It sort of reminds me of when I was up in the dales on holiday with my parents and we went to Richmond for the day. I looked in a TV dealers window and there was a big sign saying fee TV's.. When you looked in the window there as a teddy bear with a price tag of £100 saying a free TV if you buy the bear. A novel selling gimmick back in the sixties
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/46768802 90-year-old American cyclist to be stripped of title after failing drugs test please log in to view this image A 90-year-old American cyclist has been given a public warning for violating anti-doping laws. Carl Grove claimed contaminated meat was the reason he tested positive for epitrenbolone after the US Masters Track National Championships. Grove, the oldest participant in the event, had won the men's 90-94 sprint title in July. The US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said he would be stripped of the record following the violation. Usada said Grove, from Bristol, Indiana, had provided information that showed contaminated meat he had eaten the evening before competing had "more likely than not" caused the positive test.
Wouldn't mind going to see this. God knows why thehe have to squeeze a Brexit reference into it tho. Edvard Munch's The Scream comes to the British Museum in April Rare lithograph of Norwegian artist’s most famous work is centrepiece of exhibition Haroon SiddiqueTue 8 Jan 2019 15.36 GMT A rare lithograph of Edvard Munch’s most famous work, The Scream, will feature in the biggest UK exhibition of the artist’s prints in 45 years. Edvard Munch: Love and Angst, at the British Museum from April, will explore the Norwegian’s expression of complex, often fraught, human emotions. At a time when Monet was painting landscapes, Munch was depicting love and desire but also jealousy, loneliness, anxiety, grief and mental instability – most memorably in The Scream. The version being displayed at the British Museum is a black and white print, which followed a painting and two drawings of the image, but is the image that was disseminated widely during his lifetime and made him famous. Describing the timeless relevance of The Scream, the exhibition curator, Giulia Bartrum, said: “The emotional impact is incredibly important. Munch was deeply, deeply aware of mental instability, mental illness, a huge subject at the time, and that’s what he was trying to portray. Anything which tries to express the inner workings of the mind … has huge resonance today.” The Scream will be shown in the Anxiety and Separation section of the exhibition, which will also include a drawing, Despair, itself associated with Munch’s most famous work. Despair shows a figure turned away to look down into the fjords, which Bartrum said showed “perhaps the moment just before felt he heard the scream pass through nature”. In accompanying text, Munch wrote of the blood red sky, also depicted in The Scream, and how the feeling of the moment resonated around the valley and in his head. The same section also includes two versions of Angst, showing blank white faces streaming down Karl Johans Gate, Oslo’s busiest street, images Bartrum said would resonate with anyone who has felt lonely in London. The exhibition features 83 artworks in all, including 50 prints from Oslo’s Munch museum. Other themes include women, with whom Munch had a series of disastrous relationships, and sickness. Jealousy depicts the author Stanisław Przybyszewski in the foreground with a woman, presumed to be Dagny Juel, and a man with his back turned behind Przybyszewski. Juel is believed to have had a relationship with Munch before her brief marriage to Przybyszewski. The artist’s mother died from tuberculosis when he was young and his sister also succumbed to the disease. For The Sick Child, three versions of which feature in the show, Bartrum said Munch “drew out his feelings of emotion at the moment that his sister died”. She said the painting caused a scandal when it was exhibited in Berlin in 1892 because people were unused to such attempts to recreate the pain of the moment of death. The exhibition closed within a week, while at the same time proving popular with the avant-garde. The exhibition also includes matrices used to transfer ink on to paper, never before seen in the UK, and will be displayed alongside the corresponding prints. Bartrum said that for Munch, who never had children, partly because he feared they would suffer illness, his artwork served as a substitute and, unusually, he sought to collect the stones and wooden blocks, usually held by publishers. “Certainly where these matrices were concerned, he behaved as if they were his family,” she said. “He wrote anxious letters about them, always trying to track them down.” While the themes of Munch’s art resonate because of their timelessness, Bartrum, with an unsubtle nod to Brexit, said how the artist lived his life, during which he travelled to Paris and Berlin, bringing techniques and influences back to Norway, also served as an invaluable lesson in the modern age. She said: “He was a really cosmopolitan European figure and I think, in this day and age, that is an important message to convey.”
Nicked from here and there. Missing: Black and white cat very very intelligent . Tiddles, if you're reading this, please come home. Teacher: Johnny, if you had £5.00 and you asked your dad for £3.00 more, how many pounds would you have? Little Johnny: I would have five pounds. Teacher: You don’t know your arithmetic, Johnny. Little Johnny: You don’t know my dad, Miss. A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it. My mate used to play guitar for Hot Chocolate. If he was really good he got a biscuit, too. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Clickbait yes, but for once I found this one interesting. https://lifetonik.com/2018/12/17/he..._medium=taboola&utm_campaign=X5445LTTB-TAB-GB
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46846467 YouGov survey: British sarcasm 'lost on Americans' please log in to view this image Image " Britons like to think they have a "special relationship" with the US, based on a common language and cultural, historical and political ties. But, according to one of the UK's most respected polling companies, there's one chasm the English language can't always bridge - the British love of passive-aggressive statements. In the words of YouGov, "half of Americans wouldn't be able to tell that a Briton is calling them an idiot". YouGov showed a number of common British phrases, including "with the greatest respect", "I'll bear it in mind" and "you must come for dinner", to Britons and Americans. "While not all the phrases show a difference in transatlantic understanding, there are some statements where many Yanks are in danger of missing the serious passive aggression we Brits employ," YouGov said. The starkest difference was in the phrase "with the greatest respect" - which most Britons took to mean "I think you are an idiot", but nearly half of Americans interpreted as "I am listening to you". YouGov based its survey on a popular meme of British phrases and their subtext. It's not clear who came up with the table, although it's done the rounds online for several years - and was first seen by the BBC in 2011 in a blog by Oxfam. What the British say What the British mean What others understand I hear what you say I disagree and do not want to discuss it further He accepts my point of view With the greatest respect... I think you are an idiot He is listening to me That's not bad That's good That's poor That is a very brave proposal You are insane He thinks I have courage Quite good A bit disappointing Quite good I would suggest... Do it or be prepared to justify yourself Think about the idea, but do what you like Oh, incidentally/by the way The primary purpose of our discussion is... That is not very important I was a bit disappointed that I am annoyed that It doesn't really matter Very interesting That is clearly nonsense They are impressed I'll bear it in mind I've forgotten it already They will probably do it I'm sure it's my fault It's your fault Why do they think it was their fault? You must come for dinner It's not an invitation, I'm just being polite I will get an invitation soon I almost agree I don't agree at all He's not far from agreement I only have a few minor comments Please re-write completely He has found a few typos Could we consider some other options? I don't like your idea They have not yet decided YouGov decided to show the same phrases, and each of the meanings, to about 1,700 Brits and 1,900 Americans, and asked them which matched their own interpretation the most closely. The survey showed that some - though not all - of the stereotypes in the table were statistically correct. There was plenty of common ground - for example, a majority of both British and US adults consider "I was a bit disappointed that" a polite way of saying "I am annoyed that" - rather than "it doesn't really matter". But those in the UK are much more likely to consider "I'll bear it in mind" and "I hear what you say" to be attempts to brush you off. And a higher proportion of Britons than Americans (44% to 31%) think "that is a very brave proposal" actually means "you are insane". please log in to view this image Image captionThe British have a long history of sarcasm Plenty of Americans working in the UK have complained about British passive-aggressiveness, or their annoying tendency to beat around the bush. Idiosyncrasies of the Brits at work Why do Brits and Americans swear so differently? What do Brits think about Americans? Why you may find US colleagues 'more polite' than Brits But UK expats have also complained about American insults directed at Brits. One writer for BBC America came up with the following translations for American English: Americans say This means I love it! You just don't CARE, do you? What the hell did you just do? I'm dying of embarrassment here Oh, you can get away with it, you're British An American wouldn't be seen dead wearing what you're wearing or doing what you just did Bless her heart! This phrase is a bit of a put down, effectively allowing the speaker to slag off someone without recrimination. At the end of the day, while the British may like to think they have a more sophisticated sense of sarcasm, they might have more in common with their American cousins than they think. We'll bear that in mind...
Happy Birthday Tamla Motown... 60 years old today... Just listening on RH ... Gordy started the business with $800.....!!!
My mate - a Dramas fan - sent me this, from their Fans' Forum, Loft for Words. It's a great site, with some very funny and perceptive articles. https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/ QPR are back to league action on Saturday with a tough - but given our new found ability to play away from home - exciting trip to high flying Sheffield United. Sheff Utd (14-5-7, LDWWWL, 3rd) v QPR (11-6-9, WWWDDW, 9th) Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Saturday January 12, 2019 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Grey and windy >>> Bramall Lane, Sheffield Birmingham City have finally released that most glorious of modern football phenomena – a set of accounts from a season when Harry Redknapp was managing your club. A red-letter day for football finance enthusiasts and people who want to beat the recent cold snap by warming themselves around a big pile of money on fire. Still, he was bloody funny in the Jungle though wasn’t he? Wasn’t he? Eh? Did you see him, in the Jungle? Wasn’t he funny? Wasn’t he? It's shaping up to be an intriguing second half of the season at the top of the league. Two of the relegated teams with the biggest parachute payments haven’t competed at all while the third, West Brom, have just had their best player recalled midway through a loan spell. Five of the top nine, including Sheff Utd, are there without receiving a parachute payment at all while Norwich and our good selves are in the last year of theirs/ours. The Birmingham news, and almost certain points deduction, brings it home once more that you can gamble and win (Leicester, Bournemouth, Wolves) but you’re also very likely to bet the house and end up sleeping under a bridge at the railway station. Forest’s results have nose-dived since a visit from the chairman to the training ground in November and an impassioned speech/ill advised bollocking to players and staff that after an outlay north of £20m last summer it’s promotion this season or hellish consequences beyond. Consequences about to be born by Brum, and Sheff Wed shortly after that given their chairman’s recent statement at a fans forum: “We didn’t just break the rules a little, we broke them a lot, eight figures.” Naturally, this being Shaun Harvey’s Football League, we don’t know what the actual punishments are for clubs that ignored the rules and missed. Birmingham’s hearing, scheduled for February, will be a test case and the league are pushing for a 12-point deduction with the breach aggravated by their £2.3m signing of Kristian Pedersen from Union Berlin last summer when they were supposed to be under an embargo. Should clubs who tried to give it the full QPR 2014 approach and failed suddenly start having a dozen points lopped off left right and centre then those Sheff Utd/Huddersfield/Burnley/Preston types have a better chance still. Alas, the rest of us have got to get out of the house at some point though so they’ve laid a few meaningless games on for us out of the kindness of their hearts. Resurgent Allam Tigers are so resurgent that Allam says he’s now going to stay after all – bloody hell Adkins now look what you’ve done. Sheffield Owls should be having their first game under a new manager there this weekend but Steve Bruce has tickets to the test in Barbados, and wants his first game to be against Ipswich (clever girl), so he’s sacking it off until February. That sounds like the sort of thing we often make up in this bit of the preview to release the pressure valve on the intense, excruciating boredom that builds up through nine months of this festering, pointless, mediocre, crap excuse for a football league. But, actually, on this occasion, it’s true. We’ll have to up our game. The Karanka cycle outlined earlier has coincided perfectly with the annual cycle of Nottingham Trees – spend loads of money, give it the big un, start well and draw comparisons between the manager and Brian Clough, fall apart around Christmas, sack manager. Slavisa Jokanovic is tipped as the next man in there, for 12 months and no more, as they prepare to go to Reading. To be fair if I was Karanka I wouldn’t have wanted to go to Reading tomorrow/ever either. Bristol City v Bolton Wanderers is this weekend’s exciting match between two teams beginning with B and, wouldn’t you just know it, Bolton are skint again. This has come to light now because the players they borrowed in the summer (when they were skint) and promised to pay for in January (when they were always still going to be skint) are now returning to their parent clubs, deals undone and wages unpaid. Particularly harsh on Forest Green’s Christian Doidge who thought he’d secured a three-year contract in the Championship but now finds himself back in League Two. Closing the transfer window but leaving it open for loans was always a nonsense anyway but Bolton have used that loophole to secure the use of several players for half a season by lying. It’s a sporting advantage that wouldn’t have been open to clubs playing by the rules. At the very least, if it doesn’t end in punishment for Wanderers and an end to the nonsense situation in August altogether, it should ensure that clubs now have to pay for those players up front. It got all serious for a bit there. Ipswich Blue Sox v Rotherham United eh? **** me. Never mind the quality, feel the width. Stoke City have a new manager, although quite what sin Nathan Jones committed in a previous life for his managerial career to start with stints in Luton and Stoke God only knows. I’d have left it a week before accepting, Steve Bruce-style, if I was him though because it’s Spartak Hounslow this weekend, fresh from a 1-0 battering of Oxford United and almost certainly set to be the best team Stoke have played all season. Birmingham v Middlesbrough it says here. Those accounts show they lost three quarters of a million pounds a week and breached FFP by £11m. That’ll be 12 points please. Still, wasn’t ‘Arry funny in the Jungle? Wasn’t he though? Wasn’t he? Preston Knob End v Swanselona it says here, and Big Racist John and The Boys up at Wigan Warriors, but I’m too angry to care. Obviously the game of the weekend is second placed Borussia Norwich travelling to third placed West Brom, who’ve just had excellent young boy Harvey Barnes recalled by Leicester. The Baggies’ executive VP of putting a brave face on things told the West Bromwich Bugle earlier today: “Bugger Off”. Referee: Eighteen months ago Chuckles Woolmer had basically retired from refereeing. And this was a jolly good idea, because he wasn’t very good at it. His marks over a decade with QPR were 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 7, 2 and 3. He didn’t referee at all in the second half of 2016/17 and then in 2017/18 returned only for 23 appointments entirely in Leagues One and Two. Somehow though, he’s now deemed fit for an Indian summer in the Championship. Not only that, but he’s being given games like this, between two teams in play-off contention. If he stays true to form the whole thing is a complete lottery from here on in.
