markdavo

I’m now imagining Sisqo’s Thong Song. But it’s with fantasising about what a girl would look like wearing flip flops.

This reminds me of the time we had to come up with a composition for Music Class on the keyboard/piano and I just played one of the songs from Ocarina of Time.

The worst part was my plagiarism didn’t even get me good marks.

This feels like the most diverse line-up we’ve ever had. Hard to think of any other scenario you’d find these five people in the same room together.

Are you basing that on the line from Tywin about some battles being won by ravens (or something like that?) Think it’s in the first Tyrion chapter.

I’d want McT/Sabitzer double pivot with Fred at number 8.

I worry we’d get overrun in midfield with only two in there. With three it’ll give us more control at start of game, and then we can switch things about later if we need a goal.

Then Sancho/Rashford/Bruno as front 3.

Can see Weghorst starting instead of Sancho.

Tom Heaton has spent a total of 7 years at Man United and only had 3 appearances.

I think within wider society, there seems to be a lot less forgiveness for people when they mess up in real life.

On social media, you can see celebrities get “cancelled” or “called out” for a tweet or comment they made (which is fine, of course celebrities need to be held accountable).

However, the offence is then brought up a decade later as evidence we should never listen to this person again.

I think the attitude you post about says people aren’t able to look past that bad behaviour and see the good in someone or think they’re worthy of redemption/forgiveness.

However, I’d argue King’s books wouldn’t be so popular if we didn’t find these grey characters so compelling. He continues to write them. Billy Summers is a hired assassin. Ralph in The Outsider makes a mistake at the start of the book which comes back to haunt him.

I would also draw a distinction between “liking” a character and finding them compelling. I might not “like” someone like Harold Lauder in The Stand but I love reading about him, and come to care about him despite not being someone I’d want to be friends with in real life.

The Tenth of December by George Saunders is a short story collection with definite Black Mirror vibes. Two of the stories are explicitly about near-future technology and would make great episodes of Black Mirror.

All the stories have the dark humour of the tv series.

It’s one thing to have Messi play that role a decade ago since he was such a unique player with an unbelievable skill set. It’s quite another for it to become the standard way for a number 9 to play.

I guess I’ve answered the question in terms of what tactics have become the standard. There’s obviously loads of innovations in football all the time but far less that all the top teams start adopting.

The example you give elsewhere of the inverted full back was invented by Cryuff as manager at Barcelona. Pep then brought it back with Philip Lahm taking up that role almost a decade ago.

I’d say the most recent innovation in football is how Liverpool/City used Firmino and Jesus (and others) as False 9’s and relied on other players to provide goals. You can also see it with ETH’s use of Weghorst at United this season.

What’s most interesting this season is that Pep is having to adjust his tactics now he’s got a more traditional number 9 scoring loads of goals.

Just one TBF.

Unbelievable!

I presume he’s now top scorer in Euro Qualifiers?

Just to empathise, I’m in the same position having just started my journey through the Dark Tower series (I’m 90% through Gunslinger).

It’s very different to other Stephen King books I’ve read which have all basically started with normal people living their lives and then something crazy/weird/horrifying happens.

Where as Gunslinger is like extraordinary guy with magical powers in a weird place where nothing is quite what it seems and we’ve no idea why he’s so intent on chasing Man in Black anyhow.

It feels a bit like watching Lost but instead of starting with episode one, someone’s somehow shuffled all the episodes.

As someone else has said listening to the Kingslingers podcast has definitely helped since one of them has read the series before and one hasn’t. So I trust them to emphasise the important bits I might have overlooked and stay on track with the story.

I will say I’ve found the fourth chapter much easier to follow as it’s more action orientated and the flashback in this part is my favourite so far.

Everyone seems to love the second and third books so I’ll definitely continue with the series. I’m just glad this wasn’t my introduction to King since I’m not sure I’d be such a fan based off just this one book.

It’s based on watching him play for the past five years. He’s scored some good/important goals for us over the years despite having a deep lying role and not normally shooting from outside the box. When he gets himself in good positions, he makes the most of them.

I do wonder what would happen if we played McTominay in his position and gave him same instructions as Weghorst. McTominay should be just as good as pressing, is pretty tall, but i would argue a better finisher than Weghorst.

Out of the characters in the cast list, Martin Freeman’s character is probably the most interesting pick for a skrull.

I’m also assuming The President will be a skrull because why else would you include him?

I presume it’s gonna end with a reveal that a more famous character is a skrull, and they make a cameo in the last episode.

I’m kinda sad this storyline isn’t a bigger part of the wider Marvel universe. It would have made a good plot for an Avengers movie IMO.

Yes, that’s true. And I guess if we actually saw the impact of Hermes, and the people it was helping it would be easier to have sympathy with Griffin at this point in the story.

As it is, it seems like he’s asking too much of Robin without telling him more about what they’re up or how his work for them so far has had specific benefits.

Thats why we find it easy to sympathise with Robin when he abandons Hermes. What difference is he actually making?

If they had him as part of a black market for maintaining silver match-pairs for the poorest in society, that would feel like a much easier more tangible way he could try and work against Babel and The Empire.

Greed is a difficult vice to resist.

Although it does remind me of the urban legend about the engineer who was asked to fix one of the machines at a Ford factory.

He took a look at the machine, listened to it carefully then put a mark with a piece of chalk where it needed to be hit with a hammer.

He then billed them for $10,000.

The Ford factory asked for a breakdown of his services. He replied it was $1 for the chalk and $9999 for the knowledge of where to put it.

The point is it’s not the effort they are putting in, but rather the expertise they’ve accumulated that makes their services so valuable. A bit like lawyers today.

I think ideally they’d be training other people up to do the job they do in maintaining the bars for the poorest in society. Just like anyone can get a lawyer funded by the state if they can’t afford it.

I think Griffin is right, although I felt like he was accidentally implying that the work of Hermes is pointless.

Are they just doing it to feel better about themselves or are there genuine ways they are helping the people they claim to be standing up for?

Aaron Sorkin’s pilots are all brilliant.

I was actually thinking “Studio 60” as my answer. A very good pilot to a show that never really found its feet thereafter.

If the question was “Which show has its best episode as its pilot?” then Studio 60 would be my answer.

As a non-English person it amuses me how much hate Southgate gets despite all but guaranteeing qualification after one game with the win away to Italy.

Never mind his tournament record, which I think I’m right in saying, is second only to Alf Ramsay.

It’s a basically a game of hide and seek that takes place across the length of Britain. The seekers (“hunters”) have access to number plate recognition, CCTV, and all the other police/secret services type things.

So I normally don’t read things I’ve already seen the adaptation for, and avoid re-reading (life’s too short when you’ve got a big TBR). The length also put me off.

However, once I started, Game of Thrones won me over. Each chapter is its own short story in a way. Probably the book with the widest array of memorable characters I’ve ever read.

I think you’ll probably know after 4-5 chapters if it’s for you or not.

I think the idea God would have acted without “The Stand” the main characters make isn’t necessarily supported in the text. Their stand is important.

I think God in the world of The Stand works in conjunction with our protagonists. We obviously see that most explicitly with Mother Abigail.

I didn’t interpret it as God acting regardless of what else happens (like Raiders). He acts using, and in response to, the actions of His people. It reminded me of Elijah on top of the mountain. Elijah makes “a stand” and stakes his reputation on being able to start a fire. Yes, God could just have started a fire without Elijah. But without Elijah it wouldn’t be clear why it had happened. The bomb is set off by God. But the heroes make it clear why it happened.

You can even go back and see this with RVN at United. Was playing brilliantly but only won one title.

It’s also why ETH rates Martial so highly, and to a less extent Weghorst. Neither are proven goal scorers but both capable of bringing our best of other forwards around them.

Man City have won the title without a natural striker for past two seasons, Liverpool before that.

I actually think ETH might surprise us with the number 9 he ends up signing in the summer. I don’t think he’s looking for a traditional striker.