Halo Stickman

I remember reading 'Convoy is to Scatter' about PQ17 some years ago. The passage about the Naval escorts having to watch the merchant men being left to their fate as they sailed away has remained with me ever since. Coincidentally, the St Nazaire raid was mainly about destroying the dry dock to deny Tirpitz access to the only facility of its kind on the western coast of Europe. A lot of men’s lives were lost by the mere threat of Tirpitz, a ship that spent most of the war in a Norwegian fjord.

Mistletoe in our belts and no trousers We’ll show that Sunderland lot how hard we are!.... oops, perhaps not

Anyone buying shares has to be prepared to take a painful hit sometime otherwise people end up chasing loses just like gamblers. I wish I had a pound for every time I heard someone say they’d invested too much to cut and run now. No one makes sensible decisions going forward if they’re hamstrung by past decisions. Sometimes you just have to accept you’ve messed up, man up, get out and move on.

The volunteering issue can be quite complicated. My wife’s great uncle, William Savage, volunteered to join the navy in WWII quite possibly to avoid being conscripted into the army. He ended up being posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for the role he played in the St Nazaire Raid. The commandoes on that raid had all volunteered for it, whereas the RNVR chaps, including Savage, were only told they were on a virtual suicide mission when they were half way across the English Channel.

Quite! There was me thinking this thread might contribute to the lofty annals of scientific literature Looks like it’s going to be consigned to the lowly anals of the SWF instead

Many years ago when I was a much younger lad I walked into the receptionist’s office at work and all the woman held up large pieces of cardboard over their chests. It took a while for me to clock the message they were sending, when I eventually did, fortunately, we all had a good laugh about it Frightening thing was, up until that point, I had absolutely no idea my ogling was that obvious.

I recently read a book by the maverick biochemist, Rupert Sheldrake, where amongst other things he talks about people and animals possessing a sort of sixth sense. Two examples he gave were the apparent ability of some people to be able to tell when others were staring at them behind their backs and the apparent ability of dogs to be able to sense when their masters were coming home. According to Sheldrake there is empirical evidence, albeit somewhat tenuous, to support his suppositions. Seems to fly in the face of conventional science to me; nevertheless, I like to keep an open mind so would be interested to hear people’s views, or, indeed, experiences of such things.

The Royle Family I'm a pleb

When being photographed you should always watch the birdie.

Never before have I witnessed a dead horse getting such a flogging… and from both sides as well! It’s almost becoming too painful to watch!

Yes, I have been surprised at how readily some people have accepted the police version of events. I even heard a couple of Liverpudlians giving fulsome support to the police regarding this incident, a few days after the Hillsborough Inquiry announced its findings! Truly incredible.

Since the Enlightenment, many scientists have positioned themselves as High Priestess-like arbiters of eternal truths. Objectivity, not subjectivity, is their mantra; or, at least, this is the illusion. In reality, just like the rest of us, all scientists are subjected to limitations of personality, politics, peer-group pressures, fashion and financial restraints. Whisper it quietly; there are physicists, chemists and biologists whose lifetime study has led them to the same, seemingly, paradoxical conclusion: the existence of God. For them to publicly admit this, however, is as unlikely as it would be for them to express doubts as to the authenticity of the lunar landings: to do so would almost certainly mean instantaneous lost of both credibility and funding.

Pistol duelling was consigned to the history books not so much through legislation and moral disproval but because a younger generation came to regard the sight of solemn old men duelling over a point of honour as archaic, laughable and ludicrous. Hopefully, a younger generation of Americans - so often the generation to suffer from ridiculous American gun laws - will come to regard weaponry stockpiling as equally archaic, laughable and ludicrous. Legislation and moral disproval can be effective, but often the best agent for change is public ridicule.

There are 3 types of people in the world: those that are good at maths and those that aren't

I’ve long been interested in genetics and social history so I too enjoy researching family trees. Apparently, genealogy is one of the most popular internet activities. Unfortunately, my own experiences don’t support this: the mere mention of ancestors is usually enough to send my own family and friends off to sleep. Perhaps it’s something to do with the arrow of time moving inexorably forwards; ‘the moving pen writes and having writ moves on’… and all that sort of thing! Naturally, people are more interested in things they have – or, at least, believe they have - some sort of control over, i.e. the future rather than the past. Nevertheless, is the fact that most of us strive willingly to improve our descendants’ futures whilst remaining blissfully ignorant to the toil of our ancestors slightly paradoxical?

Gargle regularly with plenty of salt diluted in water. Corsodyl helps but can stain teeth if used too often.

Leaving aside Armstrong and Aldrin, can anybody remember the names of the other 10 astronauts to walk on the moon? I reckon one of these – not to mention the countless others that would have been involved in any conspiracy – would have sold their story and played the lead role in Conspiracy the movie by now. They were all Americans, afterall

That’s because Stanley Kubrick couldn’t work on both projects at once!

After our recent run of good results, I’d be very surprised if any Saints’ fans wanted Adkins to be 'shown the door' right now, and even more surprised if any came on here to say it. Another run of bad results, though, and the doubters – justified or not - will be back soon enough. It's a story as old as the hills. A manager can have many qualities. He can be an inspirational motivator, an astute tactician, be able to spot good players, be in the right place at the right time, be plain lucky or simply be a decent bloke; at the end of the day, however, he’s judged on one thing only: results. For all our sakes, let’s just hope Adkins' qualities help to keep the results coming Saints’ way. FWIW, I’m optimistic that he and the players have now settled into the Premiership and will continue to consolidate our position in the top flight.

He’s heading up his latest motivational seminar as we speak

Half cut and half mad by the sounds of it.

Aye, I’m no longer sure whether we’re indulging the little tinker’s wummery or searching for his lost marbles. Wasting our time either way, I suppose.

Hoddle’s win ratio was one percentage point better than Burley’s; why don’t you campaign to get him back as well? Dalek, you’re like a bloke who bangs on about how good his wife was, how much he's struggled without her and how much he’d like her back again, whilst conveniently ignoring the fact she left him in the lurch in the first place by f****** off with some other guy!

Perhaps Dalek reminded them of some of Hoddles’s more memorable results as Saints' manager: Tottenham 7-2 Saints Man Utd 5-0 Saints Saints 0-1 Coventry (League Cup) Tranmere 4-3 HT 0-3!!! (FA Cup) …or some of his more memorable signings: Rosler Petrescue El Khalej Draper …or some of his more memorable quotes: ‘Beattie is not a Premiership striker’ ‘Owen is not a natural goalscorer’ ‘Beckham hasn’t got the skill-set to take freekicks’ …or some of the baggage that came with him: Drewery Roach Gorman …or his loyalty record: Swindon dumped for Chelsea Chelsea dumped for England Saints dumped for Tottenham …or his extreme arrogance: Blaming and freezing out certain players Using football as a platform to spout his odious religious views Perhaps, despite reminding them of all this, the club felt that following his sack at Tottenham in 2003, Hoddle’s career in football had been reduced to plying his trade with other failed managers on the TV circuit. Perhaps they were surprised when Wolves gave the ‘dead man talking’ a chance to resurrect his career; perhaps they weren’t surprised when even that ended in predictable failure.