El Pibe

actually thinking about it, SJ can't have introduced me to him as I used to watch Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy. Though I think it was Richard Herring's whiney desperation to be loved that really struck a chord!!

I see what you did there woody, anyone who disagrees with you obviously has the intellectual capacity of sloth and watches stuff for the lobotomised masses. I wish I was as clever as you, really I do. Besides if you want real comedy Ben & Holly's little Kingdom is far and away the best thing around.

I can see how that could be inferred. Also I do actually like him. SJ introduced me via one of the taped live shows years ago, and I laughed, sometimes out loud, especially the scottish paedophiles bit. It's just the overall effect is one less of comedy than cleverly couched demagoguery with a vague air of mirth, so I was just saying I totally understand people who say he's funny and people who say he's not.

I get it, you find him funny. After all there's nothing more pointless then telling someone hunched over with ennui that the person they're watching is funny.

I'm more mystified how that phone managed to take that photo, something very clever involving mirrors?

Thanks for that bob, I've some eggs I need to find out how to suck too please.

Doubtful, firstly we don't know the truth just an allegations. He did have a lawsuit brought against him 10 years ago for involvement in the kidnap and torture of two priests (ironically ones that stood up against injustice), though can't seem to find what happened to it. I've noticed this article has jumped up the search results since earlier this morning http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/345612 I imagine he'll ride it out, but I would have thought riding out scandal is the sort of thing the new pope was being elected to put an end to. Also a picking a South American Jesuit clearly shows the intention to push back the inroads made by evangelical protestantism in the continent, a modern counter-reformatiuon if you will. Given the resurgence in popular socialism across the region, someone with the blood of cold war fascism on their hands, or at least the whiff of it, seems a frankly freakish choice!

I kind of see both sides of the Stewart Lee thing. He's clever, interesting, incisive and amusingly acerbic, but there aren't that many moments where he's actually funny as such, let's not even mention the 'sketches' eek. A bit like Rory Bremner's satirical 'comedy' in that respect. Though Bird and Fortune can crack me up, especially when they crack up themselves.

Staggering own goal!! I'm already seeing it being mentioned around the edges of the mainstream media, only matter of time before we have days of this stuff.

My new technique is to bang loudly on the window by the gap where the aforementioned someone pretends they didn't hear or it's somebody else's problem, and shoutly loudly demanding the carriage to shame the person, whom I pointing at very clearly and cannot be oblivious to the racket, to bloody well move and stop selfishishly ensuring that everyone but them is suffering. It has yet to fail, though I've certainly received dagger-eyes from the person I shamed and weirdo-alert-eyes from basically everyone else on the carriage. I've ceased to care though. There was a time when I never said boo to a goose you know!

Actually I have no idea if I'm still in it or not.

Blackburn 1 Millwall 0 Chelsea 2 Man Utd 1

I loved Phoenix Nights, but I have to agree I just don't get his stand up.

Yeah, I have to ask people most mornings and have recently increasingly received tuts or sucked teeth. It makes me want to kill people, but I've yet to see anything actually bubble up to genuine aggravation. It is a pretty busy service but compared to some routes I know of its not that bad yet. Plus it's a very long train so short of new carriages with few/narrow seats I'm not sure how it'll improve.

"which country?" Weirdly enough in large swathes of England it's pretty normal.

tenacity is always a quality to be admired MM ;-P

Mick's predictions: [snip] England 0 Italy 8

I too am curious as to the logic behind a renascent coal based industry being comcomitant to enforcement of more stringent pollution regulations. Weird.

Loads of opinionated arsehole you mean, still, could be fun.

ha ha, same here on miwaw. Was actually going to go with a shock 1-0 barnsley win, but then decided it was unlikely so my heart gave them a little consolation bonus in the hope of a really good cup tie. That's my problem, I still tend to vote what I want rather than what I think.

ooh maxx and i could easily draw this one if no correct scores are predicted, what happens in the even of a tie, especially as home and away are the same for two hammers!

Everton 2 Wigan 1 Man City 3 Barnsley 2 Millwall 0 Blackburn 1 Man Utd 2 Chelsea 1

I don't suppose you can do the queen mum one these days, at least not without a particularly disturbing implication about it...

absolutely it does, you could say it all really started in Italy, spread here and has infected Spain, though Barca still has a special something about it with its great youth setup* and the fact its owned by the fans. Fair enough if it was just a question, it did seem like you were implying they should. TBH there wa no criticism implicit in my post, I'm just saying how I feel thses days, this may be more a reflection of changes in me (fatherhood, mid life crisis, recent bereavements) than in football of course. *and yes, I acknowledge that Man U does this well too, though few make it to first team stalwart as did the generation petering out now

"What do you mean by 'true sense'...the number of English players? Surely football is just a reflection/extension of the world/society we now live in. Is England even English in the 'true sense' anymore?.." Basically yes, though it's a simple yardstick. What really matters is in the players' hearts. What it means to represent the club. Basically if a club doesn't manage champions league football for a couple of years, how many players would be scouring the clauses in their contracts to go and 'represent' someone who is playing champions league football. If that's the majority then the club is merely a conduit of mercenary talent, albeit quality mercenary talent. As for the rest of it, I'm not sure what you mean, are you saying that the world has fully globalised and national identity is meaningless? I don't think so but possibly a subject for another thread, but to your last point, to relate it back to the first point, I think it still boils down to how much it matters. Noone doubts Mo Farah's Englishness when you see how much it meant to represent his adopted home. Zola Budd, not so much, it was a means to an end. That's why the modern game leaves me cold and I'd rather watch a good game of hurling these days. But given your points about the changed world and football's place in it, why then do you think it right someone should support an English club over a foreign one, it's kind of cake and eat it? Personally spoeaking I'd support, say Fenerbahce over man u or chelsea, because to my eyes it looks like they care more ;-)