Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Sporting Triumph

 I said in my last piece that England would triumph1 in the European Championship "Round of 16" knockout against Germany and that is what they did.

Source: BBC

Not only did we enjoy the rare spectacle of a Wembley crowd behind England in a game that really mattered but they stifled their old enemies before despatching them with two beautiful goals. And to add the topping to this burger, veteran cyclist Mark Cavendish, unexpectedly summoned to take part in the Tour de France when his career seemed to be over, won the day's sprint. Fittingly, the location was where he last won a stage at the Tour, five years ago.

At a time when covid cases are rising back to some 20,000 a day, we need all the boosters we can get.

 

1. [Umm, yes, up to a point. You also implied that they would be trounced. I believe this is what is called hedging one's bets: Ed]


Sporting Mayhem

 There was destruction a-plenty in major sporting events yesterday. At the Tour de France a series of crashes throughout the day transformed what should have been a straightforward bunch finish into a lottery. Geraint Thomas fell off early on and brought down Robert Gesink.  Thomas managed to ride away; Gesink abandoned. Later Primoz Roglic fell off and lost time to the GC leaders. During the sprint finish Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan bumped wheels; Sagan rolled over with his bike firmly in his grasp but Ewan lay on the ground, just yards from the finish line, waiting for the peloton to pass before medical aid could reach him.

Those crashes followed the incident yesterday when a moronic spectator, more intent on waving a piece of cardboard for the cameras than watching the race, hit Tony Martin with it on a narrow section of road. Martin went over and some 40 riders piled over him, leaving bits of bike strewn across the road.

A different sort of destruction in the European Championships. Following the Netherlands lack-lustre performance yesterday, it was nearly Spain. Leading 3-1 against Croatia until a few minutes before full time, they let in two quick goals and were taken to extra time where they recovered. In the evening it was real for France. Uncannily their game with Switzerland went exactly the same way - Switzerland scored a shock early goal, France banged in three in the second half and were strolling and then the Swiss rallied to score twice at the end of normal time. But there the resemblance ended. No goals in extra time and the failure of France's fifth penalty-taker to do what the nine preceding strikers had achieved put the World Champions out.

Today England host Germany. The mood of the English supporters seems to be rather muted. There are few flags in evidence in the streets or in houses. Most comments are resigned to another disappointment. This writer has no such defeatist qualms. Of course we will triumph. Unless we don't.

Friday, June 25, 2021

Are THEY watching?

 Two weeks ago we had a few days of extremely hot weather (hot by UK standards, you understand). It came without any build-up, following a delightful week of really pleasant sunshine, a week in which, by pure coincidence, Mrs. C and I enjoyed a holiday for the first time in 18 months. But the heat did not simply fade into a typical summer, or vanish amidst thunderstorms (although there was a fair bit of rain). It was replaced by a cold snap so virulent that we, and other people of our generation, were seriously considering putting on the central heating. In June!

I am pleased to say things have now settled down to a normal British summer but at the back of my mind is one disquieting fact. The US government  is about to publish a definitive report on the existence of UFOs.

Nobody denies that unidentified flying objects exist. One of them hurtled past my ears only the other evening before disappearing mysteriously somewhere near the net curtains [Could it have been a fly? Ed]. What excites the loonies of this world is the idea that some must be alien spacecraft and that the US government knows all about them and is, perhaps, in contact with them.  Naturally, the aliens possess technologies so far in advance of our own that they can be thought capable of anything. Flying across light-years of space - no problem. Whizzing round our world undetected pretty well all of the time - a snap. Being able to land, abduct Americans, investigate their anatomies intimately and then return them without anybody else ever seeing - happens all the time.

And now we come to the crux. The aliens, who monitor all our of media closely (and I hope they find EastEnders of particular use when analysing the psychology of people who glower a lot and keep getting barred from pubs) will know all about the forthcoming report. They have kept their existence, not exactly secret, but deeply obscured, for at least 75 years.

Some suggest there is much earlier evidence, if the account in Second Kings is given credence -

 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

What do the aliens want? Presumably to go on probing the digestive systems of Americans and zooming around the skies in order to baffle airline pilots. They obviously derive enormous satisfaction from this and are credited with absolutely nothing else.  Would these activities be harmed by the truth being disclosed to those of us not already privy to it? Is this, in fact, why the weather has been so screwy? Are they sending us an awful warning?

Detailed, robust and painstaking research conducted here at Ramblings has established the following scenarios that pertain.

  • The aliens do not want any more information about them to be released. The heat and the cold show what they can do if they are offered further provocations.
  • The aliens want the information to be released. The heat and the cold are a warning that full disclosure must be made.
  • The aliens want the information to be disclosed but are not happy at the thought of all the loonies going "I told you so" because, in a way, this undermines the total secrecy of the aliens' activities and make them look rather stupid. The heat and the cold are there to ensure governments round the world suppress all dissent but, so far, only the Chinese have followed them to the letter.
  • The aliens don't know what they want and are having a furious debate about it with their overlords back on Tharg. As all messages can only travel at the speed of light, and Tharg is 24 light-years away, they are still waiting for a reply from a message sent in 1974 asking if they should exterminate the Bay City Rollers as a threat to the wholesomeness of the younger and more impressionable of their crew. The heat and the cold are a message to their mother ships anchored in orbit somewhere beyond Pluto and mean "Well? Yes or no? Get on with it, five-eyes!"
  • The aliens really like sharp changes in temperature, such a refreshing contrast to the constant -139c temperature on their flying saucers. After a long day's medical review of the intestines of Americans, they like nothing better than to land on a deserted beach, take in the sun for a while and then don fluffy cardigans as the mercury plummets. They are worried that these activities may have to be curtailed when the report is published and so are getting in a final burst of basking and shivering before it all has to end.

We will soon know what the US government wants us to know. It doesn't really matter what they publish because the true believers in UFOs as evidence of alien spacemen will allege that the REAL facts are being covered up. And the strange contrasts in our weather will continue.

-*-*-*-*-

Readers! Do you have any stories of alien abductions in which things were inserted into parts of your body that, quite frankly, made you feel rather squeamish? Have flying saucers buzzed you while little green men leant out of the windows thumbing their noses or sticking tentacles down their outer proboscis or whatever it is that aliens do when they can go faster than you? Do you know the GRISLY TRUTH about what is REALLY going on and if so, do you dare to disclose it?

Please send in your contributions to the usual address and, provided you don't mind having thousand of goggling Thargians watching as your innermost secrets are probed with a, er, probe, you could win a holiday for two on a flying saucer. Just remember to bring your thermals!

Terms and conditions apply but as they have to be approved by the Thargian government it will take 48 years before we can let you know what they are. 

 

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Memorable Names

 When one rather unusual name, with a certain amount of risible potential, comes into public view, then the columnist seeking inspiration may put it behind his ear, reserved for future use. When two such names are furnished, one begins to feel the need to record them for posterity. 

A couple of weeks ago some political machinations in Northern Ireland brought to the fore one Edwin Poots as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. Within a matter of days further machinations unseated him. I naturally wished to record this in the traditional way and had begun composing lines in this sort of fashion:

So farewell then Edwin Poots.
I wonder who will fill your boots
And lead the DUP?

You'd scarcely put down any roots
When others, acting in cahoots
Marooned you out at sea.

etc etc

 But the second silly name overshadows poor old Edwin. For famous sprinter Usain Bolt has become the father of twin boys and has named one of them Thunder and the other - well - it clearly should have been Lightning but the poor mite has been landed with Saint Leo. I don't know if there is a Saint Leo Bolt in the Christian pantheon but it seems unlikely. Is this an attempt to forestall objections from the Vatican and book the youngster's place in Heaven? If so, seems a bit unfair on his brother, doomed to be be the butt of jokes from henceforth whenever he has to announce his moniker to strangers.

What else could St. Leo have been dubbed? Nutsand? Latch? Door? There must be something snappy but I can't think of it right now.