Hamilton Saint

It was a cinch, I suppose, that posters would take it in their stride to find as many creative puns as possible. Me? I shy away from this sort of thing. So, I'll let you guys jockey for bragging rights. Really have to hand it to you, though, you've harnessed some good ones.

Saints Player starts 2:40. wtf? It's a home game. Why are they so damned unreliable with this?

Anyone have Saints Player yet? Not a peep for me!

Church of Anthrax - released in Feb, 1971. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Anthrax

I have Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air on vinyl, but haven't listened to it for many, many years. He did an album with John Cale in the late 60s. I have been listening to Cale a lot lately.

Yes, it's guaranteed that he will go for a draw or home win.

Says you. You'd rather have Parliament dominated by lawyers and business-types? People whose primary motivations are self-promotion and acquisition. It's good to have MPs from a wide variety of backgrounds - people with a sense of compassion, for example - who care about other people, and who want to improve and protect cultural and educational institutions.

Good stuff. I wouldn't call that a rant. It sounds like plain speaking to me - what they call, these days, "telling truth to power".

Player of the Season? Tough choice as of now between Schneiderlin and Lambert. If Schneiderlin had scored a few more goals he'd be the easy choice. Also. 0ur season seemed to turn decisively for the better once Boruc and Cork becamer regulars in the team. Shaw wins easily for Young Player of the season.

... should have ... NOT "... should of ..." The beginning.

"Mother Knows Best" by Richard Thompson

Yes it is - my way. Shaken, not stirred!

I do not disgaree with you. I have not expressed any glee at her passing. But I disliked the woman intensely for both her politics and for her deplorable treatment of other people - as I have tried to explain in my contributions to this thread. Some posters on here seem to like her in the same way - not just for her policies, but also for the way she bullied and derided other people. I have also tried to raise the issue of her foreign policy, by the way, but nobody else seems interested.

Car gurus? How about checking out Maharishi Mahesh Motors?

Yeah, that's the spot - near The Four Alls Inn. Thanks for the correction. Didn't know that - to me, all boats on a canal are barges!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Foot a gentleman - a thinker and a writer? [A "wet", as Thatcher would put it.] Why would he generate vile and hate? Thatcher created conflict because of her arrogant, condescending attitude. She alienated people because of her abrasive, bullying personality. Combine that with her take-no-prisoners political tactics, and you begin to understand the animosity she generated.

I was at school in Cheswardine ('65-'68 ). An interesting pub near there is the Wharf Tavern - right on the Shropshire Union Canal. I was there, too, last summer. Ever been there? Nice to sit out in the sun and watch the barges go by. If you follow the Canal north towards MD, you come to a small, picturesque lock. Again, fun to watch the barges negotiate their way through.

I was in Market Drayton for an afternoon last summer (I used to attend a boarding school nearby in the mid-60s). Had a couple of pints in The Crown. Don't remember the name of the ale, but I certainly would have asked for some local stuff.

Without trying to extend the political debate about Margaret Thatcher onto this forum, it is certainly true that her decade in power generated a tremendous amount of response in the arts - including, of course, the music scene. So, what are some of the memorable songs you recall about Maggie from that era? For example, Ewan MacColl wrote a typically acerbic one called "Daddy, What Did you Do in the Strike?" [There must have been hundreds of songs written just about the miner's strike.] Most of the songs I recall with less-than-flattering. Were there many good ones that supported what she was doing? Here's a version of MacColl's song done by an American folk singer (couldn't find a video of MacColl doing it, unfortunately).

The mojito is said to originate in Cuba. It was a favourite cocktail of Ernest Hemingway. He said: "My mojito in La Bodeguita; my daiquiri in El Floridita." I passed by both of these establishments in Havana a month ago - during the March Break. Didn't go in - much too crowded, and both are "tourist traps", to be honest. I did hang out for lunch on the roof-top restaurant at Hemingway's favourite hotel in Havana - The Ambos Mundos Hotel. He always stayed in the same room on the fifth floor. It's now set up as a museum - and they display items borrowed from his house just outside Havana - Finca Vigia. Appropriately, I sipped on a mojito whilst enjoying the view over the rooftops of the old part of Havana - La Habana Vieja.

Can you name a few. I don't think any are available over here, but you never know - they might show up some time.

I also really enjoy an occasional Gin Martini. And make it in a real production number: first, place the martini glasses in the freezer for at least half an hour; then nearly fill a metal cocktail shaker with large cubes of freshly made ice; measure and then place into the shaker 2 parts of high-quality gin to half a part of white vermouth; seal the shaker and then shake the **** out of the container - about 20 vigorous shakes; pour the contents through a strainer into the frozen glasses; finally, place a cocktail stick that has stabbed and impaled three, large, pitted green olives. Drink relatively slowly, with the olives soaking - but finish it before it warms. Nice and cold is best! Bottoms up!

Nice choice there! I've had all those ales, except for the Bengal Lancer. Who makes that? What's it like? I really like the Hobgoblin (one of my favourites) and the Black Sheep.

One of Thatcher's many cringe-worthy moments - telling the Chilean mass-murdering fascist Augusto Pinochet: "I'm also very much aware that it is you who brought democracy to Chile, you set up a constitution suitable for democracy, you put it into effect, elections were held, and then, in accordance with the result, you stepped down." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/304516.stm [ironic to see that on this very same day, also, the Chilean authorities have exhumed the body of Pablo Neruda to test for the presence of "toxic materials". It is thought possible that Pinochet may have "arranged" for the great poet's death - having him poisoned.] And let's not forget her refusal to support sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. She called her policy "constructive engagement". More "principled" politics from her - standing firm and doing "the right thing" http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/south-africa-margaret-thatcher-death

As opposed to the "nasty and vicious" extreme right. They are just as bad. By the way, I don't think "Islamic terrorism sympathisers" are lefties. And, no, the groups you mentioned do not make George W. Bush seem like a really nice chap. Consider the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of deaths he is responsible for in the Middle East. He is, by any reasonable definition, a war criminal. And you might think about Thatcher's support for Pinochet in Chile (she considered him her friend), and the contras in Nicaragua - a bunch of "nasty vicious" terrorists, who killed tens of thousands of Nicaraguans. Thatcher approved.