John Baker’s Blog

The Painted Arc: the idea of a line
“Imagine looking into a stream of clear-running water on a spring day. Barefoot, you stand upon polished pebbles: now pick out the one pebble that best captures the way the coolness of the water, the light upon its surface or the feeling of ‘aliveness’ from being stood there in that exact moment makes you feel. Choosing which would be the one stone to capture all these feelings is just as difficult as choosing which is the ‘right’ line to add to the paper. It is not so easy as it looks.”

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OUT TO LUNCH
Outside a photographer’s studio in Oslo was a sign printed in capital letters:
OUT TO LUNCH: IF NOT BACK BY FIVE, OUT FOR DINNER ALSO . . .
Thanks to Tom Baker for this.

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Apparently, what caused Zinedine Zidane, the former French football captain, to head-butt his opposite number in front of millions of television viewers, was an instance of sledging.
Consider this from the Oxford English Dictionary:

1977 World of Cricket Monthly June 5/1 Lillee had his views on intimidating batsmen on Melbourne television. And on sledging—the term comes from subtle as a sledge~hammer.

According to Bhaswati over at At Home, Writing, Sledging now refers to the technique of ‘needling’ opposing players in any team game. There are many examples of sledging in Wikipedia, of which the following is only one:

Glenn McGrath to Zimbabwean cricketer, Eddo Brandes, after Brandes had played and missed at a McGrath delivery: “Oi, Brandes, why are you so fucking fat?” to which Brandes replied: “Cos every time I fuck your wife she gives me a biscuit!”

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Oh, and to make a long post even longer, I couldn’t resist this:

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