Opinionated lefty, music geek, writer, historian, feminist, bookworm, bad photographer & semi-retired activist. Also cats. Refusing to act my age. #THFC#COYS
I wrote this in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, but it's still very relevant today - here's how you can make sense of breaking news...
(Please retweet if you can!)
https://t.co/COPKrkf5nZ
Python’s “Marching Up and Down the Square” is pure genius. Michael Palin (83 today) hits notes that only dog whistles and Mariah Carey can match. The “extras” were real Colchester Garrison soldiers, who later said they were “fighting for their lives” not to break. 😂🤣
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder (1991)
0:00 Kill Your Television
2:59 Less Than Useful
6:59 Selfish
10:50 Grey Cell Green
14:35 Cut Up
17:39 Throwing Things
20:59 Capital Letters
23:49 Happy
27:47 Your Complex
30:20 Nothing Like
33:02 Until You Find Out
36:07 You
The Only Dog Ever Officially Enlisted in the Royal Navy.
In 1939, a Great Dane named Nuisance had a problem. He loved riding the trains between Simon's Town and Cape Town, South Africa, escorting drunk sailors back to base. The state railway company didn't love him back, they threatened to have him put down unless someone paid his fares.
The Royal Navy's solution was breathtaking in its bureaucratic elegance: they enlisted him. On August 25, 1939, Able Seaman Just Nuisance, surname Nuisance, first name Just, trade listed as "Bonecrusher," religion as "Scrounger", became the only dog in history officially enrolled in the Royal Navy. As enlisted personnel, he was entitled to free rail travel. Problem solved.
His service record reads like a sitcom. He was charged with sleeping in the Petty Officers' dormitory and sentenced to "deprivation of bones for seven days." He went AWOL repeatedly, refused to leave pubs at closing time, lost his collar, and, in his most serious infractions, killed the mascots of two Royal Navy warships, HMS Shropshire and HMS Redoubt. He never once went to sea.
He died on April 1, 1944, his seventh birthday, after being put to sleep due to a paralytic condition called thrombosis. The Royal Navy buried him with full military honours, a firing party, a bugler sounding the Last Post, and a Union Jack draped over his grave on the slopes above Simon's Town. His bronze statue still watches over the harbour today.
They gave a dog a rank, a salary, and a disciplinary record just to get him a free train ticket. Peak military logic.
From the football pitch to the front against fascism: Adelino
World War II years were a period when, unlike today, the cliché that “football and politics are separate things” was not very valid. Football history is full of stories of footballers who joined the resistance against the Nazis in different countries, from France to Italy. In this article, we go to Brazil and tell the story of legendary footballer Adelino Gonçalves Torres.
Adelino spent almost his entire career wearing the shirt of Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, one of Brazil’s major clubs. During this period, he played 430 matches and became one of the players with the most appearances in the club’s history. He won Campeonato Mineiro titles with Cruzeiro in 1943, 1945 and 1948. He was also included in the club’s “Hall of Fame” roster created in 2012.
What separated Adelino from many other footballers was the fact that he joined the war while his active football career was still continuing. In 1944, he joined the Brazilian army and was sent to the Italian front to fight against the fascists. He took part in critical battles such as Monte Castello and Montese. He narrowly escaped death after a grenade exploded near him. Because of the nickname given to soldiers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, he became known as “O Pracinha” (“The Little Soldier”).
“I lived through days of terror. There I was, watching comrades fall, riddled with enemy bullets. I must have sent many Germans to the other world, I don’t know exactly how many, and I don’t like to remember those days. After a grenade exploded a few meters away from me, I was taken to a hospital in Livorno because of the air displacement caused by the blast. When I came to, I was between white walls and nurses who did not speak our language,” he recalled in an interview with Diário da Tarde on March 7, 1958.
After returning to Brazil, he started wearing the Cruzeiro shirt again in September 1945. In the late 1940s, during a period when the club was going through a financial crisis, Adelino accepted a salary reduction and remained at Cruzeiro. He also worked in a shoe factory to supplement his income. After retiring from football, he continued working within Cruzeiro. It was Adelino himself who brought Dirceu Lopes, considered one of the greatest talents in Brazilian football history, to the club in 1963. Cruzeiro’s anti-fascist supporters group Resistência Azul Popular carries flags featuring Adelino’s image, and even today it is still possible to find traces of Adelino in Cruzeiro’s stands.
Cruzeiro is a club founded by the Italian community in Belo Horizonte and has a strong connection with the Barro Preto neighborhood where it is located. Even today, it is possible to come across murals in the area referencing Italian partisans. The club’s original name was Palestra Italia. During World War II, because Brazil entered the war against Italy, the club was forced to change its name and the Italian community faced persecution. The club chose the name Cruzeiro, representing the Southern Cross constellation, one of Brazil’s main national symbols. Among the Italian immigrants were many socialists and anarchists, who even led some of the major strikes in Brazil. The community was mainly made up of workers, craftsmen and merchants.
John Button, former Fisherman
On this day in 1986 (40 years ago…), The Cure released “Staring at the Sea” – The Singles (CD version) / “Standing on a Beach – The Singles” (Vinyl version).
↩️ 𝗢𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆 • 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟭
On this day in 1961, Tottenham beat Leicester 2–0 at Wembley to complete the Double. Bobby Smith smashed Spurs ahead before setting up Terry Dyson to seal it.
The first Double of the 20th century.
Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur.
#OnThisDay
Members of the "British Ladies' Football Club" one of the first female football teams. They kept on playing matches despite ridicule from the press and heckling which often escalated into violent pitch invasions- 1895