One...

"One Kneel to the Arsenal!" One is slightly amused; one is not at all surprised: Royal Arsenal and all that...

The bargin from Barcelona could be the one: "Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal's ingenious midfielder, is apparently the source, after he told Spanish radio that the Queen told him about her allegiance when the team visited Buckingham Palace in February. 'It seems the Queen follows football and she told us she was an Arsenal fan. She appeared to definitely know who I was and we exchanged a few special words,' he said." Times Online News Blog reports [Link]

Is it a coincidence that just as Arsenal football club is facing the possibility of passing into foreign ownership, we learn that the Queen is a fan?

Of course this isn't really a surprise: her mum was a gooner so I suppose she influenced her daughter's choice: proof in this link to ArseWeb

A few other choice facts (Wikipedia) about this mighty team and their 'firsts': Arsenal vs. Sheffield United in January 1927 was the first English League match to be broadcast live on radio. A decade later, in September 1937, an exhibition match between Arsenal's first team and the reserves was the first ever football match to be televised live and Arsenal also featured in the first edition of the beeb's Match of the Day, which screened highlights of their match against Liverpool in August 1964 although one presumes the 'other' clubs games were broadcast too.

Another great tale (if you're an Arsenal fan) was the history of their 1919 promotion...I think I've posted this before on Baldinio's blog...a period that saw fraud, bribery and match-fixing and involved not only Arsenal but Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United...

However one match in that final pre-war season was so outrageously and obviously fixed that the authorities eventually had to act – not least because every newspaper in the country was carrying the story of the fix, and the effects that it had. As a result the issue of Manchester Utd 2 Liverpool 0 became the first football ever to go to court, and the High Court ruled that the match was indeed a fixed.

plus ça change... ;-)

One...

"One Kneel to the Arsenal!" One is slightly amused; one is not at all surprised: Royal Arsenal and all that...

The bargin from Barcelona could be the one: "Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal's ingenious midfielder, is apparently the source, after he told Spanish radio that the Queen told him about her allegiance when the team visited Buckingham Palace in February. 'It seems the Queen follows football and she told us she was an Arsenal fan. She appeared to definitely know who I was and we exchanged a few special words,' he said." Times Online News Blog reports [Link]

Is it a coincidence that just as Arsenal football club is facing the possibility of passing into foreign ownership, we learn that the Queen is a fan?

Of course this isn't really a surprise: her mum was a gooner so I suppose she influenced her daughter's choice: proof in this link to ArseWeb

A few other choice facts (Wikipedia) about this mighty team and their 'firsts': Arsenal vs. Sheffield United in January 1927 was the first English League match to be broadcast live on radio. A decade later, in September 1937, an exhibition match between Arsenal's first team and the reserves was the first ever football match to be televised live and Arsenal also featured in the first edition of the beeb's Match of the Day, which screened highlights of their match against Liverpool in August 1964 although one presumes the 'other' clubs games were broadcast too.

Another great tale (if you're an Arsenal fan) was the history of their 1919 promotion...I think I've posted this before on Baldinio's blog...a period that saw fraud, bribery and match-fixing and involved not only Arsenal but Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United...

However one match in that final pre-war season was so outrageously and obviously fixed that the authorities eventually had to act – not least because every newspaper in the country was carrying the story of the fix, and the effects that it had. As a result the issue of Manchester Utd 2 Liverpool 0 became the first football ever to go to court, and the High Court ruled that the match was indeed a fixed.

plus ça change... ;-)

Our obtruding ommission...

More from Alcuin Edward's 'The Truth' (4th March) from his blog Whatever:
"The only way to make the game more even is to resurrect society. We need to realise that we are all responsible for the fact that our neighbours live shitty lives. It's time to make things better... yes it is, but it's also time to work together in this game so that we can win for a change."

"The aim, the ultimate aim, is a liveable world. A world in which life is pleasant for the majority of people and there is no advantage for those sybarites who choose to hoard their wealth like ancient dragons and to sequester themselves away from the world so that the shitty world is hidden from them. Instead, we will squeeze the shittiness from the world and make it clean and sweet and new."

That is connected, in a Span Ows roundabout way, to Earth Day (follow the link through the flag) Strangely enough there are 2 Earth Days: equinoctial Earth Day is celebrated on the vernal equinox in March and the second is today "Responding to wide spread environmental degradation, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin called for an Environmental Teach-in or Earth Day to be held on April 22, 1970. (Gaylord Nelson? Was his father another of those that despised English history ?) Over 20 million people participated and it is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries." This he did 'to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda', back in 1970; apparently, coordinated by the non-profit Earth Day Network, Earth Day is the largest secular modern-day holiday in the world.

Our obtruding ommission...

More from Alcuin Edward's 'The Truth' (4th March) from his blog Whatever:
"The only way to make the game more even is to resurrect society. We need to realise that we are all responsible for the fact that our neighbours live shitty lives. It's time to make things better... yes it is, but it's also time to work together in this game so that we can win for a change."

"The aim, the ultimate aim, is a liveable world. A world in which life is pleasant for the majority of people and there is no advantage for those sybarites who choose to hoard their wealth like ancient dragons and to sequester themselves away from the world so that the shitty world is hidden from them. Instead, we will squeeze the shittiness from the world and make it clean and sweet and new."

That is connected, in a Span Ows roundabout way, to Earth Day (follow the link through the flag) Strangely enough there are 2 Earth Days: equinoctial Earth Day is celebrated on the vernal equinox in March and the second is today "Responding to wide spread environmental degradation, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin called for an Environmental Teach-in or Earth Day to be held on April 22, 1970. (Gaylord Nelson? Was his father another of those that despised English history ?) Over 20 million people participated and it is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries." This he did 'to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda', back in 1970; apparently, coordinated by the non-profit Earth Day Network, Earth Day is the largest secular modern-day holiday in the world.

Olusegun Obasanjo out...

Update 24/04/07: No real big surprise that the Nigerian election was marred in controversy: "Turnout was low. The government and the electoral commission say it was a success, but there has been a barrage of criticism. The opposition says it was a charade. So too do Nigerian and international election observers."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This weekend Nigeria will see a new President. Like many blossoming democracies, once someone gets power they seem to think they should keep it, no matter what; in Nigeria the people thought differently and their struggle [against a bid by Mr Obasanjo to have the nation's constitution amended to extend his tenure] taught Nigerians the important lesson that democracy would survive only if they applied themselves to protecting and nurturing it…

A few reminders, choice quotes from the BBC [link] of what these people went through to vote: There were a number of killings, thefts of ballot boxes and an attempt to blow up the election headquarters; a number of policeman were killed while escorting election officials with the papers. Four people were killed in clashes...after only half the voting papers arrived; men armed with cutlasses and guns stole ballot boxes; in the south-west, men disguised as policemen abducted election officials.

It seems most elections we read about these days are marred by some violence or other, yet in 'civilised' countries apathy reigns.

The value of a vote...Alcuin (http://alcuininsull.blogspot.com/) writes from his blog Whatever ( The Truth, posted March 4th) that:

That's right, we are all responsible for accepting the shittiness of life as inevitable.We don't vote... or if we do, we're more likely to vote for a contestant on a reality TV show than we are to vote for those who will decide how our lives will be lived.

Alcuin isn't wrong. It reminds me of something I read very recently, although its origin is disputed [Link] and has become one of those 'urban myths' from email spam. It goes that "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government... The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence"...

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage

Now in this case the 200 year point indicates this was surely written about the USA and their young democracy but it also suggests to me that the UK is most definitely in the 'apathy to dependance' phase or at the very best, just leaving the complacency to apathy phase. Of course even when we vote it can be ignored, as in the case of the EU Constitution:

"Europe's elites, however, immediately made clear that the project remained on course. "The French and Dutch did not really vote 'No' to the European constitution,"

This, or course, is where apathy leads and the aforementioned Constitution may now be forced on the UK via 'the back door'...but that's another story.

S.O.

Olusegun Obasanjo out...

Update 24/04/07: No real big surprise that the Nigerian election was marred in controversy: "Turnout was low. The government and the electoral commission say it was a success, but there has been a barrage of criticism. The opposition says it was a charade. So too do Nigerian and international election observers."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This weekend Nigeria will see a new President. Like many blossoming democracies, once someone gets power they seem to think they should keep it, no matter what; in Nigeria the people thought differently and their struggle [against a bid by Mr Obasanjo to have the nation's constitution amended to extend his tenure] taught Nigerians the important lesson that democracy would survive only if they applied themselves to protecting and nurturing it…

A few reminders, choice quotes from the BBC [link] of what these people went through to vote: There were a number of killings, thefts of ballot boxes and an attempt to blow up the election headquarters; a number of policeman were killed while escorting election officials with the papers. Four people were killed in clashes...after only half the voting papers arrived; men armed with cutlasses and guns stole ballot boxes; in the south-west, men disguised as policemen abducted election officials.

It seems most elections we read about these days are marred by some violence or other, yet in 'civilised' countries apathy reigns.

The value of a vote...Alcuin (http://alcuininsull.blogspot.com/) writes from his blog Whatever ( The Truth, posted March 4th) that:

That's right, we are all responsible for accepting the shittiness of life as inevitable.We don't vote... or if we do, we're more likely to vote for a contestant on a reality TV show than we are to vote for those who will decide how our lives will be lived.

Alcuin isn't wrong. It reminds me of something I read very recently, although its origin is disputed [Link] and has become one of those 'urban myths' from email spam. It goes that "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government... The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence"...

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage

Now in this case the 200 year point indicates this was surely written about the USA and their young democracy but it also suggests to me that the UK is most definitely in the 'apathy to dependance' phase or at the very best, just leaving the complacency to apathy phase. Of course even when we vote it can be ignored, as in the case of the EU Constitution:

"Europe's elites, however, immediately made clear that the project remained on course. "The French and Dutch did not really vote 'No' to the European constitution,"

This, or course, is where apathy leads and the aforementioned Constitution may now be forced on the UK via 'the back door'...but that's another story.

S.O.

Orgasmic osculation...

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Orgasmic osculation...

I assume many of you read the news this week [DT Link] that new research shows that eating chocolate is more stimulating to the heart and the head than kissing, apologies in advance if you've already done this to death (the story that is, not kissing and chocolate...no apologies needed if you're deeply involved there).

Of course this will not be news of regular readers of Owsblog who were (hopefully) entertained by open eyed osculation re the many and varied ways of kissing:

Slobbery kiss: This is excellent for cunnilingus and fellatio...

AND the indepth history on the discovery, use, manufacture and health benefits of the orgasmic ordeal that is chocolate:

Scientists have found that one 'square' of milk chocolate contains almost the same amount of phenols as a glass of red wine and that plain, dark chocolate contains even higher amounts.

More health giving benefits reported [BBC link] Re this latest news I was a bit wary imagining lab rats/assitants being told to 'get at it' with what would have been very unromantic non-passionate snogs, so I was relieved to read that "Romantically attached couples" were the ones who were asked to have heart monitors and electrodes attached... to their scalps!! (pheeeew) by scientists. This was to measure their heart rate and brain activity.

The results led the research leader, Dr Lewis to say: "There is no doubt that chocolate beats kissing hands down when it comes to providing a long-lasting body and brain buzz. Ah well...

A spokeswoman for Cadbury added “You'd think people would be shy about kissing in a laboratory, but that wasn't the case at all. We're not talking about a quick peck here." In the name of equality, even though women are thought to be bigger 'chocoholics' than men, both sexes showed the same responses in the tests.

S.O.