the stain

The first couple of UB40 albums are cracking.

But that's the difference isn't it. We're all interested but it's none of our business. That's why everyone's getting frustrated, claiming knowledge, spreading b0ll0cks, pointing fingers. We've got no say in this or right to know anything. We're not even customers at the moment. If a potential bidder chooses to keep us sweet, that's their decision.

Cause and effect doesn't have to equal blame and guilt.

My dry old thing is lolling.

Get back to work.

Not meaning to speak ********, it was a question (hence the question mark). Who did massively over-spend on players and wages? I may be conflating Wilde and Crouch inappropriately. The second part of my post stands anyway; it wasn't prudency that took us into admin, as that would be... imprudent.

Didn't Crouch try to 'do a Leeds'? It wasn't prudency that took us into admin.

Erm... :confused:

It's important to be able to laugh at yourself, eh Stan? Because satire helps us learn...

Well it seems to be a case of keeping on doing it the same way and hoping this time it will be alright There's been a sense of rush about his rehab for a couple of months. At one point he was going to ready for the end of the WI ODIs, then the T20, and clearly none of these things were genuine possibilities. There's a feeling that he's going to play as soon as possible, rather than when it's right. I think you're quite probably right, and to my mind it's a point that needs a bit of forcing. For example promoting Prior and Broad up the order ahead of him, making it apparent that he's being selected for the job he can do, not the job he thinks he can. In fact, now I think about it, there's been an unsettling whiff of wishfulness around the England team for a long time, even before the last Ashes in Oz. That feeling of 'wouldn't it be nice if all the old good players could all be fit and good again'. Epitomised by the slow death of Harmison's career, which wasted two years of bedding in a replacement. And even now the idea that the selectors were genuinely considering picking Michael Vaughan, an idea that Brett Lee was falling over himself to talk up, no doubt remembering how disruptive his influence was last time out. I've gone off on a bit of a ramble there, but I think this thing with Freddie is symptomatic of this wishfulness. We want him to be fit, so he will be fit. We want him to be as good with the bat as he briefly promised to be, so we'll keep acting as if he is. Basically we want him to be Botham and the future to be like the past

Don't get me wrong, I'm not so much questioning Flintoff's place in the team. Just questioning the desire to thrust him straight back into the team, as "England's All Rounder", the very second he's able to run around again. a) it would be sensible, at some point, after one of the succession of serious injuries he's suffered, to allow him to play county cricket for a few months, get used to the rigours of competetive action gradually. b) as someone else alluded to above, maybe some recognition that his form with the bat has been poor for a long time and he isn't necessarily a star all-rounder. He's a world class bowler. Perhaps this would take the pressure off him feeling like he has to make the decisive contribution in all 4 innings of a Test. A fit, in form Flintoff is the first bowler on my team sheet. But how many times has he been rushed back only to break down again.

I was a student there. Likewise &cetera.

I've been getting heavy-duty Southern Gothic and racial tension of late. Home, by Marilynne Robinson. The companion piece to Gilead from a couple of years back. Staggeringly, mesmerisingly beautiful and sad and slow. I can't think of a decent reason why everyone shouldn't read these books. Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Which is also lovely and harrowing and poetic. King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. A journalistic account of King Leopold of Belgium's creation/theft of the Congo and the mass slaughter of its inhabitants. Ought to stuff a rag in the gob of anyone who yearns for the glory days of empire-building. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Bleak and brilliant post-apocalypse survival story. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner. Bleaker and brillianter. And now, to lighten the mood a bit, I'm reading Schindler's Ark. Can anyone recommend me some comedy? :smt073

Not sure what the beef is with Collingwood. His Test form has been fine, he's stalwart in the middle of England's order and has got us out of the poop on countless occasions. He has, granted, been under-whelming as T20 captain, but that's an almost entirely different discipline. In fact he wouldn't even be in my T20 side, as he's neither a free scoring batsman or a dot-ball bowler. But he's got so many qualities as a Test player I'm frankly staggered that anyone would want him dropped. Also does no-one else think that rushing Flintoff straight back into the starting XI might be a short-sighted decision?

I think that's precisely what it means.

I would've said it was more a private school institution.

Emod Flynn.

We really are a graceless bunch of wanqers. Good luck in the new job.

I'm foaming at the mouth.

La Antena - Argentinian fairy-tale/parable about the evils of totalitarianism. The people of a town have had their voices stolen and only the the mysterious The Voice can restore them. Beautifully stylised after the fashion of flickery silent-era fantasy films and quite lovely to watch, although The Message is rather rammed home.

Green Man and Woolfire. And possibly Glade if I can blag it.

If anybody else stayed the distance, maybe we're all clowns? It's like life, isn't it? We're all sticking round until the end waiting for something to happen when really we're both the attraction and the experiment. The only one laughing is the guy who sold the tickets. It's enough to make you want to end it all.

If they get on South Today, it's a legitimate derby.

You got a few jibes and rose to them. Be the bigger man. And I'm serious about the knitting; it's really therapeutic.

If I went to the circus and was presented with nothing happening for 21 days, I'd have got considerable value for money in terms of duration but I'd probably feel cheated of the 'highest levels of performance'. Face it man, you're just bored and frustrated and having a bit of a whinge. No need to feel ashamed about it, but also no need to keep lashing out at people for pointing it out. Nothing's happening. Why not take up knitting while you're waiting?