Monkey Tennis

You sometimes don't read well, do you? The subtlety of points escapes you. A better parallel would be to say that Alex Ferguson is clearly clueless, because his career began at Queens Park.

Well Elixir definitely was, on the last page. Of course, he stopped at their first degrees as undergraduates, ignoring all their subsequent work in public and global health. Does such experience render them infallible? Of course not, evidently not. Does it mean that their levels of learning can legitimately be mocked by someone with but a fraction of it? Also, an emphatic no.

I've no plans to do so. I'm not well informed enough. What I'm happy to do, though, is scoff at people on here mocking the academic backgrounds of prominent people in the debate, when I'm pretty sure that their own would leave much more to be desired in the relevant fields.

Thank you Mr Gove.

There's an irony in that a chief dig at people on here, particularly from VT, involves mocking - I think rightly - a 'University of Life' perspective. Yet that's exactly what the noisiest main players on here need to rely on.

Yes it would be good to see their credentials listed too, so we could compare their levels of expertise with those on the earlier list.

Excellent post. You're right - it's the prescriptive nature of this that's the problem. The hijacking you describe is now familiar to us from each November, but its acceleration here has taken some of us by surprise. It actually serves those who do feel something genuine, as badly as it serves those of us who are baffled. It best suits that constituency that enjoys the fuss and the faux grief. I suspect that's smaller than the coverage suggests though.

Ok, you just can't tell the time then.

That sounds like an early night. What do you do?

Without wishing to stir things, this ovoid jangler has no problem with the term's use.

Yes, I think someone who provided a backdrop to formative years can matter. Musicians can certainly have a particular resonance for people. Suicides, as in 'real life' have the potential even remotely, to be especially distressing. Another theme seems to be that if people are genuinely grieving, then a death that's more removed, can trigger difficult emotions. I suppose, one of the issues concerns the struggle to understand how royalty can mean so much to people. The fact that most posters are relatively young maybe plays a part in a collective indifference on here. The fact that most are Scottish is also likely to matter. I don't suppose most of us would mind too much if we only saw the odd glimpse of people expressing sadness. The problem is the that it all seems so forced and forceful.

I agree with you on this, but it raises an interesting idea. I think that the public response to Philip's death is largely manufactured and in most cases, decidedly insincere. There clearly are some people, however, who are genuinely upset by this news. I really do find it baffling, but that doesn't alter the fact of it. As a genuine question, have posters ever felt saddened by the death of a public figure? I don't think I can ever really say I have been to be honest, but I think such sentiment is legitimate enough if the person in question's work means a lot to you. The age of the person and the nature of his/her death might also have an impact of course.

We only need one more win to guarantee not finishing 9th. I don't want us to test this theory, but I actually think it's likely we'll avoid that fate even if we lose all 3 remaining games, giving us no further points and an even worse goal difference. It would still require Arbroath and Morton to each take 5 points from nine. I think the chances are, that won't happen.

Not what I'm saying at all, but don't worry about it.

Ok.