The Pooka

Excuse me RM, England won. It means that England are better than Australia at one-day cricket - official. If you are English you are supposed to cheer and say "well done" as other nationals do when their sporting sides win. i know they won, Godot. i just asked how the f**k DID we win it, when Australia are far superior. Anyway, i did cheer. a little bit. No RM, the Ossies are not superior. It's a bit like saying the Germans were superior in WW II. The Ossies WERE superior. Note the past tense. But the FACT is that the England cricket team has beaten the Australian cricket team on their last three meetings, one game after another. How did England win? Because they were the best side. This is not fiction. It really happened. Ask an Australian. Just as well Pieterson wasn't fit. We like to win but we have no wish to humiliate the Aussies.

Funny thing is - he looks embarrassed.

I couldn't see them using Firefox, but I could in IE. Don't know why - I'm not very technical on this sort of thing. There are unsafe characters in the file names. Spaces and suchlike. Bad form, that sort of thing. The man himself. Anything to say after your landslide?

I never knew that Pook, yet some people do survive falls in to water from big suspension bridges. Is a belly flop your best chance of survival I wonder? Feet first is yer best bet. Minimise the surface area that hits the water. That way you'll just fracture the femurs ....... not a boon for swimming unfortunately. PS That last reply was me on another PC

I went to the Emirates stadium earlier along with 60,000 others, and, at an appropriate moment, elected to urinate. The male urinals were, very slightly, how can I say, 'hippo house'. As I tapped my draining member, reflectively, I gave thanks to the wretches who must clear our ill-aimed fluids at the end of the day. Dear Readers, are our moderators not in the same boat? They tidy up our daily outpourings with good grace. Shouldn't we, from time to time, accept that, their exposure to our verbal whiffs and emissions entitles them to the occasional bout of officious censorship. Notapotato has on occasion commented on my deviation from the strict purpose of this site. Nevertheless, I admire the fellow's dedication to a thankless task. Keep it up NAP. God bless you.

I f*****g don't, I look at a bridge and think; 'that's a bridge.' Think it works better my way, despite the fact he's famous. Bugger you've got me worried now MPFC because I look at bridges in the way that Mr Abbott does. I was crossing one yesterday and looked down and that was exactly what I was thinking. I had the dog with me and I was wondering if he would survive (there was about 2 ft of water flowing underneath). Cliff edges, tall buildings all do the same for me - this thought that one step could change everything. I imagine the drop too; it's almost exciting. But I don't imagine the splat. I don't care for the splat much. Too true. If you jump from height into water, you die because your inner organs (eg lungs, aorta, guts) continue to fall rapidly while the rest of you decelerates rapidly. If you jump from a height onto terra firma you die from what is known as a 'burst injury'. All in all there's little, but for an overdose of insulin, that assures a peaceful departure. And, even then, I've known someone survive with terrible brain damage. Suicide - the ultimate act of courage or the complete expression of selfishness? Discuss.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast you English people throw in the towel and give up! Ever heard the expression "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!" ??? You can't stop supporting your team just because they might be having a bad hair day! Your little pep talk certainly hit the spot, Rebecca. As soon as I received it I rang the boys to rouse them with a pithy Churchillian call to arms. The results are now in the annals of history. Nevertheless, today I still confirmed my booking of a friend's apartment in Barbados for the Aus v. W Indies game next year. Go Aussie........ ....... the moderators are watching so, uhhhh, I fancy that Jack Hobbs might snuff it next year.

For 20 years I was told I look like Robert Redford. This stopped in about 1999. Two weeks ago someone said that I look like Jeffrey Archer. It may be a while before I come out from under the stairs.

Reading what you said, you're right. I meant to say that there was one seat between us and she was two seats to the left of my seat. Her bag was on the seat next to me. This exchange could have been written by Becket himself.

Well, four years down the line Arnold he's become part of the furniture and probably as happy as Larry. Whodathought a minor sitcom actor would have become the most talked about individual on the whole of Deathlist with a fan base (or should that be base fan?) in Australia? Minor sitcom actor? I rather fancy that the base fan of the Antipodes sees him as a latter day Clark Gable.

Mary It is not our common room. It is where we discuss whether Richard O'Sullivan is likely to die soon and therefore whether he should be on the list. First I've heard of it. If you consult the first post on this thread you may hear a little more of it. Post number 1 tells me what was discussed in post number 1. There have been 1874 posts since then and these discuss almost anything but his demise. Hence MPFC's reasonable remark.

Agree. Bring on the ban. I have long believed that smokers should wear a bag over their heads as they smoke so that they don't waste a single puff.

Sorry Cap'n ..... but I just don't get it.

People found the Larks (Labour paper) and the Gambols (Tory paper) funny as well. About as funny as cancer I'd say ....

Yep, RdW, the Aussies won the other 15 Ashes series. SAnd they're back to form having just stuffed the All Blacks at the MCG today. To be honest they have the best bat in the world in Ponting and could, probably, put out three totally different world class batting line-ups. The World Cup is coming up and its difficult to see Oz losing. An outside bet might be South Africe (providing they don't choke again). Watching England has become so depressing that I'm planning to go to Barbados in 2008 to watch the Australians play. Needless to say I'm in the market for some green and yellow accessories. Anyway, why are you talking cricket when your role on DL is to wind up the female members.

Interview with Pete Seeger in this month's Mojo magazine. He looks good for another 10 years

So good to see you back Rebecca. It must be months since I last communicated with you. The England side do look rather poor I must confess. Nevertheless, its bad timing on your part. England are on a roll having won every game since the end of January 2007. Australia, meanwhile, have lost every game in the same period - including their game with England yesterday. You're as good as the last game so they say. Most people remember Bodyline because of the whingeing of the Aussies - apparently we bowled too fast. The English rarely bring it up as its a long time ago and we have won the Ashes many times since..... 1953, 1955, 1956,1971, 1977,1979,1981,1985, 1986 and 2005 spring to mind.

That's just under 16 quid. What a bargin!!! Always good to see the Aussies occupied with crowing. Stops them whingeing about Bodyline (76 years later).

Mary It is not our common room. It is where we discuss whether Richard O'Sullivan is likely to die soon and therefore whether he should be on the list. First I've heard of it.

How could we be so negligent? Seeing himself back on the 'front page' will give him the filip he needs since Charlie Drake snuffed it.

In the crowd, Paul? Or in the shroud?

No. I regret that even Hendry's MRSA of the face seem to have cleared up a bit. PS I gather Len Ganley was stickler for good syntax.

Is that you Dorothy Parker?

But, is it? That's another one of those pedantic grammatical pseudo-rules, and I invite my fellow pedants to cleverly find a few other ones I won't put up with. regards, Hein Good stuff MH (Oh dear - a sentence without a verb). Nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition as long as it doesn't sound ugly (and 'up with which I will not put' is twice as clumsy). Nor with a split infinitive - for the same reason. Even the comma before 'and' is OK as it perfectly indicates the micro-pause that the elegant reader should take (note that the ill-informed pedant wouldn't object to the splitting of 'it' and 'indicates' by 'perfectly' as its the present tense not the infinitive form that has been split, and that shows just how silly and illogical pedants can be). Gowers and Fowler pooh-poohed most of these rules (including the taboo about starting a sentence with 'and') throughout the 20th century. However, this has never stopped the semi-educated pedant from their pursuit. Keep to the snooker you ranting guests and when its finished amuse yourselves by googling the names of your dead heroes. I had that Joe Davis in the back of my morgue once......

Appropriate to teaching? Try getting some bastard with a doctorate to teach. They're usually above that. 'Fund me with the student fees while I bring in £F**k all' is the usual message.