Fog Dude
-
Posts
116 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Fog Dude
-
-
32 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:
How in the blue hell did I score 2 points?!? Definitely letting the nephews pick this week.
Was that 2 more than you were expecting? I hope your nephews know more about Australian soccer than mine do.
-
1 hour ago, David said:
It's a sad day indeed.
Agreed, these are sad times over there. Forty years ago, many Catalans voted for the Partido Andalucista out of solidarity because they recognised it wasn't fair that they were getting democratic, decentralised institutions when Andalusia wasn't. That solidarity hasn't been reciprocated now. One explanation is that lots of people who live in Catalonia have Andalusian grandparents, while the reverse isn't true.
I'm not really a fan of the main 3 parties in the Andalusian Parliament (if I lived there I'd have probably voted for the animal rights party PACMA, that want to stop bullfighting), but the fact that a fifth party, from the extreme right no less, has entered is very alarming. I mentioned in a PM to Carbomb a couple of weeks ago that I was worried Vox might win a seat... and then they ended up with a dozen! They've had a boost in the national polls in the past week since the regional election too.
It shows Spain isn't immune to global overtly far-right movements in the way it thought it might've been. I say 'overtly' because as you point out, the PP already had a whiff of barely reconstructed Francoism about them.
-
Is it wrong that I chuckled at "12:45pm — Gammon in" on Onyx's list?
Anyway, last couple of Christmases have been quiet, but this year I think we're expecting a dozen people. My sister's put herself in charge of organising everything and even posted a menu in a family Facebook group convo, which seems a bit over the top. Apparently Yorkshire puddings and sage & onion stuffing are a side dish now, according to her. Among the mains will be carrots, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, broccoli, sweet potato, peas and of course roast potatoes with veggie haggis, non-beef wellington or nut roast. My other sister is allergic to the last of those. And some of the guests aren't vegetarian. This hasn't been thought through. Luckily I'll be out of the house most of Christmas Eve when they start to prepare all of this.
I think we tried cranberry sauce a couple of times and I didn't go down well. Dessert's gonna be Christmas pudding which I was persuaded to sample once and couldn't stomach, so I'll probably be excusing myself from the table to go and munch on chocolate in front of the end of the telly instead.
-
3 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:
I know it's all ifs and buts but that Man Utd team weren't dominant so it's a no from me. They were seconds away from losing the Champions League, Needed two extra time games in the semi of the FA cup and won the league on the last day of the season because Arsenal threw it away a week or so before. Sure, they still had to win them and it's an incredible thing to do, but they were three games removed from winning fuck all.
The FA Cup semi-final only went to a replay because they wrongly had a goal disallowed in the original game, then they had to win it all over again when a player short 3 days later. You're right that Bayern Munich and Arsenal basically bottled the other two competitions, though.
1 hour ago, Cod Eye said:It's all wrong though, as Barnsley's 97/98 team with Jan Aage Fjortoft and Ashley Ward up top would have spanked them all(except the United team, who beat us 7-0. And the Chelsea team, who beat us 6-0. Or the Arsenal team who put on the best defensive display I've ever seen live. Not City though, they were Division 1 at a the time!)
Focus on the FA Cup result against Man United that season, not the league game. Man City weren't just in Division One back then, they finished 22nd! What a difference a Sheikh makes...
-
18 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:
Just a question but is the FPL cup being run on a home-away level or is it just single tie? Just as I could all but tie up qualification this weekend.
Edit: its top 4 teams each group isn't it? I've already qualified, may as well let my nephews pick the next games, give the youth a chance.
What would be the point of playing each other twice? Am I meant to pop round Rory's house in a few months' time to make my picks? 😝
Seriously though: yes, it's the top 4 that go through. I'll make that clearer in the next update to the table.
-
Premier League
Bournemouth 1-2 Liverpool
Burnley 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Cardiff City 2-1 Southampton
Chelsea 1-1 Manchester City
Leicester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United 2-0 Crystal PalaceSerie A
Cagliari 1-3 Roma
Lazio 1-0 SampdoriaThe proper Bundesliga
Admira Wacker 2-2 RB Salzburg
Rapid Vienna 0-0 Sturm Graz -
I'm guessing now might not be a good time to remind everybody that David Dimbleby will be presenting his last edition of Question Time a week tomorrow. Don't think they've announced his replacement yet.
-
On 11/29/2018 at 1:57 AM, AdamTH17 said:
Having a look at the Dutch table has only just made me realise how much PSV are bossing that league. Fucking hell - they're smashing it!
It's good if this competition makes you check leagues and form guides you otherwise wouldn't. Some people are probably like me and pick 'blind'. (Would explain why I'm in last place, to be fair!) PSV had suffered one domestic defeat before the weekend, though, in extra time at home to second-tier Waalwijk in the cup. Feyenoord fans sneakily threw an extra ball onto the pitch when it looked like PSV might equalise near the end. Most people were caught out by that scoreline. At least there's a title race there now.
On 12/1/2018 at 1:55 PM, Shy Dad said:Don't start this when pissed at the pub.
Why were you drunk by 2 o'clock? 😆 Never mind, don't answer that.
Anyway, the results have been in the original post since Sunday night. The table was easy to figure out straight after that because there was no movement whatsoever in the main one and the average score was exactly 8 points. Joint top scorer MVP RULZ cut Briefcase's lead to 4. In the Cup, Rory and I are almost eliminated already but Group B is still wide open due to lots of draws.
Away from the Netherlands, a score draw at St Mary's, Sunderland being held at The Bescot [Bank's] Stadium and a heavy home reverse against the form book for their rivals Newcastle were all tough to guess beforehand. Six goals in the North London derby and an Arsenal victory also turned out difficult to foresee, but triumphs for Chelsea and Liverpool in the other derbies and for Oldham and Lincoln City in the Cup proved a lot more fruitful for most.
Another set of FPL Cup and regular fixtures are coming up in the opening post in a few minutes.
-
5 hours ago, Carbomb said:
Interesting - I remembered you saying you watch Pobol y Cwm, which is why I made that assumption. How much of it do you understand when you watch?
The "Popty Ping" thing was told to me by a bloke from Maesteg, so chances are he didn't actually speak much Welsh.
(Also, what's "Caer" and "Urdd" mean?)
Caer is Chester but I think Butch might be referring to a more Welsh-speaking place like Caernarfon, whose inhabitants were usually referred to as Cofis in Bangor.
I learned the proper Welsh word for microwave from Pam Fi Duw? on S4C (whose writer unfortunately turned out to be a nonce) back in the day long before the silly onomatopoeic one was popularised UK-wide by The Apprentice.
-
1 minute ago, PunkStep said:
I think you'll find it's actually Mumbai
/PedantDude
Ha, I did think of that as I was typing! Don't think the name of the food (including Bombay mix) has changed, even if the city has.
-
I speak French, German and Spanish (and have the certificate to prove it) alongside smatterings of Italian, Galician and Welsh. I've largely forgotten my one year of Latin, mind. I can read bits of Dutch, Catalan, Portuguese and the Nordic languages despite no formal teaching in any of those, due to their close relation to the ones I've learnt, but I'm hopeless at reading/writing/listening to them.
I'll gladly admit I can't handle any language that's too different from those – different writing systems, massively divergent grammar etc. – and admire the ability of anybody who does. It takes massive dedication to pick up a language just through an app, as well as when you're busy and your brain's old. I started picking up my main 3 in my teenage years when my mind was still more of a sponge, which helped.
EDIT: What Carbomb said about actually going to a country and immersing yourself too. That's the best advice! Since he mentioned YouTube, if you're interested in linguists and phonetics generally, I can recommend the LangFocus channel.
-
Sag paneer, Bombay aloo, garlic naan, the mildest korma imaginable, papadums and a vegetable fried rice. Obviously no meat or poultry, which more than a third of all Indians would approve of.
-
Just now, Shy Dad said:
Dyspraxia, Aspergers and they're sure I have Dyslexia as well. If collecting disorders was like when I collectes Pokémon cards, I'd still have no idea what to do with any of them and look as nerdy and unsociable as I did.
Not meaning to play arrested development Top Trumps, but I've got another friend with dyspraxia, Asperger's and dyscalculia who's nice but very anxious. Except for the moments when he's not worrying and gets reckless and impulsive instead.
-
Premier League
Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea 1-1 Fulham
Liverpool 3-1 Everton
Newcastle United 2-0 West Ham United
Southampton 0-1 Manchester UnitedFA Cup Second Round
Lincoln City 3-0 Carlisle United
Maidstone United 0-0 Oldham Athletic
Walsall 1-0 SunderlandGerman Bundesliga
Werder Bremen 2-2 Bayern MunichEredivisie
Feyenoord 1-2 PSV -
8 hours ago, PunkStep said:
Christ alive, have they STILL not pulled the trigger on their feud yet??
It was thought WWE abruptly ended the feud back in the summer because they were planning on introducing women's tag belts at Evolution and they wanted Sasha and Bayley to either be the inaugural champions or to lose in the tournament final (and then reignite their feud in time for 'Mania). Of course we now know they got cold feet on the women's tag titles plan, so they teamed up with Natalya last month instead. Now apparently they're keeping them together so they can set up some sort of Four Horsewomen rivalry.
If Bayley does turn on Banks again down the line, I can't see them getting such a strong reaction next time. Diminishing returns and all that.
-
The results went into the original post on Sunday night, and the updated table was calculated soon after that. Glenryck got his D2D bet right as Boro came good at Griffin Park. That netted him a cool 10 bonus points and sees him move up a few spots into 4th place. Without those bonuses, Briefcase would've edged him out as top scorer this time, and he's now extended his lead over MVP RULZ to 7 points. The average for the week was a fairly high 8.92 after accounting for the absence of @The Maestro. I would advise him and everyone else not to miss any of the next few rounds, as they're a chance to get points in both the main and Cup competitions.
Away from west London, the Birmingham and Falkirk derbies both ended with comfortable and surprisingly high-scoring home wins that meant they were only useful for one-pointers at best. The other favourites in Scotland didn't have it all their own way either, as Championship leaders Ayr Utd got all their goal in the last 27 minutes whilst Caley Thistle were held thanks to a late equaliser for Challenge Cup semi-finalists and League Two leaders Edinburgh City. The former scoreline proved more fruitful than the latter.
Yet another victory for PSG in France, but it was much narrower than most were expecting. Closer to home, runaway successes for Liverpool and Man City on the road were generally easy to foresee, but a narrower triumph for Arsenal and a bad away reverse for Chelsea turned out to be tougher to guess beforehand. A new set of 10 plus 7 FPL Cup fixtures will be up in the first post shortly...
-
Dyslexia vs Asperger's, eh? Let's call it a 1-1 draw then.
I know a guy unfortunate enough to have both. He's a nutcase.
-
6 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:
Dude, I had mash on a pizza and that's what you pull me up on?
Fair play. The mashed potato part is pretty awesome.
There's no way I was not picking that up though. I thought going for the jokey route might've gone down a bit better. Oh well.
-
5 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:
Tonight I ate mashed potato on a margarita pizza. No regrets.
A cocktail and mash on a pizza? 🍸🍕 Nice one!
-
5 hours ago, Teedy Kay said:
I'm thinking a Switch, but Nintendo's consoles seem to have a short lifespan since the Wii boom all those years ago.
The WiiU – which has basically been written off as a failure even by Nintendo themselves – had a lifespan of 4 years and 4 months. It's a bit on the short side compared to most consoles (still longer than the original Xbox, mind), but the main reason it seems short is that we're old now and those years go by in the blink of an eye.
A Switch will last your eldest until she's a teenager. When you're a kid, that amount of time feels like forever. It should be a worthwhile investment.
-
Sounds like a great time out there. Segueix divertint-te molt! Going to the cheapest, less tourist-y bars seems like the best way to go about things. I didn't actively seek out different opinions either. I was just drifting to whichever bar or flat or event I was invited to as well. I just so happened to hang around with people holding a whole range of views (and ages and genders and ethnicities, although the sample skewed towards white male twentysomethings), and in those days we were still able to be civil to each other at all times. In Belgium my best mates were even a Catalan with sovereigntist sympathies and a bloke called Eirian from Ebbw Vale. My ex was a Plaid Cymru voter. One of my friends in Santiago was a Glaswegian backer of the SNP who's since met Nicola Sturgeon. I watch a programme on TV3 every week.
In Madrid I was staying at a Red Cross refugee mission and met Latin Americans and a Palestinian fleeing poverty and persecution. I can get on with separatists and definitely don't want to see them beaten up or put in a straitjacket. I just find the notion that to be a pipe dream and a fantasy. The obstacles to a fairer society aren't the existence of larger countries as long as, like you say, they aren't too centralised and they don't deny local identity. The Catalan language is no longer suppressed and that is quite correct.
I'm glad you mentioned the Old Firm, because the parallels are clear for all to see. Some people think one side is saintly and the other side is evil. I am of the opinion that Rangers and Celtic, and Real Madrid and FCB, are just as bad as each other. Both sides play up the rivalry for all it's worth just to make money and then act shocked when tempers flare. In Barcelona I guess you'd expect to find a fair few people who are convinced that Barça are angels, though.
No worries about the 'mainland' thing. In a lot of people's minds perhaps Catalonia feels like an island, which might be one of the problems in contemporary Spain. I'm not saying everyone I spoke to was a genius, or always calm or wise either. I'm also not relying on English-language travelogue books or pseudo-academic tourism blogs. I reckon we have equal disdain for that kind of thing.
I would prefer a federal Spain instead of the autonomías which is the official position of the Catalan Socialist Party. Unfortunately most of the people opposing the estado autonómico are the neo-Falangists that want to return to a unitary (and not very democratic) state. You can oppose independence without having jackboots and a swastika in the cupboard, ready to goose-step down the street. Heck, in the 2014 consulta I'd probably have voted Yes/No (the Greens asked for there to be 2 questions) and in the 2017 referendum I might've have even braved the police to vote No, like a lot of Podemos supporters did.
There are massive shades of views between pluralism and a one-party state, and between outright independence and central government rule. Sadly the only party there that identified itself as catalanista but not independentista was a small, corrupt, socially conservative one that disappeared a couple of years ago after getting 2% of the vote in a regional election. People are being driven to the extremes and the biggest anti-secession groups don't appear to be very progressive, which is unfortunate.
At the end of May, Catalans will again go to the polls in European and municipal elections. I trust there will be no suppression or brutality. Were it not for Brexit, you'd have been able to take part in those election as well. Just sayin'...
-
Nice to know you frequent bars where people are deluded enough to have fallen hook, line and sinker for Barça propaganda. They don't actually want an independent Catalonia. Appealing to people who do is just part of their marketing ploy (but nowadays their shirts are also worn by hangers-on all over the world who haven't got a clue about all that). They were the one outlet for Catalan identity during the era of Francoism precisely because letting off steam at the football every weekend was seen as harmless instead of expressing that identity at work and in the streets. Bread and circuses, see?
When the SNP took power in Scotland there were 8 fire brigades and 8 police forces in Scotland. Now there's one of each. One of the first things they did in office was enforce a council tax freeze (which was obviously popular, but definitely an example of centralisation). I've heard it claimed that the SNP are only centralising temporarily until independence is achieved and that they desperately want to start decentralising again as soon as Scotland is 'free'. Ha, do they bollocks! Separatism has negative connotations for a reason. Brexit is an act of separatism and I don't consider more separatism to be an adequate solution. If you're worried about the centralising of power, you shouldn't necessarily trust separatist parties.
I don't think Spain eradicated oppression overnight when Franco died, and I can't recall claiming that the police had done nothing wrong since the 1970s. Those images are very emotive and they clearly show unacceptable actions, but they're hardly a daily occurrence, are they?
In my opinion the Spanish authorities should've treated the day of the referendum as a normal Sunday instead of sending in reinforcements, since they claim it was illegitimate. It would've been even better if they'd negotiated to hold a legal referendum like David Cameron and Alex Salmond did, but apparently that's against the Spanish Constitution (although that's rather convienient for central government, and open to interpretation) which is a document treated with a bit too much reverence at times for my liking.
Catalonia is part of 'mainland Spain' so I'm not quite sure what you mean there, but a variant of the Catalan language is also spoken in the Balearic Islands.
I'm not trying to deny your experience of the past 5 years. Mine differs though. I only had 7 months in Galicia in total (and 2 days in Barcelona 14 years ago, plus about a week in each of Andalusia, Madrid and Valencian Country). I spoke to people with a range of opinions while I was there and came to my own conclusions. It's a pity if you're only listening to and reading sources that have one – overwhelmingly negative – viewpoint about European and Spanish unity. The 2 million who feel that independence is the best solution do not speak for the other 5.5 million Catalans. And yes, a few of those 5.5 million will be fascists and other assorted arseholes, but most just want peace and quiet.
-
2 minutes ago, Carbomb said:
I still don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with splitting Spain up in itself - not saying they should join the EU, but if they did, this would make it in essence a further federalisation and therefore decentralisation of Europe.
Yeah, in the unlikely and unfortunate event that Spain does ever fracture into a dozen pieces, I'd prefer the successor states to fall under the protection of the EU as member states than to be left to flounder.
I'll PM you about the rest since it's not really about the EU or Brexit anymore. 👍
-
6 hours ago, Carbomb said:
I appreciate the rest of your post, but have to disagree with this. Catalonia wanting to secede isn't nonsense when you take into account its history as a part of Spain - same with the Basque Country, and, to a lesser degree, Galicia too. Those regions have historically suffered at the hands of the Castilian-run Spanish government, especially under that piece of shit Franco (about whom, BTW, the oh-so-democratic West never did anything about, allowing that cunt to stay in power until he died), so it's understandable there are a lot of grievances against it. To be honest, given your level of knowledge, I'm a little surprised that this doesn't factor into your argument.
Prior to the Brexit referendum, you might have been able to argue that secession is nonsensical when unity is preferable, but Scotland's example provides a strong argument for why a region with a cultural and political identity of its own, especially one that diverges drastically from that of the rest of the "home nation", might want to seek self-determination. Looking at Catalonia's situation, it looks more likely they'd want to be part of the EU, but they want to do so on their terms, like Scotland did.
Thank you. It's possible to understand cultural and linguistic differences inside sovereign states without tipping over into full-on separatism, such as respecting the separate legal and education systems and distinct Protestant Church (Presbyterian rather than Anglican) in Scotland. I did spend a lot of time studying in North Wales too, you know, and have always been able to get a decent S4C signal and can see Flatholm on a clear day.
It's therefore equally possible to respect the three 'historical nationality' identities you mentioned without wanting to Balkanise the Iberian peninsula. Franco himself was Galician (as was Mariano Rajoy), and you're right that he was also a cunt. I know Galicia like the back of my hand and can tell you that the centre-right sadly represents as much of a legitimate local outlook on the world as the BNG do, and is more popular than secessionist options out in the countryside. FC Barcelona milk the 'holier than thou' image as the expression of an oppressed minority (that haven't been opressed since the mid-1970s) for all it was worth but wouldn't actually want to lose their guaranteed two annual Clásico fixtures in favour of a Catalan league when push comes to shove. The founder of the EAJ-PNV (the sometimes-separatist Basque regional party) was a crazed xenophobic racist whose views you probably wouldn't approve of.
I realise the PP are a bunch of bastards and the PSOE are just as corrupt, so it's sad that separatists assume you approve of all that and align with them just because you don't want to see Spain split into pieces. But he didn't invent Spanish unity in 1936 (it had about 450 years of history before that), it's just that his way of enforcing it was shit and undemocratic. There is already a sovereign state whose only language is Catalan too: Andorra! You know where the last holdout against fascism was in the Civil War? Madrid.
So that we don't drift too far off topic... until last year, a popular Catalan secessionist slogan was 'Catalunya, nou estat en Europa' (Catalonia, a new state in Europe). Since the attempted referendum and the flight of the former leader, Carles Puigdemont, into exile in Belgium – of all places – he seems to consider himself a bit of a Julian Assange figure and made noises about not wanting to be part of the EU after all, providing whatever conspiracy theory sites our resident ex-BNP voter David has been reading with their talking points.
Football Predictions League 2018-19
in Off Topic
Posted
Ha, forza calcio, but even more than that, long live Austrian football! The two matches there earned me six points, which means I'm off the bottom of the table and still in contention in the Cup too. The results in both competitions have been in the opening post since Sunday night. It was a low-scoring round with an average of just 5.29 points, but there was still quite a bit of movement. Only Glenryck could join me on double figures, with Stinky the sole other participant to get more than one exact score right. Briefcase has extended his lead back to 7 points over MVP RULZ.
In the FPL Cup group stage, Group A has been pretty straightforward with Rory out already and 3 players sealing their progress to the next stage with 2 rounds to spare. Group B has seen a lot more draws so the only thing mathematically decided so far is that FailedPromoter won't be advancing, but other than that it's still wide open.
As mentioned above, 2-2 draws were the order of the day in Italy which wasn't a lot of help to most people. Another pair of draws in Austria didn't turn out to be that helpful either. Closer to home, wins for Spurs and Liverpool on the road proved fruitful, whereas crucial narrow victories for Burnley, Cardiff and West Ham caught quite a few pickers out. A surprisingly comfortable success for Chelsea wasn't much good for the majority either.
A new set of regular and Cup fixtures will be up in the original post very shortly.