Meenzer

Big fan, aye. Really ought to get my hands on JPod. 155822[/snapback] Aye, it's the only one I haven't read now. Well, of his fiction stuff anyway. Have you read any of his non-fiction stuff? 155830[/snapback] Nope, I haven't either, would be curious to know if it's in the same kind of territory. Of course I could just buy and read, but that'd be too easy... 155849[/snapback] Just started reading that last night, haven't read any of his stuff before but it seems very canny. Is it worth digging in to the rest of his back catalogue? 156296[/snapback] In my experience, if you like one Coupland novel you'll tend to like them all, more or less. That's not to say he's predictable, but he does have a certain style.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/5144300.stm Stroke gives woman foreign accent A Geordie woman has apparently developed foreign accents after waking up following a stroke. Linda Walker awoke in hospital to find her distinctive Newcastle accent had been transformed into a mixture of Jamaican, Canadian and Slovakian. The 60-year-old may have Foreign Accent Syndrome, where patients speak differently after a brain injury. The former university administrator says she hates what has happened to her and now feels like a different person. Mrs Walker said: "My sister-in-law said that I sounded Italian, then my brother said I sounded Slovakian and someone else said I sounded French Canadian. "But the latest is that I sound Jamaican, I just don't know how to explain it. "Everybody is obviously hearing me differently. "I didn't realise what I sounded like, but then my speech therapist played a tape of me talking. I was just devastated." Researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome have suffered damage to tiny areas of the brain that affect speech. The result is often a drawing out or clipping of the vowels that mimic the accent of a particular country, such as Spain or France, even though the sufferer has limited exposure to that accent. The syndrome was first identified during World War II, when a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel damage to her brain. She developed a strong German accent, which led to her being ostracised by her community. Different sounds Dr Nick Miller, a senior lecturer in speech language science at Newcastle University, said the condition could occur in patients who had suffered a stroke or other brain injury. He said: "The stroke has affected the coordination between different muscle groups like the lips, tongue and vocal chords. "The balance has been changed and certain sounds get distorted so vowels and consonants take on different sounds. "Intonation is also affected so sometimes it will fall at the end of a sentence and sometimes it will rise." Mrs Walker added: "I've lost my identity, because I never talked like this before. I'm a very different person and it's strange and I don't like it. "It's very hard and I get very upset in my head, but I'm getting better."

Before the snip?

Dad? 156217[/snapback] Pipe and slippers for that man!

The line I heard was "evil bastards from Italian TV sent the footage to FIFA and insisted blah blah blah". Love it.

Aye, but what about buying some coffee?

No, it shows him blowing his whistle.

You think we had it bad with Sven - we could've gone abroad, looked at managers' records and ended up with Berti Vogts

Aye. Bad few days for British sport really.

Depends. Should be busy for another half-hour or so on this translation. Hopefully work won't send me anything more before the end of the day and I can watch Wimbledon in peace.

Big fan, aye. Really ought to get my hands on JPod. 155822[/snapback] Aye, it's the only one I haven't read now. Well, of his fiction stuff anyway. Have you read any of his non-fiction stuff? 155830[/snapback] Nope, I haven't either, would be curious to know if it's in the same kind of territory. Of course I could just buy and read, but that'd be too easy...

There's some decent arguments being made on both/all sides here: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/200...me_ronaldo.html Need to get some work done today, though, so no chance of reading it all...

BOLLIX to ye. On a triple-word score.

Big fan, aye. Really ought to get my hands on JPod.

iLiKETRAiNS - Terra Nova

Pff, who doesn't?

155752[/snapback] I've read 'Tales of the City', canny good if a tad 'lavender'. Then again, I like Corrie. 155760[/snapback] I picked it up from Oxfam in Hamburg ages ago and it's been gathering dust on my shelf ever since. Meanwhile I've been happily devouring books on Scrabble and Northumbrian history. Am I a crap gay? 155787[/snapback] Don't worry about that. What with your Eurovision Song Contest fixation. I think you're possibly the most sterotypical gay there's ever been. 155789[/snapback] Huzzah! Didn't go to EuroPride in the big city this weekend mind. They'll be cancelling my membership next.

155752[/snapback] I've read 'Tales of the City', canny good if a tad 'lavender'. Then again, I like Corrie. 155760[/snapback] I picked it up from Oxfam in Hamburg ages ago and it's been gathering dust on my shelf ever since. Meanwhile I've been happily devouring books on Scrabble and Northumbrian history. Am I a crap gay?

There's this Europe-wide music competition that takes up the odd minute of my time here or there.

Send some of that down here. The last week has been smog-insulation-layer-tastic.

Lowest Common Denominator Scapegoating, I guess - though Simeone never got a tabloid dartboard dedicated to him in 1998. Bet he's gutted.

evil Swedish overlord in "stamping petulant Scouse mong's foot by remote-control" shocker

Germany I suppose, lesser of several evils...

South Tyneside is Wuppertal, apparently. Same neck of the woods, same sinfully ugly industrial heritage.

The Gelsenkirchen website reckons it's Newcastle. Maybe Shields just wanted to bask in the reflected glory.