Wednesday 31 December 2008

Tour Of Croydon Stage #1(#resolve09)


My new bike. on 12seconds.tv

The Tour Of Croydon is a series of routes that I will take on my bike throughout the year exploring this notorious town as I struggle back to some semblance of fitness.

The first route is ludicrously easy. A round trip to South Croydon Railway Station from my street. It would take roughly ten minutes to walk this very short circuit. However, I guarantee that I will be exhausted after completing it tomorrow.


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Monday 22 December 2008

#resolve09: New Years Resolutions

A list of things I must do in 2009.



1. Exercise more: Buy a bike and take up dancing lessons with the missus.

2. Listen to less podcasts. Only play podcasts on the way into work not on the way home. This leaves more time for...

3. Read more books. Its shocking how few books I've read in 2008. It takes me ages to read books because of all the writing I do at home and listening to podcasts on the train work. That reminds me..

4. Listen to more music. While I'm reading on the train I can listen to music rather than the aforementioned podcasts.

5. Try and secure some freelance work as a writer. You know the sort of thing: No job too small, no fee too big.

6. Write that book. I can say nothing more on that.

7. Prepare for the worst. There is a reasonable chance that I will be laid off this year. I need to batton down the hatches and get a back-up plan ready should it be required.

8. Network more. Be more confident in the things I do well and be friendlier to people.

9. Keep using Twitter. But try not to let it overtake me.

10. Watch less football.

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Thursday 18 December 2008

World Darts Championships Player Profile # 3: Raymond van Barneveld

Five times World Champion Raymond van Barneveld is one of the sport's great icons. Four of his titles were in the BDO and won at the Lakeside. However, the rise of the PDC and the challenge posed by Phil Taylor proved to strong and he made the switch early in 2006 with an automatic birth in the lucrative Premier League.

Van Barneveld is Holland's most successful and popular player. Bringing him across to the PDC was a major coup for them and paved the way for many other dutch BDO players to follow suit including Vincent van der Voort, 2006 BDO World Champion Jelle Klaasen and the young prospect Michael van Gerwin. The move will also surely pave the way for the PDC to stage a major televised event in Holland, the sports other great hotbed of support.

His Premier League campaign wasn't up to much and as a first year professional. He failed to qualify for the World Matchplay much to the disappointment of many of his fans and the tournament's promoters. However, the signs that 'Barney' was settling in to the PDC were definitely there when he knocked Taylor out of the UK Open, a competition he went on to win. He proved to be Taylor's nemesis once again in Las Vegas a few weeks later. However, while Barney was clearly the real deal, few would have expected him to win the World Championship at the end of the year. This was a competition that Taylor had won 13 times and was bound not to relinquish it to the newcomer.

No one told van Barneveld that though and the two met each other in the final which turned out to be the greatest ever darts match ever. Taylor forged ahead by three sets to nil only for Barney to storm back. The game went to sudden death and the Dutchman won the title at the death. The crowd went wild and even Taylor, a man who you suspect as trouble taking defeat gracefully, could not help but be caught up with the emotion of it all.

2007 proved to be another good year with van Barneveld defending the UK Open and winning the Desert Classic in Las Vegas. in 2008 however, things have not gone so well. At time van Barneveld as seemed visibly shaken by some of his poor performances and admitted that he had had to take an extended holiday in order to get his head together. He goes in to the tournament as second favourite behind Taylor who has returned to his imperious best. If Raymond starts the championships confidently, he may well regain his crown. It will require a Herculean effort from him though if he is to repeat the scenes of early 2007 .

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The Onion Bag and @onionbag. Where next?



My latest hair-brained scheme is the 140er. It’s like the Fiver only not as good, long or funny. The 140er is a round up of the of the day's football news in 140 characters.

Hopefully over time it will become a sharp witted, pithy and above all brief news round-up that will become a part of football loving Twitterers daily routine.

I'm going to use @onionbag because it fits and because I'm aware that the majority of @redduffman followers aren't into football. However I am a little worried about the whole @onionbag thing. Should I be twittering as me or as the Onion Bag?

I think a lot of people on Twitter think that official website Twitters are not done. They’re either too commercial or they don’t follow back or they’re generally using Twitter to plug their website. I’d like to think that the Onion Bag is not really into that sort of thing. Its not like the Bag is a commercial organisation. We don't even run ads on the home page, only the archive.

Having said that, since I started the Bag's Twitter stream I've not been entirely certain as to what to do with it. Do I simply use it as another feed like RSS or should I try to write Onion Bag content as tweets (or tweets as very small Bags)?

I guess the answer should be yes to both .So that's why I think its OK to start the 140er on the Onion Bag's Twitter stream. Its time I saw @onionbag as an extension of The Onion Bag website itself.

Rock on.

Further reading: Do Brands Belong On Twitter?

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Tuesday 16 December 2008

World Darts Championships Player Profile # 2: James Wade

At 25, James Wade is very much a child of the PDC. One of the games rising stars Wade would have grown up watching the likes of Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley playing PDC darts after it moved to Sky in the early 90’s.


His rise to the top was competed in 2006 when he reached the final of the World Matchplay in Blackpool where he lost to Taylor (five words you will read a lot on these pages. Taylor has pretty much beaten everyone who ever reach a final). However, 2007 was Wade’s year. He returned to Blackpool to win the whole tournament by beating Terry Jenkins in the final.


The following October Wade won the World Grand Prix in Dublin, again by beating Jenkins. More success was to follow in 2008 in the UK Open when Wade saw off the challenge of Gary Mawson to clinch victory at the Reebok Stadium.


Since then, Wade has been installed as the number two to Taylor who returned to form this year. Wade made it to the finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the World Matchplay (again) and the Premier League and lost to Taylor on all counts. The fear for Wade is that he is becoming Taylor’s bunny. Wade however, will point to the fact that he beat The Power in a Premier League match earlier in the year.


However, it is for this reason that Wade may have to wait a little longer for the World title. Expect Wade to progress through the tournament until he meets Taylor and is knocked out, possibly in the Final.


Despite that Wade is a fantastic player destined to inherit Taylor’s mantle when the great man eventually steps down (although he’ll never win as many title as the Power. No one will). He is also one of the few dart players to score an elusive 9-dart checkout on TV. His nickname is the Machine and his walk on music is so non-descript that I can’t remember what it is (something crap probably).






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Monday 15 December 2008

World Darts Championships Player Profile # 1: John Part



The current World Champion is from Oshawa in Canada. He first rose to prominence in 1994 when he won the BDO World Championship at the lakeside. With the Darts world split into two organisations and with the greatest prize money and TV coverage, not to mention Phil Taylor, at the PDC Part made the move across the darting divide in 1997.

He rose through the PDC ranks and faced Taylor in the World Championship final in 2001 only to be thrashed by The Power.

Two years later he was back and this time it was Part who had the upper hand. He'd been in magnificent form throughout the tournament. Taylor had been at his imperious best and was still the favourite to take the title yet again. It was an epic encounter rivaled only by the great Taylor v Van Barneveld final of 2007. Part claimed the title by 7 games to 6 despite Taylor fighting back from 4-1 down.

The years that follow have been inconsistent for Part, a founder member of the Premier League he lost his spot in 2007 and has struggled to regain those magnificent heights. Nevertheless he remained one of the top players in the World as slowly started to put things back together last year, culminating in a fantastic run the the final of the World Championships this time last year. Rather than face Taylor, he was confronted by the rank outsider Kirk Shepherd whose hot streak had coincided with his appearance in the Championships and had deposited him unexpectedly in the final. It was a disappointing match in truth. Perhaps understandably the occasion got to Shepherd. Part won easily and took his third world crown.

Part plays with a perma-sneer on his face. When he's playing well he is a prodigious double thrower under pressure and a heavy scorer. He also has a reputation for being one of the best counters in the business. His nick-name is Darth Maple and his walk-on music is the Imperial March from Star Wars by John Williams. He is also supposed to be one of the nicest guys on the circuit. All of these elements make him a worthy champion.

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Sunday 14 December 2008

PDC World Darts Championships

On Friday, the best players from around the globe (well most of them at least) will assemble at Alexandra Palace in north London to compete for the PDC World Darts Championship. The tournament will be televised live on Sky. The event is the culmination of a year of ranking tournaments that has seen 13 times World Champion and darting legend Phil 'The Power' Taylor (right) return to prominence after what was a poor 2007, by his standards.

In 2008 Taylor has won all but one televised ranking events. Only the UK Open eluded him. His year started with disappointment as he was knocked out of the World Championship and was forced to watch John Part claim title from the rank outsider Kirk Shepherd in a disappointing final. While he continued to dominate the Premier League Taylor was knocked out in an early round of UK Open which was won by James Wade.

From then on however, it was Taylor all the way emphatically winning the Premier League, the Desert Classic, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, European Championships and Grand Slam (a non ranking but prestigious event). For many (including me) Taylor is a shoe in to make it 14 World titles.

However, professional darts is not just about Taylor. The journey to the final will be a long, action packed, dramatic roller coaster. For the uninitiated, darts is a game of skill and nerve. Players who can throw rudimentary check-outs with there eyes closed become quivering wrecks under the lights and in front of thousands of baying fans. Literally thousands of pounds can be won or lost on the width of a wire. The tension and excitement make for a wonderful competitive spectacle and darts continues to grow in popularity as a spectator sport.

Over the next few days, this blog will dedicated itself to the upcoming tournament and introduce you to some of the games greatest players and more colourful characters.

But first, here is a wee taster of darts at its finest.

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Friday 12 December 2008

Look Ma, I'm blogging about cricket



(India v England first test)

I've just watched England's Graham Swann take two wickets in his first over on his test match debut. Taking two wickets in an over is a tough enough proposition for anyone but for a debutant.

His first every ball was a loose one which Gambhir dispatched for four. After seeing that my heart dropped down a setting or two. The sight of a test bowler (especially English) stuffing up his big moment is not unfamiliar and can often haunt them during their short and unsuccessful spell at the top. However, I braced myself and remembered Richard Hadlee's first ever ball in test cricket went for four.

The second ball resulted in a massive shout for a catch at close quarters (I'm not up on my field positions even after years of following the sport). The replay suggested it may have come off the pad (that's not out for non cricket readers). On the very next ball, the batsman refuses to play a stroke and the ball hits the pad. Up go 22 English arms and one umpire's finger. Gambhir is out leg before wicket. The Hawkeye Techno Tracking Thingy confirms (in as much as it can) that the ball would have hit the stumps.

Batting legend Sashin Tendulkar takes to the crease and, wisely, gets himself off the mark and away from Swann with three runs. This left Dravid on strike facing a bright eyed noob who started the over wondering why he was there and was finishing it believing he could bowl the entire opposition out single handed, starting with him.

And so it proved to be. Swann bowled Dravid out LBW. Apparently that's some sort of record. Good for him. However, the replay and Hawkeye Techno Tracking Thingy suggested that the call was marginal. The ball clipped the top of the stumps. There is no way the human eye can tell at that speed whether the ball would have hit under those circumstances and usually you give the benefit of any doubt to the batsmen. The umpire must have looked at it and thought the force was with Swann and gave it out.

I suppose the incident demonstrates three truths about sport:

Don't give up.

Officials will often reward good play by giving tough calls in your favour.

Video evidence can't replace that feeling in your gut.
















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Friday 5 December 2008

Live football commentary on Twitter: A call to arms



At the beginning of the football season I set up a Twitter account called Pressffive. The idea was to bring live text updates (live blogging if you like) into the Twitterverse.

For those who do not know, there are any number of live match commentaries by sports website designed to describe the action unfolding at a football match. Anyone stuck at work or otherwise unable to watch a game can follow the action minute-by-minute. Basically someone watches the game and types up whats going on into a CMS which is posted on to dynamically updating or static web page. Leading exponents of this are The Guardian (clever and funny) and the BBC (efficient). It also works brilliantly for Cricket.

To be frank you don't need to be a hot-shot social networking guru to work out that this sort of service would be ideal on Twitter. In fact it would work better as the commentary just becomes part of your Twitter stream rather than having to stare at a browser waiting for it to update. So if you are at work, you could actually get some work done. Or if you didn't fancy that then you can get involved with the commentary yourself in the way that Twitter allows you to do. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Twitter allows you to share a common experience as though you were all sat on a sofa watching the game together. What's more at 140 characters its cuts down on the bullshit.

Anyway so I gave it a try and it was reasonably well received. The first game was a Champions League qualifier featuring Liverpool. It was difficult at first to describe what was going on and keep things pithy and interesting but I thought it worked really well. I even got a request to do a Premier League game later than month. Unfortunately, that's where I ran into trouble.

I'm not wireless. I don't got no laptop and my desk top is upstairs while my Cable box is downstairs. Now I realise that there are ways of watching football on the 'Net through various unlicensed means but whenever I've tried that the quality is appalling. I tried working with live streaming with some Serie A games on Bet 365 but it was crap (and I didn't get much of a response).

That's not my only problem. I work late shifts and one week in two I'm still on my way home from work during mid week games. So even if and when I do go wireless, I still won't be able to provide the regular service that this sort of thing really needs in order for it to catch on. @chrisoakley and I discussed doing something similar for @SPAOTP on 3rd round day however a regular service looks unlikely for the foreseeable.

However, that shouldn't stop anyone else from giving it a go. Let's face it, sooner or later one of the mainstream media will get hold of the idea which, if it falls into the wrong hands, could be really dry and stultified. Something like this needs to start in the Twitterverse by the Twitterverse, not by some noob corporate type who thinks it will be a great idea to intersperse every third tweet with an advert.

There aren't too many football bloggers on Twitter that I can find and there isn't much of a football constituency either. There soon will be though so for any early adopters reading this, maaaaybe they should give it some thought. Perhaps in some sort of joint venture. I'd be the first to follow. Of course, if I can help out at at any time...?

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Thursday 27 November 2008

#Mumbai and the news from Twitter

I don’t have a problem with Twitter being used as a new source. After all it’s simply another form of communication like TV, Internet, phone, two cups strung together etc . The value or worth of what it produces is entirely down to the person yelling into the cup.

I'm frequently #Mumbai on Twitter. The full extent and scale of the horror is yet to be fully realised. However, it has provided an example of social networking works in such a situation. There is a mixture of eye witness accounts, outbursts of disbelief, political commentary, outlandish claims and general pontification. All live and unmediated.

The downside was the inevitable rise of unsubstantiated rumour and counter-rumour that has surfaced. This is hardly surprising and perfectly understandable. However it does represent a set back to those who advocate Twitter as a legitimate news gathering source.

I'm not necessarily arguing that Twitter can't reliably break news. However, it is difficult to establish if some Tweets are

a. First hand information

b. Not originally sourced from a third party which could be found out through another means (like watching it on the telly).

c. Complete bollocks

So from a news gathering or news breaking point of view, Twitter is no better or worse than any other form of communication in that it depends entirely how trustworthy the source is.

On the other hand, when it comes to news coverage, Twitter has huge potential.

The enormous reach and portability of Twitter means that anyone with a basic mobile phone can relay information from anywhere within range of a cell mast. This means that any sort of event can be shared with people from all over the world. Within the context of news it could be an unconference, a demonstration, a natural disaster or a war zone.

What makes news coverage via Twitter so effective is the myriad audio and video applications it supports like 12seconds, Seesmic, Phreadz and QIK to name but a few. It’s this element of citizen journalism that some professional hacks may not like because they’ve become so used to using news wires to break stories that all they have to give them an edge over the rest of us is the quality of the coverage. Others recognise its potential and get involved.

Twitter empowers citizen journalists and allows them to not only report on on the spot but more importantly, enables them to reach a huge audience. Its not a complete solution as it lacks the objectivity in the same way embedded journalism does. However, it doesn't go through the usual news media prism and is received without being framed to suit anyone else's agenda. That, for me is its true value.

As post script I'd like to mention the emerging notion that Twitter is or was being used by terrorists with phones in Mumbai to monitor #mumbai for locations of potential targets.

The idea of terrorists sifting through thousands of tweets from people all over the world expressing concern, relating CNN feeds and cracking the odd bad joke on a mobile while hiding from the Indian security forces in the faint hope that there is still a politician or high ranking soldier foolish enough to still be out in the open is frankly laughable. At least it would be if you removed the appalling backdrop. I for one am not having a bar of that and would question the motives behind anyone propagating the idea.

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Tuesday 25 November 2008

I think I'm turning into a transport geek



It began in 2004. I was working as a Fleet Manager for a in car security firm in Mitcham. The MD had a 1964 Routemaster bus (It was an RMC 1496 actually) parked up in the one of the hangers and for reason's I won't bore you with I was charged with trying to get an MOT for the beast.


This proved to be an amazingly difficult task. The local DfT centre kept failing it (presumably they didn't want vehicles of that size and class on the road anymore) and we had to arrange to have it driven to a centre in Guildford where it passed with flying colours (and perfectly legally I should stress). This in itself is not easy since the last time it was driven above 35 mph the carburetor went bang.


Suffice to say it was a bit of a saga which afforded me more than a passing knowledge of that particular vintage of bus. Shortly afterwards I suggested to Mrs RD that we visit the London Transport Museum right here in swinging London. To my delight and astonishment she didn't divorce me and even bought me a toy Routemaster in the shop.


After moving employer (to an office around the corner from the LT Museum funnily enough) I fell in with some uber-transport geeks who have been delighting me with the joys of the Crossrail Saga and the East London Line Extension and other wonder of the TFL empire. Each morning my train takes me past building work at New Cross Gate which is a construction ambitious enough to rival a Bond villain and each morning I press my nose against the window to see what has changed.


I've discovered such blogs as London Connections and its successor London Reconnections plus the gloriously self indulgent Going Undergrounds Blog.


I suppose part of it is that as a Greater London resident working in central London and not owning a car, I need to be familiar with the capital's myriad and to some, baffling transport infrastructure. However, if that was all it was about, I'd be kidding myself.


As I look into the future, I can see myself becoming genuinely enthused. This is a worry. I've never regarded trainspotting as a worthy past time and am concerned that my growing interest in all things alightable may result in standing at the end of Platform 13 at Clapham Junction Railway staion whispering into a dictaphone.


I would like to think that Mrs RD would be on hand to steer me clear of such an appalling fate. However, the joint year's friendship to the LT Museum that she bought me for my birthday suggests that she is happy to accompany me on this perilous journey.


Ding ding


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I have now seen the new Bond film...

And it was wicked.

That is all.

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Sunday 23 November 2008

I still have not seen the new Bond film



I've just finished writing an Onion Bag about William Gallas. This piece maintains that the reason why the Arsenal skipper has blown a gasket once again is because he still has yet to see Quantum Of Solace. The piece is semi-autobiographical.

I should qualify that last sentence by pointing out that I am not professional footballer. However, it has been three weeks and I have still not seen the latest Bond film so while the Bag is not my life story it is the story of my life.

The problem is that Mrs RD has expressed a desire to miss out on the film. Which means I probably have to go on my own and I hate going to the cinema at the best of times, even more so on my own.

As a younger man I wouldn't flinch at the idea of dropping in at my local flea pit by myself to watch a movie. The main reason for this is that most of the time my local flea pit was almost always empty save for a few hardy souls who just wanted to be left alone to watch Star Trek III: The Search For Spock for a third time.

Modern cinemas are too clean and too popular. They are populated by spotty teens with mobile phones who won't shut up. Don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of irritating the fuck out of adults as a child in the Odeon Croydon. But the shoe is on the other foot now and all I really want is a nice little Astoria Purley or ABC Brighton to go to and watch a film in a slightly sticky floored environment with second rate sound and projection.

After all whats the point of surround sound and large screen if its going to cost you close to a tenner to get in and you have to put up with oily ticks planning what they're going to do once they finished ruining the movie you're trying to watch.

I realise what this makes me sound like and that's fine. Its my blog after all. What doesn't change is that for as long as there is a James Bond film in existence that I have not seen, things are not in their proper place in this world. I've see all the other Bond films many times over. I could quote huge passages from some of the older ones. I've read the books (most of them anyway) I've got the soundtracks and I consider myself an aficionado. The fact the QoS remains unseen disturbs me greatly, even more than the thought that Maggot Bombs may not affect zombies.

So tomorrow (or tonight depending on when you read this) after my shift ends I'm going to resist the temptation to go home and brave Leicester Square. I'll send Tweets of my progress. Wish me luck...



I must remember to tape I'm A Celebrity though.

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Saturday 22 November 2008

Could zombies survive a maggot outbreak?



I had this discussion with Castro a couple of months ago one hungover morning in Cologne. The pair of us are obsessed with zombies and both spend much of our time plotting our plan of action were a zombie outbreak to occur at any moment.

I posited the theory that one way of defeating zombies is with maggots. I got the idea from an episode of House where they used them to get rid of all this burnt dead flesh off this kid. Maggots (as we all know) only eat dead flesh. Surely a zombie is reconstituted of dead flesh therefore sufficient quantities of maggots them used correctly would consume an undead creature completely.

Arguably the critters would not be able to work fast enough to consume all zombies, especially in a global outbreak. However, if a species of super-fast munching maggots could be developed with a high reproductive system the could be unleashed on a zombie horde and reduced to mere bones in no time. Castro and I even speculated that a range of anti zombie projectile weapons and bombs could be developed to disperse the maggots over a wider area. Then, the survivors could hole up somewhere safe while the the little fellas do their work.

Once all the zombies had been consumed the survivors could use the maggots as an ongoing form of pest control. Lets face it, public health is going to be a major issue post outbreak so when someone dies and is inevitably transformed into a flesh eating creature of the undead, Maggot Bombs could be used to dispatch it before it spreads its 'infection' to the remainder of the already dwindling population.

Wonderful creatures maggots. they make me sleep much better knowing they're around.

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Thursday 20 November 2008

Moral Dilemma #1

The first in what may prove to be a disturbingly regular series.


Should I open this? on 12seconds.tv

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One of the lesser known but tragic consequences of the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege

Having said that, you've got to love that Roy Budd music score.



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Metro loves Terry

John Terry that is as the following headline reveals:

TERRY SPARES CARSON'S BLUSHES

I didn't read the article as I was concerned about the message I'd be sending to the young woman who's paper it was (mind you I've always thought that Metros ever belonged to anyone). However, if I infer from the headline that the blame for Germany's hilarious equlaiser against England in last night's actually quite decent friendly match lies solely with Scott Carson. This would be in spite of the fact that it was clearly JT's responsibility to clear the ball and the great man (of whom I'm not a great fan it must be said from the off) was big enough to take the fall. Either that or Fabio told him it was his fault and he should confess to save face for Carson, a 'keeper sorely lacking in confidence.

When that headline was approved the folks at Metro were probably were not aware that JT had 'fessed up to the blunder and we saw a glimpse at the level of sycophancy that exists for the Chelsea skipper. In fairness, much of this is down to London bias from a local London paper. However, I'm beginning to think that the best part of John Terry are his PR people.

Turns out that the Metro website has published a follow up to their bold headline.

I'm grateful to Chris for setting me straight on the headline (see comments). I haven't changed it as a reminder to myself of what an ill-informed cock I can be.

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Wednesday 19 November 2008

Alfie

Anything that comes out of my brain which won't fit in to The Onion Bag, Some People Are On The Pitch, Some People Are On The Telly or cannot be squeezed into 140 characters will go here.

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