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Aug. 26th, 2012 06:35 pmI'm incredibly sad to hear about Neil Armstrong's death. He belonged to a time where we had fear and terror, of the cold war and nuclear war, but also hope, and he helped to bring that hope.
RL:
Things that are good - discovering, much to your surprise, that this is a Bank Holiday weekend.
Things that are better - because of this, you get paid a weekend early.
Challenge Cup Final:
I'm just hoping it's a good match, because while neither side are Saints, neither side are Wigan either. (They are the forces of good and the forces of evil respectively.)
Rugby is a lot less terrifying when it's not your team playing.
Why is Rat-boy on my TV when Wigan aren't playing. Once again the BBC are biased in favour of Wigan.
If Warrington win, we're not going to hear the end of the complaining about that knock on.
The Germans have taken to Rugby League. We will convert the world. I know there's an Austrian league already.
Interviewer: "At 30 minutes gone, a storm hit. That could have distracted you."
Lee Briers: "Do you mean Leeds or the weather?"
Adrian Morley is Northern. With a capital N.
Interviewer: "You being an old geezer, do you appreciate these more?"
Adrian Morley: "No. Because you know you've not got that many opportunities left." The famous Northern no that means yes.
It pleases me that Stephen Ratchford has got a shiny, because he's been very impressive in lots of teams that haven't won things.
While I totally agree that Brett Hodgson deserves the Lance Todd, I would have given it to Richie Myler. It pleases me to no end to have Ian Millward agree with what I said.
Paralympics:
As I have been informed by the papers that this is the first time that any US channel is covering the Paralympics (even if it is only online), I feel I should put in an advert for Wheelchair Fencing.
While not as well known as wheelchair basketball and murderball (wheelchair rugby), both of which are stupid amounts of fun to watch - no lie, I prefer wheelchair basketball to the other one, it is fantastic to watch, and the true heir to schlager fencing.
The rules are the same as non-wheelchair fencing, except there is no moving back beyond the movement of the trunk.
So yes, definitely give it a watch if you can.
Moto GP:
You will all love Ben Spies. I mean, he's loveable enough anyway (it is not his fault he's riding against my beloved Texas Tornado and Dovi), but he speaks such sense on the topic of his mother. I feel I should explain. His manager, agent and general person of greatest advice giving is his mother. People occasionally suggest that this is odd, or label him a mama's boy. He points out that plenty of the other racers have their father's in this position and nobody bats an eyelid. He says it's because a lot of men are threatened when women break into areas that they consider to be men's areas. Also that people commenting doesn't bother him, because it doesn't bother his mother.
The Armstrong Affair:
Other than the question of actual evidence, when they've never been able to catch Armstrong on anything (to quote my mother, "you know if they could have done, the French would have"), and a lot of the people willing to testify against him are people who have previously been caught doping and how much you're willing to believe them. Personally, my line is "I believe what George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton say", but I'm a huge fan of both men, so I may be biased.
There is another problem, other than actually, USADA, you can't remove Armstrong's titles, only the UCI can (never mind that the UCI don't actually run the Tour and would probably need the ASO's agreement*). It's not like anyone immediately behind Armstrong wasn't doping too. Seriously, reading the data here - http://www.brettluelling.com/post/3435612945/armstrongs-tdf-victories, you're having to go to the guys who finished 10-30th before you hit people who probably weren't doping. And that's only probably. From the evidence and testimony produced from questioning previous doping offenders, doping was team-wide and systematic, so if we asterisk anyone that was, in that given year**, on a team with anyone who has been caught, that drops us down to the people finishing 30th - 50th. If we're lucky. The French might get their Tour winner after all.
What I'd do is just asterisk everything after Indurain***, up to the one Contador won, and say we can't tell who won because they were all on something. Defeatist, yes, but it makes more sense than having to try to figure out who was and wasn't when it was mostly was.
* yes, cycling's governing body don't run cycling's blue ribbon event. No, it makes no sense. Yes, there have been many, many hilarious arguments.
** I'm being nice, for once.
*** Indurain may or may not have doped, but he never got caught and all of his old teammates aren't lining up to declaim he did. Possibly because Big Mig was slightly less abrasive. Fair, no, but it is what it is.
( Football: )
Anna Karenina:
The new Anna Karenina looks like it will be terrible, but given that Joe Wright couldn't get the social structure of Regency England right (Pride and Prejudice) when most of the books are in a language he reads, I have my doubts about him being able to do pre-Revolutionary Russia any justice. Also, Jude Law as sour-faced, rotten toothed Karenin?! Also, Aaron Johnston is ~10 years too young for Vronsky.
RL:
Things that are good - discovering, much to your surprise, that this is a Bank Holiday weekend.
Things that are better - because of this, you get paid a weekend early.
Challenge Cup Final:
I'm just hoping it's a good match, because while neither side are Saints, neither side are Wigan either. (They are the forces of good and the forces of evil respectively.)
Rugby is a lot less terrifying when it's not your team playing.
Why is Rat-boy on my TV when Wigan aren't playing. Once again the BBC are biased in favour of Wigan.
If Warrington win, we're not going to hear the end of the complaining about that knock on.
The Germans have taken to Rugby League. We will convert the world. I know there's an Austrian league already.
Interviewer: "At 30 minutes gone, a storm hit. That could have distracted you."
Lee Briers: "Do you mean Leeds or the weather?"
Adrian Morley is Northern. With a capital N.
Interviewer: "You being an old geezer, do you appreciate these more?"
Adrian Morley: "No. Because you know you've not got that many opportunities left." The famous Northern no that means yes.
It pleases me that Stephen Ratchford has got a shiny, because he's been very impressive in lots of teams that haven't won things.
While I totally agree that Brett Hodgson deserves the Lance Todd, I would have given it to Richie Myler. It pleases me to no end to have Ian Millward agree with what I said.
Paralympics:
As I have been informed by the papers that this is the first time that any US channel is covering the Paralympics (even if it is only online), I feel I should put in an advert for Wheelchair Fencing.
While not as well known as wheelchair basketball and murderball (wheelchair rugby), both of which are stupid amounts of fun to watch - no lie, I prefer wheelchair basketball to the other one, it is fantastic to watch, and the true heir to schlager fencing.
The rules are the same as non-wheelchair fencing, except there is no moving back beyond the movement of the trunk.
So yes, definitely give it a watch if you can.
Moto GP:
You will all love Ben Spies. I mean, he's loveable enough anyway (it is not his fault he's riding against my beloved Texas Tornado and Dovi), but he speaks such sense on the topic of his mother. I feel I should explain. His manager, agent and general person of greatest advice giving is his mother. People occasionally suggest that this is odd, or label him a mama's boy. He points out that plenty of the other racers have their father's in this position and nobody bats an eyelid. He says it's because a lot of men are threatened when women break into areas that they consider to be men's areas. Also that people commenting doesn't bother him, because it doesn't bother his mother.
The Armstrong Affair:
Other than the question of actual evidence, when they've never been able to catch Armstrong on anything (to quote my mother, "you know if they could have done, the French would have"), and a lot of the people willing to testify against him are people who have previously been caught doping and how much you're willing to believe them. Personally, my line is "I believe what George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton say", but I'm a huge fan of both men, so I may be biased.
There is another problem, other than actually, USADA, you can't remove Armstrong's titles, only the UCI can (never mind that the UCI don't actually run the Tour and would probably need the ASO's agreement*). It's not like anyone immediately behind Armstrong wasn't doping too. Seriously, reading the data here - http://www.brettluelling.com/post/3435612945/armstrongs-tdf-victories, you're having to go to the guys who finished 10-30th before you hit people who probably weren't doping. And that's only probably. From the evidence and testimony produced from questioning previous doping offenders, doping was team-wide and systematic, so if we asterisk anyone that was, in that given year**, on a team with anyone who has been caught, that drops us down to the people finishing 30th - 50th. If we're lucky. The French might get their Tour winner after all.
What I'd do is just asterisk everything after Indurain***, up to the one Contador won, and say we can't tell who won because they were all on something. Defeatist, yes, but it makes more sense than having to try to figure out who was and wasn't when it was mostly was.
* yes, cycling's governing body don't run cycling's blue ribbon event. No, it makes no sense. Yes, there have been many, many hilarious arguments.
** I'm being nice, for once.
*** Indurain may or may not have doped, but he never got caught and all of his old teammates aren't lining up to declaim he did. Possibly because Big Mig was slightly less abrasive. Fair, no, but it is what it is.
( Football: )
Anna Karenina:
The new Anna Karenina looks like it will be terrible, but given that Joe Wright couldn't get the social structure of Regency England right (Pride and Prejudice) when most of the books are in a language he reads, I have my doubts about him being able to do pre-Revolutionary Russia any justice. Also, Jude Law as sour-faced, rotten toothed Karenin?! Also, Aaron Johnston is ~10 years too young for Vronsky.
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