Richard Burns R.I.P

Richard Burns
1971 - 2005

World Rally Champion 2001

George Best R.I.P

George Best
1946 - 2005

"George makes a greater appeal to the sences than Finney or Matthews did. His movements are quicker, lighter, more balletic. George offers grander surprises to the mind and the eye. He has ice in his veins, warmth in his heart, and timing and balance in his feet."
Danny Blanchflower

Cold Call

No I don't mean the weather, although that is Brass Monkey's. I mean calls to my cell phone from 02920368700. This number is used by a bunch of fraudsters. When they called me I told them to 'bugger off' which they haven't as they keep on calling. I keep hitting ignore. Other more foolish people have been stung for up to £10 000 when being told they are only paying £10 for a new cell phone. Be warned.

One way to stop cold calls to both your home and cell phone is to sign up to the Telephone Preference service. This is FREE (BT charge you £5 a month for the same service mainly to pay for Clarkson in the advert) simple and most of all effective. The home phone has been on it for a while and there are now no cold calls.

TV Tunes

This is a little post which came from me downloading a lot of TV themes today. One thing that I've found is that some tunes were used more than once. It's quite a well known fact that the music for the first ever 'Columbo' to be made with Peter Falk, actually the stage play 'Enough Rope' retitled 'Prescription Murder' reused some of the music from the Audery Hepburn film 'Wait Until Dark' a bizarre jazz piece with added synth which predicts Trip Hop by 30 years. Everyone of course knows that 'Chicken Man' was used at one time for both 'Grange Hill' and 'Give us a Clue'. But it seems that the BBC carried on using the same basic tracks for different shows. The first series of 'The Tripods' used the same basic tracks and melody as 'Casualty' with just some sci-fi blipping making it sound different. 'The Six Million Dollar Man' was obviously a bit skint after all that surgery so loaned his themes melody out to 'Heart to Heart' of course in the former you don't really the music as there is a plane crash and stuff, and in the latter you only get some stanza after your chap say's 'It was Moiider'. Transatlantically the theme from 'Superstars' which when heard brings back memory's of Brian Jacks dipping actually started life as the theme to ABC Monday Night Football in the USA. Stranger still when America remade 'Steptoe...' as 'Sanford and Son' they used the same music as Mike Yates. Of course if you have the original rough cut version of the first episode of 'The Prisoner' you'll realize that the music McGoohan had changed turned up again for 'Dr Who' Spin-off 'Survivors'. At different times both Jerry Lewis and Benny Hill used 'Yakkaty Sax', while the ginger winger Chris Evens tried to recycle 'Bring me Sunshine' of course used by Morecambe and Wise. This was dropped from his show after Lulu told him off for pinching the tune. As strange at it seems Fleetwood Mac's the cage wasn't just used for Grand Prix racing, it was also used for the Indy 500. This might have been at the suggestion of Jackie Stewart who commentated alongside Murray Walker a few times in the early years and was a regular commentator at Indy for over a decade.
Anyway we all snigger at William Shatners efforts at music, but he was not alone. Oh no, John Pertwee had a go at the speaking lyrics in a Shakespearean way over a tune in this bizarre reworking of the 'Dr Who' theme 'I am the doctor'. Enjoy.

Jack's book corner

Okay, so Wyndham has a cosy leather seat in a book corner. But here in the dark side it's a tasteful little number from Ikea. But what ever your seating preference. Gather round and listen to this review.
Today's book is 'The Heart of the Game' by Jimmy Greaves. It's a book about football, and about how the game has changed over the years. It also offers Grevsies opinion of what can be done to get back to the 'heart of the game'.
For starters what is the Heart of the game. Well the term comes from something which former Spurs captain Danny Blanchflower said back in the early `60's. He was talking about the power that Football has, and how nothing can really compare with the drama and satisfaction of the sport. How that is truly the heart of the game. Perhaps now is a time to stop and look at one of the differences pointed out by Jimmy about players then and now. Blanchflower was beyond eloquent, he was intelligent, talented and could talk intelligently with out a PR person by his side. Indeed after George Best's first game for Northern Ireland (of which Blanchflower was captain) a journalist asked Danny for his opinion of the young talent. The answer went over the journalists head.
But back to the book. The style of the book is very entertaining. It presents it's arguments in a concise manner and interweaves them with story's of both the good old day's and some from more recent times. One that catches the eye is the reaction of Peter Shilton and David Seaman after trying the new lighter balls for the first time. Both were wondering where Noel Edmunds was with a 'Gotcha' as the balls were seen to be a joke. Of course these balls are now what are used in the Premiership and beyond. Another story involved Liverpool hard man Tommy Smith handing Greaves a piece of paper before a game at Anfeild. The paper was the menu for the Royal Infirmary!
As the book goes on you can see how dramatically game has changed and how a few certain incidents led to these changes. For instance how England's defeat to Hungary in 1953 led to the change in the game that took England to the World Cup in 1966. But how that 1966 success changed football forever, making the game more tactical and less exciting. More recently the formation of the Premiere league and the involvement of the large money brought in by TV especially Sky. Not to mention one Mr Erickson.
The whole thing is presented as a well thought out and cohesive argument, and is defiantly a book that anyone who loves the game should have a read of. There are some areas which will be controversial. John Motson comes in for some stick, and Jimmy is right in his criticism. Although I suspect that he'll not be getting a Christmas card from Mottie this year.
Overall I heartily recommend this book.

How spirtual are you?

Take the test after peeking at my result.

You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 40% spiritual. 100% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Is that your showbiz age, darlin?

Yet again the Ivy is making headlines. This time it's not just Kate Moss unscrewing the mirrors to they cam be used horizontally. It all has to do with a bowl of 'spagbol' the queen of mean, and a crime writer.
Apparently Anne Robinson decided to use her newspaper column to 'expose' the fact that Lynda La Plante was dropping her age. As all actresses do, apparently (La Plante acts under the name Lynda Marchal, although her last TV acting credit was 1983, she is best remembered by people my age as Tamara Novak in 'Rentaghost'). Well this isn't the case Lynda is honest about her age, Annie got it wrong. Lynda started acting as a child, and was only 14 when she first appered in 'Z-Cars'. Of course normally this sort of thing wouldn't be newsworthy, and would probably be water off a ducks back to La Plante. Only the timing was wrong. At the time of the article La Plante was in the process of adopting a son, and the adoption agency stopped the proceedings to check if Lynda had lied or not on her forms, which added a year to the process as well as a lot of stress.
Anyway, last week Lynda ran into Annie at the Ivy and confronted her. Apparently resisting the urge to tip her 'Spagbol' (her word, not mine) over the queen of mean as it would be un ladylike. Strangely this story has appeared as an exclusive in the 'Daily Mail', a paper which caused a similar incident itself a few years back. You see in the Mail's TV they do pop biographies of people in different shows and films on that day. One of which was on Bonnie Langford, for a rerun of a 'Dr Who' story. As was the custom the paper gave her age as it was when the programme was made. Which did make it look like Langford had severely dropped some years. Which was picked up by some other papers and radio people. Who then had to apologize. Apparently that week it was easy to work out what the Mail meant by the ages, as the bio on the next page of the then septuagenarian Katharine Hepburn gave her age as 25.
As for me, when I tell people my real age they think I've added a few years....

When it comes to size men and women are opposite

Okay so that is an enigmatic title. But my point is this. If you ever talk a woman, one who is of a normal attractive build, they will tell you that stores mainly stock clothes for stick insects. Then moan about how the more normal size 12-14's are not really catered for. This it seems work's the opposite way for us guy's. Or at least it dose for me. Today I attempted to buy some jeans. I could not find any that fit. This is not because I have a large girth, rather the opposite. I'm thin, but tall. They only make jeans with a 35" inside leg for people who have a similar waist. Most jeans seem to be made for little round people who must look not unlike Boss Hogg. The really annoying thing is that Levi's do make the jeans that would fit me. They only sell them in the USA, Canada or Japan. To get them here I'd have to pay double.
Hopefully Uniqlo will have some in stock, although they have let me down the past two times I've looked in Regent St. This time I'll look in Oxford St.

Second hand Escort, only $680.000

Might seem a high price for a 1975 Ford Escort. But this one was owned by Pope John Paul II. In fact it is clamed it was the only car he ever owned. Although that isn't quite true. He owned the last ever Ferrari Enzo built. For all of 30 seconds before donating it to charity. This car though was driven around Rome by the pope, and only given to charity in 1986.
Actually the price raised for the car was well below estimates. Which is surprising. As when the Ford Fiesta which had been owned by Lady Diana Spencer went up for auction it raised over £1m. Other celebrity cars which have been sold over the years include John Lennon's Rolles and Steve McQueen's von Dutch custom Packard.
One classic celebrity car myth that always dose the rounds is that Peter Sellers mini is buried in St James Park. Although this myth is quite hard to get a handle on. For a start most people say that someone stole Sellers "Psychedelic' Mini. Then had to get rid of it. Well while many celebrity's were given Mini's in the `60's and Jimi Hendrix, Ringo Starr and other had them painted in psychedelic colours. Peter Sellers had his covered in basket weave. Something which actually annoyed publicity people at Mini. Who had given the cars to celebrates to show how modern and functional they were. Sellers made his look like something from the victorian era. The other thing that isn't fixed in peoples mind is where the car is supposedly buried. Okay most everyone say's it's St James Park. But which one. The main story told is that the car was stolen and then buried in the London park while a new water pipe was being laid. Fair enough. But other people maintain the car was stolen and then driven to Newcastle where it was buried again under a new water pipe, just out side Newcastle United's football ground called St James Park.
It's a but like the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. Is Hoffa under the 10 yard bump at Giants stadium. Well the mythbusters on Discovery channel couldn't find him. Of course another theory about Hoffa is that he was placed in an upright on the cross town flyover in Boston. This one could be disproved very soon. With the completion of the 'Big Dig' a system of tunnels under Boston which ease traffic the old flyover system is due to come down, and make way for parkland. Maybe Hoffa's remains will turn up then. If of course he was ever there. I always thought he was serving chips in a chip shop owned by Elvis and with Lord Lucan as the batter man.