Big Chief Toffee Teeth

Thank goodness the Dumfries bid flopped. Led by the biggest bunch of chancers and self-servers outwith Westminster.

The last couple of years have been tough for an auld fella like me. Fitba seemed peripheral. Nice to return, however, on such a lovely night! All the best to The Rangers players - they gave their all. The Rangers Fans : get it right roon ye!

Thinks terms like "fannies" and "Shagger" are okay. Jeez : and I thought I was old!

Last week, when rangers scored their third goal against his own team, he started going on about how much,, as a Motherwell fan, he was " frothing at the mouth about the prospect of the old firm game." An arse cheeks lickspittle, if ever there was one.

What irritates me most is Tam Cowan's apparent delight in his own ignorance, lack of experience and unwillingness to experiment or broaden his horizons. Even with Stuart Cosgrove dumbing down considerably - as listening to him on politics, cinema or current affairs will confirm he does for OTB, Tam's lack of education and backs-to-the-wall parochialism really jar. Cosgrove studied in England, has travelled extensively, does his research ( cf his books, ) writes well and has been prominent in the arts for nearly forty years. Cowan recited Burns at primary school, went to college - while still staying at home, of course - for a week, did half an hour's stand-up in Wishaw ( or was it Bonkle? ) and writes in red tops about sausage suppers. He holidays in Florida and Vegas, ffs! He is the caricature of a W of S chancer whose lack of genuine ambition is a badge of honour. " Motherwell man and boy! " isn't necessarily a good thing, nor is it essential to being "the salt of the earth. " ( Maybe I am being hard on Tam's columns - never having read one.) What I would like would be Stuart joining the Terrace boys to provide a grandfatherly angle to their show. He could keep up with the crack and fill in the odd gap where " having been there " would add to the breadth of some of the pieces. It might also bring more old duffers like me to The Terrace! Tam? I'm sure there's a BBC Scotland show there for him. "Old Crooners, Old Slappers and The Old Firm? " We wouldn't be duped into listening to it, but I'm sure there would be an audience. Chick could co-host. Tam is clearly in such awe of his brand and vintage of both humour and journalism, so a perfect match.

Sorted now. Pleased, as the lads obviously worked hard at it last year, it didn't come off, and much of the criticism was out of order. I've never had the slightest interest in English Fantasy Football, despite its 30 year long popularity. Fair play to them.

I hope I'm wrong but I fear glitches again this year. Has updated points from today in some parts of the app but not others. League placings are meaningless and don't reflect points accumulated. It looks good again, though, so let's see...

To drink any of the 5 litre mini casks, from any brewery, three days is about it. Just like larger casks, the more space you leave in the cask, the less effective the build up of CO2 becomes. A couple of hours after delivery / pickup is all they need to settle. It's not lager, so you don't want it overly chilled, and a cool place, in the kitchen, for example, will do fine - I'm lucky to have a cellar, which is ideal. You could chill it in the fridge before opening, I suppose, but I have picked up casks from Fyne Ales and taken them in the camper in July to Scottish islands, left them on the lea side of the van and they have poured and tasted great. Fyne Ales delivery costs £2:50 per cask, taking it to about £2.20 per pint of live ale, which I think worth it. It's exactly the same as from a pub font - although the obvious other things are missing - so, as someone who far prefers live beer, I think it's worth the extra 40p or so per pint over bottles. You can also get mini casks of decent - if generic and big brewery - ale from supermarkets for £15 or so, and they are pretty good. Adams Ghost Ship and Sharps Atlantic are two decent examples. I like to support the smaller Scottish brewers, though, and Stewarts in Edinburgh is also doing good minis. All the breweries are struggling, however, to get enough mini casks to meet demand just now. Try them. If your preference is live beer, it's well worth it.

Tbf, I prefer live beer - even if it has to be in mini-casks at present.

Not prone to rants on P & B, but.... Beer52 need to get right to fúck. 3 weeks for the next day delivery but, being a decent cove, I have tried to take a second case at full price before cancelling subsciption. After many days of trying, without success, to get through to them, they can take a hike. Feckin chancers. Credit card lot can sort it out. And Beer52 can shove their privately educated Edinburgh accents while they're at it.

".....onto plums..." : haven't heard that from anyone's lips but my own for the best part of forty years. Well played, sir!

A suggestion for how to resolve the destination of this year's Premiership has come from Govan, I understand. Next goal's the winner.

Willie Miller with an arm raised, demanding something from the officials. Who'd have imagined such a thing?

Just watched it. All look as if they've been Tango-ed. Assume it's some sort of in-joke? I think we should be told.

Just turned on, a couple of minutes before half-time. "The pope says no" with the even more loathsome "Tooraloo la loo la lo" preamble? Admittedly it sounded as if there were maybe only a few dozen singing, but Jesus, what a shower of utterly cretinous shite.

And what's Seve doing there?

Wtf is this badly written dross? It's popping up on every thread. GITF!

" You think you can catch Steven Gerrard? ......My guess is you'll never hear from him again." ^^^^^ Trying too hard.

Nae chance of the wind blowing over Nade, at any rate.

" Shelter from the storm ", surely?

Used to watch Rovers and Airdrie, more or less on alternate weeks, in the early 70s. Jarvie and Busby were a formidable force for Airdrie, particularly during their run to the Texaco Cup Final. Jarvie came from Annathill, a wee mining village near Glenboig, which has spawned an inordinate number of Scottish international players - Jock 'Tiger' Shaw, his brother, Davie, and Frank Brennan, all of that wee parish, played against Switzerland in 1946.

See those b*****ds that extradited Klaus Barbie in 1983? No respect for their elders whatsoever. ( See bathos? )

ETA : Slow tonight. Got K now. In mitigation, I try not to take an ad hominem approach to discussion, so maybe that explains it. Unnecessarily insulting, nonetheless.

It is not often that I don't understand exactly what K is trying to say but, in this instance, I am utterly baffled. I would imagine he intends to insult but it's missed me.

Could be worse. Were s/he living in England ( from your posts, I suspect s/he is ) and two years younger, s/he could still be held criminally responsible. While, in comparison with most of our civilized European neighbours, we have a long way to go in Scotland in our approach to young people and anti-social behaviour, at least most of our weans are at secondary school before we slap them in irons and ship them off to the colonies.