Sky Blues update, compare and contrast, and a birth and death

21 December 2013

I have an update on the Coventry City story from yesterday where I said that the clubs owners were looking to build and new stadium, possibly in Brandon, a small village right on the edge of Coventry. BBC Midlands Today reported yesterday on the artists impression of how the new stadium. They are looking at two sites for it but Brandon isn't one of them. It all seems to be such a waste of money considering that there is an almost new stadium sitting empty on the old gas works site. The City has a loyal band of followers, just like so many other clubs in the FA, but that number getting smaller all the time and it won't be long before there are none left at all. Who will then use the current stadium, let alone newly built stadium?

Last week I mentioned on here that we had watched the Star Wars films. I'm now nearly finished reading the Parry Hotter Half Blood Prince book. It occurred to me just how much the two series tend to follow each other plot-wise and character-wise. They both have orphaned kids being coached by a kindly old man. The both have a dark side of life ruled by a sad and twisted man and being helped by others who betray the orphan in some way. At the end they both come down to the orphan and dark villain fighting it out between them. Star Wars has the Sith and the Dark Side of the force; Potter has dark magic and a leading exponent of it. Both side have supporting armies of the main two characters. Strange that eh ... ... ...

 Another strange thing is numerology. The idea as I remember it, is that by using the names of subjects, their date and time (if known) of their birth and giving them a number which is supposed to indicate their character and future. This is worked out assigning each letter of the alphabet a digit; using that you then assigned each letter a digit. You then add all the numbers together and reduce it to a single digit. You then reduce the date and time of birth in the same way and add that to the name number and reduce it yet again. Well ...

In the mid-1970s I used to do that as bit of fun in the pubs in Cambridge. But I didn't do it correctly. All I had done was to write out the alphabet and under each letter I added a number. And this is where it differ quite a bit it seems from how it should be done. So then ... A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4; OK so far? Next comes E of course, so I start at 1 again, and so on all the way through.

This whole thing showed up two surprise for me. The first was just how many young people, mostly students I should add, were interested in having it done. Secondly, my 'bit of fun' actually seemed to work very well and I got more correct that not. I got posted to Cyprus then and that brought it all to end, but I did enjoy all the free pints I got because my little part trick ;-)))

It's Telegraph day today being Saturday. Today's anniversary only goes back to the birth in 1804 of a future of a future Prime Muppet, Benjamin Disraeli. But today in 1945 is also the day that General George Patten died in a traffic accident in Berlin I think it was. There's been a few conspiracy theories over his death. One suggested that he was killed because he had uncovered a massive fiddle going on in the army command structure at the time.

And so for photo today ... 

A main battle tank, as they are known as (don't know which one though), that I found in a grounds of a closed RAF museum would you believe, Cumbria.

And another on from the Sage ...

Two aliens landed in the Arizona desert near a gas station that was closed for the night. They approached one of the gas pumps and the younger alien addressed it saying, "Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader."
The gas pump, of course, didn't respond.
The younger alien became angry at the lack of response.
The older alien said, "I'd calm down if I were you."
The younger alien ignored the warning and repeated his greeting. Again, there was no response.
p**sed at the pump's haughty attitude, he drew his ray gun and said gruffly, "Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader or I will fire!"
The older alien again warned his comrade saying, "You probably don't want to do that! I really think that will make him mad."
"Rubbish," replied the young alien. He aimed his weapon and opened fire.
There was a huge explosion. A massive fireball roared towards him and blew the younger alien off his feet and threw him in a burnt, smoking mess about 200 yards away into a cactus patch.
Half an hour passed. When he finally regained consciousness, he refocused his three eyes, straightened his bent antenna and looked dazedly at the older, wiser alien who was standing over him shaking his big, green head..
"What a ferocious creature!" exclaimed the young, fried alien. "He damn near killed me! How did you know he was so dangerous?"
The older alien leaned over, placed a friendly feeler on his crispy friend and replied, "If there's one thing I've learned during my intergalactic travels, you never mess with a guy who can loop his willy over his shoulder twice and then stick it in his ear."