Plenty of Nothing

The Provensens' Homer

Alice and Martin Provensen illustrated a children's edition of Homer in 1956. Look here for an appreciation of their style.

Genshiken Cliffhanger

Genshiken chapter 121 ends with Madarame apparently about to announce his choice of partner from among the four members of the Mada harem. This storyline Who will Madarame end up with? has dominated the manga for over half of the run of Genshiken Nidaime, since 2012 at least, pushing aside other questions like Who is the next president? and Will Ogiue make it as a manga artist? In the original run of Genshiken an academic year used to last two or three volumes, but the year of Ogiue's presidency has taken up eleven volumes to date. The current club trip to Nikkō, with its Mada harem kujibiki, has been going on since chapter 107 (first published in December 2014) or over two volumes. That storyline has been drawn out like a bowstring.

If I were writing this story, I'd release the arrow now. I think chapter 122 will begin several months into the next academic year. Someone else will be president, summer Comifes will be coming up or have already passed, there will be one or two new members, some of the old ones will be gone, and Madarame's announcement will already be club history. Part of what will keep the readers' involved will be the fascination of piecing together what happened, and I'm sure Kio will employ his powers of deferral to spin that out, ut there will also be the fascination of time advancing, which has been absent for a while.

I'll be proved wrong March 25th.

San Starko

Hemmed in by a road and a railway, Stark's Park has its two largest stands behind the goals. Number 43 Pratt Street opposite the near corner has a view of the entire pitch. Source.

Morton travel to San Starko to play Raith Rovers. The Ton trail Raith by one point in the race for fourth. You would expect Morton to be fired up after Wednesday's dismantling of Hibernian, and they are. Though Raith have not yet defeated Hibs this season, they have beaten Morton twice.

Pepper, MacDonald, McKeown, Gasparotto, Samuel, Tidser, and Miller are all injured. [Not Miller. He's a substitute today.]

What are Morton's chances of promotion? They are one of four Championship sides (Raith, QoS and St Mirren are the others) with a realistic shot at the final playoff spot. So one-in-four there. Then they have to beat Falkirk (so, one-in-eight), then they have to beat Hibs (so, one-in-sixteen), and then they have to beat the eleventh Premiership club, say, Kilmarnock. So, one-in-thirty-two.

Eighteen refs have adjudicated Morton games this season. Which of them have refereed the most, and which one hates Morton most?

Craig Charleston 2W, 2L

Greg Aitken 2W, 1D

John McKendrick 3L

Six others have refereed two games, and eight others have refereed one game, including Willie Collum who refereed Morton's 0 - 4 loss to Rangers. But clearly John McKendrick hates Morton most.

Today's referee is Mat Northcroft.

The SPFL or Inverurie Locomotive Works -- Which Is Greater? Inverurie Loco came into being in 1903, and joined the Highland League in 2001. Since then they have played eleven Scottish Cup matches against SPFL sides. The SPFL has won nine with one draw. Loco's one win came against Stranraer in 2009. Pretty definitely the SPFL is greater.

Svenska Cupen group stage action today: Jönköpings Södra IF [1 - 0] Östersunds FK

Largs Thistle [2 - 2] Rutherglen Glencairn

Salgaocar [1 - 3] Mohun Bagan

Camelon and Kelty Hearts take a third stab at getting their Scottish Junior Cup fifth round match played. [Camelon win 4 - 1.]

The J1 league schedule starts today, J2 tomorrow. J3 goes in two weeks.

Karşıyaka [1 - 1] Gaziantep BBSK

[Raith win 3 - 2. Morton goals by McManus (2). Morton cannot win the division, and neither can St Mirren. Hibs lose to Dumbarton!]

Imperial Edict

From a recent Christie's auction. Click on the image to see a larger version. Description:

The edict is written on silk brocade woven with a pattern of scattered ruyi-clouds mounted as a handscroll, with the text arranged in standard form reading from left to right in Manchu and repeated from right to left in Chinese characters. The Chinese text opens with a four-character title in a vertical line, Fengtian Gaoming, 'By Command of Heaven', flanked by a pair of dragons, followed by a long text ending with the date 14th year of the Shunzhi period, corresponding to 1657. Stamped with two large seal impressions, the edict continues with the Manchu text.

I can instantly see three uses for this beautiful design: museum exhibit signage, book obi, thrummed mitten.

Arigatou-San (1936)

Take a bus ride through rural Japan in 1936 with Hiroshi Shimizu's Arigatou-San (or Mr. Thank You), based on a short story by Yasunari Kawabata. Review. Review. Watch.

"The day looks gash, toot aff your horn"

Statue of poet Robert Fergusson, outside Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh. Source. Read some of his verses here.

Morton visit Easter Road to play the match rescheduled from January 30th. This is a Wednesday game instead of the usual Tuesday because Hibs played Sunday.

Morton enter today's game with 24 matches played. They have 28 points, putting them on track for 42 at season's end, which would have been good enough for 5.5th place in last year's Championship. If Morton lose today they cannot win the division.

This is the first of five away games in a row for Morton. The Ton are a liitle bit stronger away from home, but still there might not be a lot of points on this peregrination.

[Morton have signed Paul McMullan on loan from Celtic.]

Morton visited Hibs on this date in 1979 and played to a 1 - 1 draw.

Hibs have played five cup matches against Premiership clubs this season and earned four wins and a draw. Dundee United, who play in the Premiership, but not for long, have four wins in Premiership play, plus four draws, and a cup win over Partick Thistle.

The AFC Champions League group stage started yesterday, with four Japanese clubs participating:

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2 - 1 FC Tokyo

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1 - 2 Shandong Luneng Taishan

Suwon Samsung Bluewings [0 - 0] Gamba Osaka

Urawa Red Diamonds [2 - 0] Sydney FC

[Morton win 0 - 3. Goals by O'Ware, Johnstone, and Forbes. Morton move into fifth place. This is their first victory against Hibs since 2008. Match report.]

Kitarō Beer

Source.

Donbass 26, Yunost 0

Yesterday in Ukrainian hockey league action Donbass beat Yunost 26 to 0. Game summary.

Twizzlers of the Wild

Wellpark Tunnel

Look here for a set of photos of Greenock Central Station as it is today.

Falkirk visit Cappielow. The Bairns occupy third place in the Championship table with 47 points. Morton are sixth with 28. In their two previous meetings Falkirk took a win at home and played to a draw in Greenock. Falkirk are a very good team hoping to elbow their way into the Premiership ahead of Hibernian.

Morton for their part have more points now than they earned the whole season of 2013-14.

With a win Morton can move into fourth place, if Raith lose to Livingston or tie.

[But Falkirk win 0 - 1. And Raith win. St Mirren beat Dumbarton and move to within a point of Morton. Dumbarton cannot win the division.]

The SPFL or Burntisland Shipyard -- Which Is Greater? Burntisland Shipyard of the East of Scotland League have faced SPFL sides five times in the Scottish Cup:

January 25th, 1936. A 2 - 2 draw against Dumbarton.

February 1st, 1936. Dumbarton won 4 - 2.

January 21st, 1939. Celtic won 8 - 3. Shipyard scored three against Celtic!

December 17th, 1977. Berwick won 4 - 1.

October 27th, 2007. Albion Rovers won 8 - 0.

Shipyard also lost to Ross County in 1934 and Elgin City in 1972, but both of those clubs were still part of the Highland League at the time.

Conclusion: the SPFL is greater.

It's the 2015-16 Svenska Cupen. The first two rounds were played in the fall. Now we're at the group stage: eight groups of four teams. The winner of each group moves on. Let's follow Östersunds FK, who are in Group 1. Today they visit IFK Norrköping, the best team in Sweden. [Norrköping win 4 - 0.]

It's also the Japanese Fuji Xerox Super Cup: J League champions Gamba Osaka versus Emperor's Cup winners Sanfrecce Hiroshima, at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. This is the official start of the football season in Japan. Attendance for this event runs at about 30,000 to 40,000. [Hiroshima win 3 - 1.]

Yoker versus Largs [postponed]

Mohun Bagan [1 - 0] SC Goa. [Mohun Bagan are undefeated after eight games and occupy first place in the Hero I-League.]

Tomorrow: 1461 Trabzonspor [2 - 1] Karşıyaka

Watch more Uruguayan football.