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Non-baseball items, part II
Those are the feel-good stories the average fan loves to hear about.
Been listening to some albums today, though at times I forget an album is over and thus Spotify plays whatever it wants to. So far I have listened to albums by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Passadena Roof Orchestra
The Grass Roots
Despite their name the Passadena Roof Orchestra is a British oufit. The name comes from a time when most hotels has a lounge on their roof. Usually the lounge had a small jazz/big band orchestra to entertain the customers. They came to be known as roof orchestras.
Here is the link for this week's pub quiz. I actually received it awhile back but I was using my phone at the time so had to wait til i got on the computer to post it.https://www.mirror.co.uk/play/quizzes...
Just did the quiz and scored 13 out of 20, though one was a pure guess. That is better than I have been doing lately.
In World Cup Qualifying Wales defeated Kazakhstan yesterday by a score of 3 - 1. Not sure who is up next for Wales. I also recall reading somewhere that Japan has already qualified out of Asia.
Listening to one of the Daily Mix's on Spotify. This one is comprised of a lot of sixties hits. This is Daily Mix No. 4. Since these can change day to day I shall try and remember to check tomorrow and see what type of music it is comprised of then.
Tiger Woods has made his relationship with Vanessa Trump official.
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I only got 11 - guess I have to watch more British TV
The Canadian team won the Women’s World Curling title.
Lance wrote: "C. John wrote: "Just did the quiz and scored 13 out of 20, though one was a pure guess. That is better than I have been doing lately."I only got 11 - guess I have to watch more British TV"
That or read the TV newsletter from the Mirror. Might help too.
After 70 years British band The Searchers are calling it quits. That is a lot of touring.
Results from the weekend's Womens Six Nations tournament matchesScotland 24 - 21 Wales
Ireland 15 - 27 France
England 38 - 5 Italy
England are the favourites for the title and it is safe to say Italy probably aren't.
Canada took 3rd in the Concacaf Nations' League tournament. We won the third place match yesterday. I believe it it Mexico and Panama playing for 1st today. The loser of course ends up in 2nd.
In typing a post for the Regular Season thread something from long ago came to mind. Not sure if was the late seventies or the early eighties but there was a heel tag team in the Toronto promotion, before it was part of the WWF (now WWE). They were a masked team known as The Patriots and were billed as being from Washington , DC. Methinks they'd fit in well these days.
It appears we have a bit of an argument taking place in autoracing. In ads Indycar is billing itself as the fastest racing. One NHRA owner/racer has taken exception to that and is quite vocal about it.https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nhra/...
A bit more information on that meeting on The Houthis. They were using Signal, which is encrypted but not necessarily secure. It is a commerical site after all. Apparently the editor involved thought the whole thing was a joke. When he realized it wasn't he logged out. And I am sure some author is now planning on using this as part of his latest thriller.
England defeated Latvian 3 - 0 yesterday. As usual when playing a minnow there were eleven men between the ball and the Latvian goal.
After reading an item in the Toronto Star sports newsletter, or at least the part the paywall let me read, I have to ask. What is a power conference?
Don't often post a link to The Telegraph newsletters but the lead item, which is not hidden behind a paywall, was too goo not to. I have to admit that the number 10 gripe I really don't know about. I presume Mr. Bellingham is wearing some sort of weird sock which people have taken to wearing because he is. Also, for number 1, VAR means Video Assisted Review.https://m5.emails.telegraph.co.uk/nl/...
The other four countries in England's qualifying group are Albania, Latvia, Andorra and Serbia. They have played the first two still have to play the other two. Since all qualifying has to be done by the end of the year I should think then I am not sure if the teams play each other once or twice.
Okay I am reading an article from The Mirror (British newspaper) on Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini being cleared, again, of some criminal charges related to money the latter paid to the former when they were presidents of FIFA and EUFA respectively. Scrolling down I notice a picture of Donald Trump with King Charles III. Then I notice the text which says that Trump has agreed for the US to join the commonwealth because he loves the king so much. My reaction was "yeah, right, try pulling the other leg." Once I finish the article I am reading I am going to have to see what this one says.
In World Cup Qualifying Wales drew with North Macedonia 1-1.
Apparently there was a bankruptcy petition issued against Ugo Monye, a British rugby player. HM Revenue and Customs has withdrawn the petition. The reason is they can't find him to serve it.
Argentina has beaten Brazil in qualifying and supposedly has booked its ticket to the World Cup with that win. This was a very satisfying win for Argentina as one of the Brazilian players had said they would beat up Argentina on and off the field. As Gene Kiniski said "It's not boasting if you go out and do it". Well I am afraid that for Brazil it was boasting.
Your morning humourous anecdote for the day (it isn't 12 noon yet here on the Left Coast). This is courtesy of The Morning Brew.Good morning. On Saturday, a United Airlines flight bound for Shanghai from Los Angeles turned around after two hours and diverted to San Francisco for a really embarrassing, if relatable, reason: A pilot realized they forgot their passport. In SF, the plane got a new crew (all passports in hand) and made it to Shanghai about six hours late.
Passengers knew something was off when a flight attendant asked, “Is there a photo doctor on board?”
—Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman
In all the coverage of what happened on the weekend with that internet conference, as well as other things I have been reading about I have noticed something. The first big scandal like this was, of course, Watergate. It was called that because the name of the building was the Watergate building. Now though any scandal like that has to have the word gate in its name, thus we have Signalgate, the current one, and over in Europe they have had Quatargate. Thay have another one as well but I have forgotten its name. I guess using the term 'gate' is meant to indicate how big it is.
Iran ended up earning a draw with Uzbekistan in World Cup Qualifying. As a result they have now qualified for the finals. This will prove interesting, all things considered.
Went onto YouTube to look for something. Took a glance at the page that comes up when I first log in. There is a video for a song called "Do you want to Fondle my Tits?" It is labelled a banned song. Gee I wonder why. Oh yes, the singer is named Wilma Dikfit. That has got to be a stage name.
I have the playlist "Baseball, Baseball, Baseball" playing. This is one I created so if anyone else in this group uses Spotify you may want to check it out.
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The goalie for the Kenyan National team (Football) is being investigated for match fixing after a recent WC qualifying game against Cameroon.https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...
One of the newsletters I get is from The National Review. For those not familiar with the magazine it is a conservative publication founded by the late William F. Buckley. The newsletter takes a similar conservative slant on its reporting and commentary. However, they did have a great line after reporting on Trump's automotive tariffsSo the president’s plan is to raise taxes, raise prices, and give some of that money back if you buy a car that he likes. It’s Bidenomics with Republican characteristics.
Just in case anyone has noticed that the English Premier League has no matches scheduled for the weekend that is becuase this weekend is the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. This is due to the new agreement between the FA and the English League which kicked in this season. So the only Premier League teams playing this weeken will be the seven teams playing in the FA Cup.
The Museum of Moving Image, which is located in Astoria, NY has an exhibition dedicated the to the Mission: Impossibe franchise. The exhibit starts April 18th but I don't have a finishing date. Since this exhibition is only for the movies I have no interest in it myself.
The Chelsea football first team recently lost a match, 0-3. That is bad enough but the opponent was the Chelsea U-21's.
An interesting bit of news from Mark Carney's recent phone call with Donald Trump. Apparently Trump referred to Carney as Prime Minister through the whole phone call and never once referred to him as governor. Maybe that was something to rile Trudeau up, as it seems Trump really does not like him. Carney also said Trump respected Canada's sovereignty throughout their conversation. Maybe Trump is starting to believe what people have been saying, that Canada becoming part of the US would be a huge win electorally for the Democrtatic party. Of course sports teams would love it, no more crossing a border for away games.
My previous post just got me thinking. What might the effect on sports be if Canada were to become the 51st or 52nd or 53rd state? Obviously there would be no more crossing international borders when heading on the road. Another possibility is with university sports. Here in Canada we don't allow athletic scholarships. In fact BC's Simon Fraser University got kicked out of the governing body for university sports up here when they started offering him. That is why, last I heard, they were playing in a lower NCAA division.
Here's an interesting article from Reader's Digest. It is on the most popular genre of books for each state. Mystery is only the most popular in one state, California. I am a bit disappointed in that Science Fiction didn't make it onto the list, though Fantasy did.https://www.rd.com/article/most-read-...
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Blackhawks just signed two former Gophers - Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore. Are they who you were thinking of?
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Both states I was interested in was romance - “yawn”
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Fensway Sports Group is looking at investing in Spanish Football club Malaga who play in the second tier of Spanish Football. They are already the owners of Liverpool FC of the Premier League. They may have rivals in Quatar Sports Investments who own Paris St. Germain. See how this goes I guess. I think it is fair to say that FSG seems to have been a better owner than the Glazers have.
Here is the pub quiz for today. I already know I won't get a perfect score for two reasons1. I never have yet so why should I now.
2. There is a question to do with an television show on, I believe, Netflix which I have never watched.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/play/quizzes...
The World No. 12 in Women's tennis is switching her allegiance from Russia to Australia. She has not been back to Russia since coming out as gay in a video a couple of years ago. She is also opposed to the invasion of Ukraine and has spoken out against. Neither of those are very popular positions in what was her home country.
Did the quiz and got 11 right. This is better than I have been doing, The worst was that in one case I was going to choose one answer but decided to choose a different one. My first choice was the correct one. Ah well. At least I got the Adolescence question right and I don't even watch the show.
To get your day off on a musical note here are five versions of the song "A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square". This is from The Londonist newsletter.https://londonist.com/london/music/a-...
My only problem is I keep thinking of 55 Berkley Square which is sometimes referred to as the most haunted house in England. And now I am off to bed. TTFN.
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