While we’re on things Flemish, I’m afraid I have a tendency to disbelieve shibboleth stories. The big one in these parts is that of the brave Flemish-speakers identifying the craven French-speakers after a battle in 1302 by politely asking them to say “scilt ende vrient”. That’s debunked by Bill Poser here. An alternative version has…
Interesting news here that the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz/Rhineland-Palatinate has recognised the Sinti and Roma as a national minority and committed itself to promote and protect their language and culture, particularly in education. Meanwhile, in Spain racial stigmatisation of a type not seen in Britain since the 60s remains acceptable, and not just in the…
However much you hate football, this is the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile. Ah, say people, Ronaldinho is able to do that kind of stuff because he is Brazilian. We liberals know better than to believe any such nonsense. When I was a lot smaller, I saw ex-England keeper Gordon Banks play…
Mad Andy has a good old laugh at The Guardian for writing that The home secretary, David Blunkett, warned today that police will come down ‘like a tonne of bricks’ on football fans who misbehave at home during the Euro 2004 tournament. Sez Mr Lostinspacesky: Given that they’re in Europe, it seems only fair to…
GhanaWeb, one of the world’s leading portals, reports that Kofi Azogba, Samuel Auyah, Sovey Awyah, alias stone, George Boateng and GK Dzamesi all executive members of the Pig Breeders Association of Pig Farm … [believe that] an agent of the MP [for Ayawaso Central] must have planted a dynamite or an explosive material in the…
Invited by Tony Blair, the Iraq national team is apparently playing a British parliamentary XI tomorrow and then heading up the M1 to West Brom to take on that well-known Midlands outfit, Trinidad and Tobago. The Spanish authorities have refused them visas, presumably out of political spite, and Mr Bush has not replied to their…
Dirty smelly infant entomologists are the new elite in South Korea, reports Chosun. Apparently prices range from USD8.5-85 for ones with shells pretty as jewels. “There are an estimated 100,000 insect owners in the country and industry sources say the market is rapidly growing,” we are told, although there is a substantial Farmer Brown contingent:…
No help for the beardless wonder in the search for Conan Doyle’s Reminiscence of Cricket, but I did find two wonderful poems by South Asian schoolboys. Cricket Teams by Raza Shahban Ali of Fatimiyah Boys School, Karachi would have been an outstanding review of the world scene, had his laudatory couplet about England not been…
Metrosexual. The Americans blame French cissies and Brit hacks, but the honours go to Galician AZ Alkmaar footballer, José Fortes Rodriguez: Some women just don’t get it. They’re not used to being turned down. They say: Go on, you want me don’t you! I say: Am I talking Chinese? I don’t find you attractive. And…