SimonM

>I read somewhere that Rafa plans to take legal action about his bitter comments. < It is mentioned in today's Observer - although Benitez's reaction is quite entertaining in its combination of apoplexy and feigned indifference. Apparently it's that bit about Harrods hampers that is being passed to m'learned friends.......I'd be amazed myself if this goes any further litigation-wise. That line-up was definitely a "weakened" team, but yes it should still have been good enough to beat Fulham, who to me looked by far the worst side at Bramall Lane last season and who had been dropping like a stone down the league until they got thrown that lifeline. Robbie Fowler was well past his God era by then - even if he did still have an annoying knack of putting away penalties against Sheffield United. Other things - the stuff about the Watford player was totally without foundation - just pro-Liverpool elements of the gutter press trying to find ammunition to use against Warnock Colin never blamed "everyone under the sun". It was Benitez. And he was by means the only critic of the cynical team selection on that day, which really did go a great deal further than mere "rotation". This is why Megson made the appeal that he did - Wenger and Ferguson would play the game, as would have the likes of Shankly and Paisley. This really all ought to be ancient history all the same. My guess though is that Warnock will still be ranting about it on his death bed.:)) Oh but Benitez's quoted comments today about him ("bad manager..prehistoric") are understandable in the circumstances. But I doubt Crystal Palace supporters this season would agree, although paradoxically quite a few Sheffield United supporters during the eight years he was at Bramall Lane would.

>>Sorry, but I agree with Keef here. Relying on other teams to do you a favour is utter bollocks. No offence Simon, but no other teams do us any favours. You make your own luck.<< (Sigh). It is not, and was not, a case of anyone doing "favours", but of playing by the rules and respecting the Premier League - to which Liverpool and the other English semi-finalists owe their places in the Champions League. Benitez is himself talking total bollocks: Sheffield United played 37 games last season and a 38th at home against Liverpool's 1st team which they drew: Fulham played 37 and a 38th at home against a Liverpool team from which nine players had been rested which Fulham scraped through 1-0, avoiding relgation by one point. But here is what Colin himself has to say about it in today's Independent:- 2. Megson should not expect any favours I see Bolton's manager, Gary Megson, has been asking Rafael Benitez to "retain the integrity of the league" and not play weakened teams against Fulham this weekend and Birmingham next. My advice to my old adversary is: "Don't hold your breath." Integrity, doing what is right for the game, comes way down Rafa's list of priorities. After all, as last season, he has the Champions League as his only priority now. That is good news for Fulham, just as it was last year when he fielded the reserves and Fulham won and stayed up, a point ahead of my Sheffield United team. Maybe Rafa gets a yearly hamper from Harrods for his team selections. I can honestly say I'd love for Liverpool to win nothing while Rafael Benitez is manager, after what he did last year. I don't give two hoots what newspaper reporters say about my bitterness. I'll be cheering for Chelsea in the European Cup semi-final. I'd like to add that my problem is with Rafa ? I think Liverpool is a fabulous club. I've had so many letters from Liverpool supporters saying how disappointed they were that he let my team down. Still, I don't suppose I'll be calling Anfield for a loan player in the foreseeable future. Say what you like about us Yorkshiremen, we do know how to bear a grudge! :))

>>If you listen to the live version on Get Yer Ya Ya's Out Mick changes the age to 13. << and dedicated it to Bill & Mandy no doubt? B) But quotes....I recall an interview with Keef in "Rolling Stone" many many years in which the journalist suggested thet Hells Angels at Altamont had been way too heavy with the guy who rushed the stage and got knifed to death. Journalist: "it's not as if the man was waving a gun or armed". KR (bored now): "Tell it to Wild Bill Hickok Man"

I thought we had agreed to disagree about this one almost a year ago! :))

>>Babur in Brockley is amazing.... [www.babur.info] Try it! It's worth the trip...>> Agreed! A note of warning though. Although Babur also provides a home delivery service which streteches to ED this is not to the same menu, or anything like the same standard, as that of the restaurant proper. (It is based at different premises). That said I think the standard of the home delivered food is still quite superior to the ED places.

Arsenal v Reading 2 - 0 Blackburn v Man Utd 1 - 2 Fulham v Liverpool 1 - 0 Middlesbrough v Bolton 1 - 0 West Ham v Derby 2 - 1 Wigan v Tottenham 1 - 2 Aston Villa v Birmingham 3 - 1 Man City v Portsmouth 1 - 1 Newcastle v Sunderland 1 - 1

I agree with everyone else - a sad loss. Picked up a couple of real bargains there myself!

There is (or was) a guy on Underhill Road who had a python...We have newts in the pond too....

Not a series but a two-part drama, Lots of google hits on it. As they are filming there only today I guess only 1 or 2 scenes are being shot there. (It's Ms Barker's "Other" place again I believe)

Anyone who pisses of Richard Littlejohn cannot be all bad..."young woman"??? Not wishing to seem ungallant but Ms Flandes is 40 this year. And her dad helped write some great songs...

"Tete de veau, tete de veau!" Del again

Found this elsewhere and it made me chuckle anyway... Arsenal End of Season Dinner Dance ARSENAL F.C. End of Season Dinner Dance Starter Egg on Face Seasoned Hash Frogs legs (past their best) Spanish Surprise (well beaten) Main course Humble Pie Chump Chops French (has) Beans Manager's Beef (not rare) Catch of the Day - (gutted) NB: everything is imported, nothing is home grown. Dessert Sour Grapes (may be hard to swallow) Fruitless Tarts Raspberry Fools Hard Cheese Drinks Bitter Little Spirit French Whine Cabernet Empty 2008 Champagne - sorry none ordered STRICTLY NO DOUBLES OR TREBLES NB: drinks should be consumed from glasses as there will be no cups this year. Guests are asked not to get HAMMERED Guest speaker: Steven Gerrard & Rafa Benitez - "What it's like to win the European Cup" Please note that the club?s European Tour for the season 2008-09 is not guaranteed.

>>PS Paddick - once a copper, always a copper - dont trust him<< But Johnson has been an MP and a journalist - so doubly untrustworthy! :))

I think Arsenal should manage 2nd because (1) Wenger & his team have more motivation than Chelsea to do so. (2) Grant is almost certainly going to be sacked in the Summer unless his side win the Champions League (3) Similarly Liverpool can take their foot off the pedal as far as the League is concerned - which, like last season, looks like good news for Fulham and bad news for Birmingham, Bolton etc when Benitez rests another 9 players this weekend (4) Arsenal deserve it anyway :)) SimonM

I am not sure how that window could be "kicked in", given that it is on the second floor.

We have lots of different birds in the garden because we have several feeders hanging off a tree/from the wall. We also have 2 cats, one of which is far too lazy to go murdering avian wild-life, but the other being something of a mass-murderer for a short-while. He now wears three bells and the birds are now safe from him. The birds of coure are still under threat from magpies and foxes though...

Economic -8.88 Soial Libertarian/Authoritarian -7.59 The Spirit of Che lives on in the New Dawn...:)-D

>>and now for something completely different...<< Plagiarist! :)) (See page 2!)

And there was I thinking that "yummy mummy" was just a more polite version of "MILF"....:)) For the life of me I cannot understand why a term like this - and "politically correct" is another example" - seems always to be commandeered by antagonists and turned into a term of abuse.

The prospect of "BJ" (I refuse to refer to him just by his forename and not because Dame Tessa of NL has so decreed!) becoming mayor appals me, so I'll be voting in the most effective way to reduce this possiblity, i.e. for Livingstone.

Anyway isn't the "crappiness" or otherwise of "Hooters" food beside the point? It's not its food it is being criticised for or campaigned against is it? :))

I have nothing against americans. Most I have met both here and in the USA and elsehwere have been charming and friendly. I could draw up a long list of, say, american writers I like - Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller etc etc - and film-makers/actors and so on and so forth. It's America the Political Entity and its Empire-building foreign policy I loathe.

Agree about the Bluebell - especially during the next month or so when you get wonderful views of - uh - bluebells in the countryside beside the line...

It is far too small to be a Waitrose. It would be the right size for an M & S food only thingy though.

>>And your point is caller ?<< Well I suppose my point is that the removal of one of the "i"s means that we are talking about two different words, rather than differing pronunciation of the same word :))