I'm right, but I can't tell you why I'm right". If you can't fully engage, mate - don't get involved at all. You sound like some annoying little teat of a kid that says "I know a secret, but I'm not telling you".

Really? Did you start this thread knowing that the article you posted was not real? If so, what's next? You going to post an article about the elven leader of Rivendell telling all those little hobbits to f**k off back to the Shire if they can't get with the immortality and long ears program? Maybe this diagram will help you.

No, mate. It's got pictures of angry Muslims holding placards and everything! It has been endlessly regurgitated on faux-credible right-wing blogs, so er, it must be true. Full details of the hoax here. What it doesn't quite cover is how TDD came across the article. I mean, it's not even real news, let alone recent real news. It's almost as if specific articles had been Google'd to confirm a bias, not really given any attention (because they confirmed the bias!) and then posted here in the hope that those with a similar bias could have a pop at our Islamic brothers and sisters. I say 'almost', because there is a fair chance that this article was found on the day of release, printed out and is sitting in a frame over TDDs mantelpiece. He could have got it from there

Poker is my most frequent means of winning money. I finish inside the bubble on most live games I play.

Perhaps you would like to start a thread entitled "The bleeding obvious. How do you state it exactly?"