The Fish

I've managed to get 5 minutes into the new Frasier thing. Oooff

To get popcorn?

I'm not one for the old pugilism, but I would pay to view someone beat the snot out Vanilla Ice

I understand mate. It's fucking awful and I imagine when the flag waved by the very people who've committed atrocities, is being proudly waved by the people you thought were friends, colleagues or allies, it must feel like a betrayal, like you're on your own. But you're not.

You wanna tread carefully, given your stuff in the Middle East thread.

Just getting around to watching Mayor of Kingstown. Got to admit it's taking me a while to dull the expectation for Jeremy Renner to shoot someone with a bow and arrow, but I'll get there. I'll get there.

I don't think that's the case, I think us lefty pinko commies are reluctant or perhaps embarrassed to stand with the government of Israel. Palestine have long been portrayed as an occupied people, displaced from their homes by state-sanctioned Israeli settlements. I've not seen any Hamas flags, just Palestinian ones and because Hamas aren't perceived to be the government of Palestine (even though they pretty much are) a distinction is made between the acts of terrorism by Hamas, and the people of Palestine. That distinction isn't as clear between Israelis and the actions of their government, rightly or wrongly. I'm not anti-Israeli people, or pro-Hamas and I admit I might be way, way off, but that's just my cod-psychologist view of this specific point.

Never got this thing about a 'good person to have around the dressing room' with the international side. If they're that good, just take them along. What's the harm in having them there, not playing? They have senior pros with the U21s who rarely get any game time, don't they? Why not do the same with the senior team?

Yeah, that's BCD

That's better. For what it's worth I only came up with Rocket Dan.

Nah, it'll be betting on bookings (Yellow and red cards). Same thing as Paqueta. Brevity is hard.

I maintain they're only in the modern football fan's consciousness because of their connection to us. Nobody from Brighton or Brentford would think of them as anything other than a long away trip in the cup. They're no different to Ipswich or Reading, really. The only thing that marks them as different is their attendances. But (like Everton), that home crowd isn't much of an advantage when they turn so quickly on their managers, their players and their owners. That forum is peppered with anecdotes of some Sunderland fan chatting to fans of other clubs, to a man they hate Newcastle United. We've all got mates who support other clubs, and I don't know about you but I can count on one hand the number of times Sunderland have come up in conversation organically. And not for some time, I might add.

A sternly worded letter to Anne Robinson's Point of View? Jokes aside I'm trying to think of a remotely similar historical experience. The Romans? The Saxons? The Vikings? What did the average person do then? What did the leaders?

Anyone who chooses their own nickname will soon be given a nickname which is way less complimentary. At Uni, there were three Daniels, One was a Liverpool fan from Blackburn so got Scouse Dan, one entered and exited every room remarkably quickly so got Rocket Dan, and then there was Dan Chiltern who told us everyone called him Chills or Chilly and thus Smelly Dan was born.

Really? I think it's entirely in-keeping with humanity right now. It wasn't 'Muslims' that flew into the twin towers, it was a death cult. It wasn't people from the Far East that created the Corona Virus, it was allegedly some people in a Wuhan Lab, it wasn't... People want to blame a group, them vs us. It's reductive and futile, but it's stoked by the media and the politicians so it's entirely understandable why the people fall lock step in line. Making the distinction between the actions of the Israeli government, and Jewish people requires a scintilla of critical thinking, and that's harder than not doing that.

Was in London with work today, while we were out for lunch near Paddington my Jewish boss saw some violently antisemitic graffiti. Not anti-israel, not anti-zionist, antisemitic. Really upset her. Really worried for the very few Jewish people I know.

We were genuinely talking about getting a dog if we weren't lucky enough to get pregnant this year. So while I'm delighted to welcome an addition to the School of Fish, I'm a little disappointed we won't get a dog for a while.

I'd love it if I could bring a dog to work. Because I work from home, and I don't have a dog and I want one.

I'm not sure me and James Mclean are aligned on what makes a story 'funny'. Me: On the way to work a bird shat on my hungover face and I immediately threw up on myself. Him: a kid's dad threw back his shirt in his face and some people spat at him and his pregnant wife

I didn't even mean that one.

Better than your review, ya bambaclaart

Good job they've got shit strikers who can't finish for toffee. I use the stats from Fbref, they have Everton (14.7) just behind Man City (14.9). But Everton have scored 9 and Man City have 17. We have 17.3 xg and 20 Goals, by the way.