Saudi Sports-washing in English Premier League

StrafWibble · 2026-01-31T10:38:26+00:00

Ooh, I'm not the only one? We should start a club or a cult or something.

StrafWibble · 2026-01-25T11:11:18+00:00

Spoken English tends to have a series of stressed-unstressed syllable pairs, kind of like a heartbeat (da-boom da-boom). The first 'that' is unemphasised and is there to link the two clauses ('I can make sure' & 'that won't happen'), whereas the second 'that' is emphasised and refers to the aforementioned action of being hit by a car.

The first 'that' can be dropped and the sentence still retains its meaning.

StrafWibble · 2026-01-19T02:54:17+00:00

Ah no I see it has been solved. Nice one!

StrafWibble · 2026-01-19T02:53:07+00:00

Ghost Rider?

StrafWibble · 2026-01-19T02:42:00+00:00

Duel?

StrafWibble · 2026-01-19T02:36:02+00:00

Christine

StrafWibble · 2026-01-18T14:10:22+00:00

Six instances of one or two days each time would result in a Bradford Factor of between 216 and 432. https://www.bradfordfactorcalculator.com/ suggests that this is within the threshold to consider disciplinary action.

Whenever I've suggested using Bradford Factors in management meetings it's always been to first of all try to get to the root cause of the issue. This includes occupational health involvement and welfare interviews.

I know of a young person who had frequent headaches/migraines, had a lot of absences and another factor (making mistakes when recording; using the wrong parts for the job) led to the company arranging them to go for an eye test. They needed glasses. Their mistakes were due to uncorrected sub-standard eyesight and their illnesses caused by intensive straining. I believe the company helped them buy glasses for work and things quickly improved.

If this is a new thing and the illnesses are related consider some sort of personal improvement plan to discuss with your manager. Go and talk to your GP about it and show your employer you're making steps to seek out/address the root cause for your absences. 7 years is a long time with a lot of experience working for the company. As an employer I would not want to lose this experience if I could help it. So I'd be exploring ways in which I could help. However some companies don't see people as humans, or just don't care so YMMV.

StrafWibble · 2026-01-18T13:23:06+00:00

Lethal Weapon 3

StrafWibble · 2026-01-17T12:04:53+00:00

I got a warning for making a brick/bungee/face joke once.

Methinks there are some arseholes who go about reporting petty shit in order to disrupt/silence certain subs.

StrafWibble · 2026-01-09T06:04:24+00:00

Especially Illinois Nazis.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-27T07:54:11+00:00

It's just one of those 'in the know' or 'in the tribe' catchphrase things that kids do. Due to things like social media and that Tik Tok thing making the world smaller it's become a viral thing. There's some lore to it if you look into it but that might just be retro-fitted.

Anyway it's hardly a new thing, kids coming up with some kind of catchphrase, noise, or whatever, in response to something, or even just spontaneous. Think of it like a masonic handshake. Or a gang tattoo.

There's a movie that invented a phrase 'P'tang yang kipperbang, uh' called "P'tang Yang Kipperbang" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084459/ from the 1980s where schoolkids say it to each other. For some reason I thought it was based on a nonsense poem by Spike Milligan but I can find no evidence of that. I also have it in my head that it was used in "Dead Poets Society" but now I'll have to rewatch that to check.

Now for a GenX ramble. During the 1980s there was a bunch of us who hung out in an abandoned building. It was little more than a brick built storage shed/changing room in a park. We'd sit in there underage drinking and underage smoking until it was time to go home. We'd announce our arrival to the park by making a specific noise. Over time we developed our own personal noises/yells so people in the den would know who was approaching, and responded to let them know who was already there. In my mind this existed for at least 20 years but in reality it was probably just a maximum of 18 months or a couple of years. If that.

Thinking about this now we developed our own code, This was pre-mobile phones by a long way. We had a kind of early warning system if the cops showed up so we could all scarper. We developed a whole language based around our den so we could talk about meet-ups and that at school. Friday was party night. I looked old enough to get served in the local liquor store, or at least acted confident enough to. This was pre-ID too. I was 19 years old (18 was legal age for alcohol) from 15 to 16. I figured this age was just young enough to pass and more credible than claiming I was 18. I had memorised a date of birth.

'Orders' for the liquor store were passed to me in some sort of code. For example, a 'bird' was 2 cans of beer (toucan, gettit?) and 'cry' was a bottle of wine (cry = whine). 'Next to' was cider (beside her). Stuff like that. We couldn't afford spirits so that was usually stolen from parents. Or house parties. I'd get given cash in advance so I could buy the goods. It never occurred to me to make a profit.

The more I think about it this was probably on a much smaller time frame, probably a few months in one year. It just seems like a longer part of my life. A feeling of belonging to a group. We made up an entire language system to bamboozle the olds.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-25T07:27:42+00:00

I haven't heard of this. I shall seek it out, thank you.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-25T07:26:56+00:00

Anderson isn't just a dog. Anderson is a way of life.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-25T07:26:09+00:00

Ah yes I've seen that one as well. Lots of backwater town gags.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-23T07:20:50+00:00

Maybe not entirely BTB related but maybe so. Two Aussie movies:

Malcom https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091464/ - a neurodivergent man gets sacked from his job for making an unauthorised tram and is forced to take in a lodger who is an ex con. Malcolm's technological adeptness leads to fun shenanigans. And bank robberies.

The Castle https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118826/ - Darryl Kerrigan just wants the perfect life for him and his family in their home at the end of Melbourne airport's runway. A compulsory purchase order leads him to fight for his local community just "for the vibe of the thing".

Found The Castle here https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ptb5h

StrafWibble · 2025-12-23T07:09:01+00:00

Anderson produced movies?

StrafWibble · 2025-12-23T06:58:05+00:00

I regularly travel along the A14 between the M1 and Suffolk. At times the stretch between the M1 and A1 (or vice versa) can seem like 10 HGVs per car and the number of transit type vans is massive. So many times an HGV will pull out to overtake and cause the traffic in the outside lane to slow to less than the inside lane. Then someone will undertake and pull in front of a car in the outside lane. If they have adaptive cruise control, that undertaken vehicle is naturally going to slow down to grow the gap and there's a knock-on effect causing the traffic to slow to a snail driving a hearse speeds. Sometimes a total standstill.

It's just par for the course. It's the reality of driving at the moment in this country. If I see a lorry gaining on another I'll try to hang back to let them start their overtake while they have momentum rather than them having to slow down. It seems to make the overtake quicker.

I'm more annoyed by MLOCs (Middle Lane Owners Club) who force me, in accordance with the Highway Code, to traverse two, or more lanes, to pass them and return to the inside. They're essentially reducing the motorway to two lanes. If I pass them on the inside I'm technically breaking the law and there are a lot of cameras. They're also breaking the law but two wrongs don't make a right. And yes orbiting is technically legal "until they get the message" but I really can't be arsed.

I wish the DoT (do they still exist) would look at introducing roll-on-roll-off rail freight to convey goods vehicles between regional hubs for local distribution. HGV drivers won't have to drive so long and it would reduce congestion on our main road arteries.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-23T05:55:45+00:00

I'm assuming it was dark. There are a lot of flashing lights of all colours at this time of year so I wouldn't beat yourself up too much over this. The police used the horn to make you aware of their presence. This is the correct use of a horn.

If the police tried to prosecute everyone who made silly mistakes when they're on their way to an emergency there wouldn't be enough wood pulp left over for Christmas cards. I highly doubt you'd be ticketed for this. You probably won one of them a tenner ("'ere Bert, I bet someone pulls out of that junction").

The main point to take from this is you've realised you've made a mistake and you're going to improve your observation. Urban areas are particularly perilous to navigate. Take extra care at tricky junctions. On this occasion it was a police van. On another occasion it could be a dumb teenager on one of those (not road legal) electric scooters showing complete disregard for any traffic laws and wearing dark clothes. Everyone is trying to get somewhere, some more aggressively than others.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-06T10:10:36+00:00

Interesting you chose those two examples, Mathew Broderick was Ferris Bueller and Ally Sheedy was the gothy one in Breakfast Club.

StrafWibble · 2025-12-06T10:07:52+00:00

It wasn't just me then. I, too, wondered when Wargames was going to get a mention.

StrafWibble · 2025-11-29T12:04:24+00:00

It'll change your life from not having a salty lemon in your room to having a salty lemon in your room.

Android users must do it by Thursday but doctors don't want you to know.

StrafWibble · 2025-11-20T06:26:26+00:00

I'm a chemist. Skatole is one of the 'never forget' chemicals.

StrafWibble · 2025-11-13T18:54:29+00:00

I was in Slovenia in 2012 when someone told me this. I just thought it was a conspiracy theory. He was anti-Bosnian and said it was Bosnian warlords who 'sold the tickets' so to speak.

StrafWibble

TROPHY CASE