themaninblack

It most certainly is. As for MPFC's claim that Oxford would walk the division They lost to Forest Green Rovers Ah, happy days. Let's hope they f**k up in the play-offs & joy of joys, stay a non-league club. Well done to Dagenham, a welcome addition to the league and only fair as they should've been there instead of Boston, who went up illegally. It will be fitting if Boston go down this year whilst the Daggers come up. First Leeds, now Oxford. The list is growing....

It stems back to when they played us in the League Cup in 1996 & 1998. In 1996, the official programme notes were not the norm, extremely disparaging towards us, and in 1998, when we beat them, the vitriol the Leeds fans gave us that night & in the days following for having the cheek to beat the mighty Leeds at Elland Road(!!), stuck long in the memory. Then there was last season, when we "robbed" Leeds of their so-called "rightful place" in the Premiership. That's right.. robbed, even though we got 28 points & finished 4 places above them. Of all our fellow Championship clubs, on balance, their fans were the least supportive & the most snide about us going up as Champions. There's more but I really don't want to go into this in detail any more as this is not the right place & my opinion won't be swayed here as it hasn't been swayed in over 10 years. All I can say is good luck Southend, Barnsley, Hull & Burnley. Indeed. How have the mighty fallen...perhaps a spell in the third tier will teach them to be less arrogant. I think Reading have been a refreshing addition to the Premiership, although you really, REALLY should have knocked Man Utd out of the FA Cup!

Expect a 'damn' and 'blast' from OoO....

If Leeds, Luton AND QPR go down, there is a God after all. Failing that, I'd just settle for Leeds. I will, indeed, be dancing for joy. An Irish jig, followed by a good old boogie, I think. I won't be the only one - the entire 24,000 crowd cheered at half time the other week when Leeds were (at that point) losing to Southend. It's hard to find a more disliked team in the football league and that was BEFORE Ken Bates & Dennis Wise turned up. Anyway, to stay on topic, I see the Burmese have unveiled their new capital with a brief glimpse of Than Shawe whilst they were at it. What have Reading got against Leeds United? Mind you, I have a pretty good idea...

He's just left hospital. It appears he's got treatment in time & it's going well, but that's been said about others. Still, like I said before, I hope in this case all IS fine. Not if you were a Leeds fan I suspect....

They're the first cricket team to go to a World Cup and come home with the Ashes. I'll get me coat.

Quite right, though a lot of the time the cancer is the result of long term exposure to other peoples smoke. Sometimes it just happens with no obvious reason. Or in Tammy's case - hot air from TV evangelists!

Mao tolerated no opposition or threats to his power, not even his son..

Interesting article on Frankie Howerd's 'widow' Dennis Heymer. Read into that what you will over his prospects...

I can see the simularities between Coppell and Ackbar - dome-headed taciturn tactitians. Mind you, I would have preferred Ackbar to pick the Reading team before that Cup replay against Man Utd. If Coppell was in charge of the assault on the Death Star like he had at that match, he would have sent a couple of crappy X-Wing fighters, waited for whole star systems to get slaughtered before bringing on Lando and the Millenium Falcon! Darth Vader always gets the lucky draw as well.... Sorry, gone off on one there....

Schoolboy error: Irvin Kershner directed TESB!

The link doesn't work for me and with no further explanation, which Bob Taylor are we talking about? The ex-West Brom striker? The cricketer? The darts player? Or none of the above? (In which case, I've never heard of him) Scottish bloke who believed he was taken by Aliens in 1980... Speaking of Aliens, nice avatar OoO. Your first 'new' one for ages! Funny, I bought 'Return of the Jedi' t'other day via the multinterweb - which has the Special Edition and the original theatrical release... Pretty sure that avatar is motivated by the "Squid" thread. Looks more like an octopus these days....

The link doesn't work for me and with no further explanation, which Bob Taylor are we talking about? The ex-West Brom striker? The cricketer? The darts player? Or none of the above? (In which case, I've never heard of him) Scottish bloke who believed he was taken by Aliens in 1980... Speaking of Aliens, nice avatar OoO. Your first 'new' one for ages! Funny, I bought 'Return of the Jedi' t'other day via the multinterweb - which has the Special Edition and the original theatrical release...

Out among the stars at last eh Bob?

Not a fan of Hilary then...

And who's been chairman all that time.. At least it's not as bad as at Man City

Prime Minister Soe Win, is reported to have leukeamia and is been treated in Singapore. "He is ill, but not critically ill, not at the moment," said an official - which does seem to imply he might soon be critically ill if he isn't already. So, just to summarise, Myanmar's ruler has heart disease and possibly cancer, his deputy might have cancer and a drink problem and the Prime Minister has leukeamia. Mods, how about a Myanmar thread? We could call it The Burmese Diseased. Hopefully this may give the rebels a chance to overthrow that hateful regime...

And today would have been his wine-making brother Julio's 97th birthday! Never knew he died in a car crash. What's happened to the write up? It's been ages since he died!

A good pick too by Grobler - kind of like Kenneth Griffith was for MIB last year. That M & C site doesn't count, no. Funnily enough, Griffiths death was first announced via M & C so there's a good chance Olaf Hoiby will get one even though I've never heard of him...Now Olaf Pooley, that's a different matter..

Bloody hell! One for Barnaby I think.....

It is ridicilous isn't it? How Ian Brennan & the Bates family can be happy with that, I do not know. I agree with the general consensus that the arms are too long, the legs are laughably short and agree it does look like Milan Mandaric. Make me glad we put up a simple but striking plaque to honour dear Maurice Evans, and not a statue like this. They should ship it to Leicester then... Statues are becoming rather too banal, rather like minutes silences and that....

That's kinda wierd! Love Robert Blake. 'Electra Glide in Blue' is one of my favourite films...and he was acquited BTW. Must catch that 'Lost Highway' when it's on TV someday!

I elected to interpret the role of the joker within a team as a sort of 'odd one out'-type role. As in, all of my team members either play(ed) dicks on TV / in film or are authors of detective-involving whodunnits, except CLS who conducted real life investigations as a structural anthropologist. Couldn't be more straight-forward. Ah, Cleveeer! Mind you if you wanted an 'Odd One Out', you could have chosen John Inman and cashed in!

DDP might have had a better idea if like last year, we added a breif description of the DDP candidates. But I suppose because the expected numbers, it wasn't possible. I'm going to have a look at your team and guess the 'tecs.. Enjoy! I didn't know Claude Levi Strauss was a detective! You earn something new every day....

Funnily enough I saw that while scanning the celebs in DDP earlier tonight. I recognised the name straight way.. He played Dr Watson in 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' in 1984 with the incomparable Jeremy Brett... Thank you. I was just scanning the DDP site and noticed, for the first time, the inane analysis section. I was devastated to see that my team was not named in the "theme teams" section. Apparently "in eternum+'s wrinkly dicks" - a team consisting entirely of people who played TV/film detectives and/or who wrote murder mystery novels - is too "subtle". DDP might have had a better idea if like last year, we added a breif description of the DDP candidates. But I suppose because the expected numbers, it wasn't possible. I'm going to have a look at your team and guess the 'tecs..