Plenty of Nothing

Uncanny Sylvia Townsend Warner

This short animation of Sylvia Townsend Warner reciting her poem "Go the Long Way, the Long Way Home" seems to have been made from a photograph and an LP recording, and is perched partway up the slope of the Uncanny Valley, a place she would not necessarily disapprove.

2013-14 Scottish League Cup, Quarter Final

Scottish industry produced a prototype electric car in 1966, the Scottish Aviation Scamp. Only problem: it didn't work so well. What has it got to do with today's game? Absolutely nothing!

St Johnstone visit Cappielow today for a Scottish League Cup quarter-final match against the Ton. Morton are the last remaining Championship club in this competition, but they are the ones who knocked out Celtic, so they have to feel that anything is possible. They had better because if you look at it objectively they're prohibitive favourites to get creamed.

Morton and St Johnstone met July 13th in a friendly match at Cappielow, which the Perth men won 0 - 1. Prior to that was August 24th 2010 in the Second Round of the Scottish League Cup of that year, when St Johnstone won 2 - 0 in Perth. The clubs played together in the First Division in 2007-08 and 2008-09, but it was September 12th, 2006 that Morton last beat St Johnstone, winning 3 - 2 in the quarter final of the Challenge Cup.

Are there any former Morton players on the St Johnstone squad? Patrick Cregg and Chris Millar.

Rangers won their Challenge Cup semifinal against Stenhousemuir and will face Raith Rovers in the final half a year from now.

The Scotsman has a piece about Morton's League Cup run in that remarkable season 1963-64.

[St Johnstone win 0 - 1, scoring at 90 + 5 minutes.]

Blue and White

Cellular

Roman Hockey

KHL Medveščak Zagreb opened their 2012-13 EBEL season with a pair of outdoor games played in the ancient Roman amphitheatre of Pula, Croatia. They lost 3 - 2 to HDD Olimpija Ljubljana in the first game but beat the Vienna Capitals 4 - 1 in the second.

Away to Raith

The inhabitants of 19th-century Kirkcaldy sent out whalers to hunt the behemoths of the deep, but this one came to them. Read about it here.

Today Greenock Morton visit Raith Rovers at Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy. Raith are in third place in the division, well placed to challenge for the top position. Morton are tenth. Dead Last. Three points out of ninth, with a much worse goal difference than Queen of the South. See above.

Last night the Premiership match between Inverness and Ross County was abandoned after the floodlights failed. This has got the historians at greenockmorton.org wondering when was a match last abandoned at Cappielow. The concensus is: Hallowe'en 1970, Morton versus Hibs.

[Raith 2, Morton 1. Greenock goal by Nacho Novo.]

Champions League Tuesday: Celtic 2 - 1 Ajax. Celtic are currently third in Group H. Only the top two finishers will advance.

The Airtricity League season has wrapped up in the Republic of Ireland. UCD finished in ninth place, avoiding a relegation playoff on the final day, as did tenth-place Bohemians, who have had a shitty season. St Patrick's Athletic won the league for the eighth time.

It's the Second Round of the Scottish Junior Cup. Among many other games, Largs Thistle host Oakley United; and Greenock Juniors entertain Royal Albert, winners of the Scottish Junior Cup in 1930 and 1940; and three-time Cup winners Irvine Meadow welcome Clydebank. Wait. Why mention the Clydebank game? Over the past week I've become all fascinated by the history of Clydebank is why. [Largs advance. Greenock Juniors and Clydebank are out.]

Tomorrow US Boulogne visit AS Bersée in the sixth round of the Coupe de France. Bersée is a village of 2,000 in the arrondisement of Lille in French Flanders. [Boulogne win 2 - 5.]

Tomorrow Sapporo go to Kyoto. I've been waiting to say that all season. [Kyoto win 2 - 0.]

Goethe Speech Bubble

This 1982 West German five Deutsche Mark coin commemorating the 150th anniversary of Goethe's death reproduces the most important bit of the famous portrait Goethe in the Roman Campagna painted by Johann Tischbein around 1786. Working in a very constrained space the coin's designer is forced to suggest the contour of the great writer's hat and cloak with a notch beside his chin. But it also looks like an inverted speech bubble with the text outside and the picture of the speaker inside.
The coin is from the online catalog of the Münzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. See also.

More Dominion Public Building Details

Edward VIII doesn't get his monogram on many things. This emblem in the Dominion Public Building foyer dates the place to 1936 precisely. See also.

Sumo

This robust woodcut can be found opposite page 204 in volume 1 of A.B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan published in 1871. Mitford writes in his Preface:

For the illustrations, at least, I feel that I need make no apology. Drawn, in the first instance, by one Ôdaké, an artist in my employ, they were cut on wood by a famous wood-engraver at Yedo, and are therefore genuine specimens of Japanese art.

I wish he had named the famous engraver. As for Ôdaké, there were a couple of well-known artists, Odake Kokkan and Odake Chikuha, in the following generation. Is Mitford's one their father?

Frank Sidebottom the Statue, Part 3

The Frank Sidebottom statue was unveiling 11:37 a.m. yesterday in Timperley. Source.