Plenty of Nothing

Vancouver Ladies Hockey Team, 1914

From left to right back row: Connie Smith (right wing), Elizabeth “Betty” Hinds (rover), Peter Muldoon (team manager), Nellie Haddon (centre), Miss Matheson (left wing); from left to right front row: Mrs. French (coverpoint), Mrs. L.N. McKechnie (goal), Mrs. Percival (point). Source: Vancouver Archives.

Frumpy Kamakura

Kamakura lady. Source.

Eiga Monogatari is an account of Heian court life written during the Kamakura period, a century or two after the events recorded. Enough change had occurred in fashions that the anonymous author felt compelled to observe:

    When one hears tales of earlier days, one can scarcely believe that ladies went about in public dressed in so few layers of clothing and with so little padding in their garments. One wonders how they managed to keep warm even at home, since ladies nowadays are always suffering from ailments caused by the weather, though they pile on so many layers that they are in danger of looking like frumps. But that was the fashion, and we must suppose that even a Junior Consort or Empress wore only a fraction of what we would consider an adequate costume.

A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, volume 1, page 218, trans. McCullough and McCullough.

Trudeaus at the Shanghai Restaurant

The Shanghai on Somerset Street is one of my favourite restaurants on earth, so I was happy to see my tastes shared by la famille Trudeau. The picture is posted on the restaurant's Twitter home page. (It's pretty faded so I took the liberty of running it through Photoshop auto colour correction.) My hunch is this was taken in 1973.

Playing on the Ice

Nova Scotia Archives.

Last Days of the CBC Building, Sackville Street

The Old West Kirk

The Old West Kirk. Built in 1591, relocated in 1925. Source.

Raith Rovers make their final 2015-16 appearance at Cappielow.

The situation: Raith Rovers are ten points up on Morton in the race for the final playoff spot. Basically it's all over unless Raith spin out and crash into the stands, which doesn't happen in football as often as it does in Formula One.

Morton are 14 points up on ninth-place Livingston. If Morton play their cards right they could miss out on promotion and relegation on the same day.

If Raith win today they will have swept Morton, taking all twelve points. Have any teams taken all four wins from the Ton in the current league format (quadruple round robin)? Well, yes, quite a lot of them:

2013-14    Alloa

2009-10    Dunfermline and Inverness CT

2007-08    Dundee and Hamilton

2001-02    Forfar

2000-01    Livingston

1998-99    Ayr United and Hibernian

1996-97    St Johnstone

1987-88    Celtic and Dundee United

1984-85    Dundee United and Rangers

1982-83    Celtic

1981-82    St Mirren

1980-81    Celtic

You can expand this into the late 1940s by using the formula 2 league games + 2 League Cup group stage games.

1973-74    Hibernian

1968-69    Rangers

1965-66    Hibernian

1955-56    Dumbarton

1953-54    Kilmarnock and Motherwell

1950-51    Aberdeen and Rangers

1946-47    Rangers

At the midpoint of the season it looked as if Morton were headed for a .500 season (as they say in baseball). But since then the results have trended for the worse. For Morton to finish the season with an equal number of wins and losses now they must either win 4 and lose 2; or win three, draw 2, and lose 1; or win 2 and draw 4. The last option would leave them with 12 wins, 12 draws and 12 losses, but the goal difference would be higher than 0.

What seasons have Morton finished even?

1985-86    39GP    14W    11D    14L    GD -6

1979-80    36GP    14W    8D    14L    GD +5

1978-79    36PG    12W    12D    12L    GD -1

1970-71    34GP    13W    8D    13L    GD 0

1955-56    36GP    15W    6D    15L    GD +2

1921-22    42GP    16W    10D    16L    GD +1

1978-79 came tantillizingly close to perfect balance, only off by one goal.

If Raith are going to take the final playoff spot, what is there for Morton to play for? Two things: 1) finishing fifth, which is still in the top half of the division; 2) finishing ahead of St Mirren, because St Mirren. The season could end up looking a lot like 1997-98 when the final table went: Dundee, Falkirk, Raith, Airdrieonians, Morton (12W, 10D, 14L), St Mirren, Ayr United, Hamilton Accies, Partick Thistle, Stirling Albion.

[Morton 0 - 1 Raith.]

USA, 1967. The United Soccer Association (USA) was a precursor of the original NASL. It played only one season, 1967. There were twelve clubs*, each an established European or South American club that came over to participate in their offseason. If you replace the North American aliases with the club's actual names, the final standings look like this:

East

Aberdeen                                     15 pts

Stoke City                                    14 pts

Hibs                                             13 pts

Glentoran                                     12 pts

C.A. Cerro                                    10 pts

Shamrock Rovers                          7 pts

West

Wolverhampton Wanderers         15 pts

ADO Den Haag                            13 pts

Calgliari Calcio                             13 pts

Bangu AC                                     12 pts

Sunderland                                   11 pts

Dundee United                               9 pts

Wolverhampton beat Aberdeen in the final.

*In 1967, two divisions of six teams was the default format for a North American major league. The NBA and NHL both had East and West divisions of six teams, as did the American and National Leagues of baseball by 1969. When the WHA started in 1972 it was with two divisions of six teams. The NFL, always ahead of the game, expanding beyond 6 x 2 in 1960.

Dundee United adopted their trademark orange kit after masquerading in orange as Dallas Tornados in this league. What colours were they before? White and black.

Fegs, Highlanders! Brora Rangers (71 points), Cove Rangers (70), and Formartine United (69) are in a close race for the Highland League title. Cove Rangers and Formartine each have a game in hand, and either would be a fine addition to League Two. Today it's Formartine [3 - 3] Brora.

East Fife's ground has been named best pitch in Scotland -- just prior its being torn up for an artificial surface.

FC Edmonton played Queen's Park on the 22nd and won 0 - 1.

The Japanese (Nabisco) League Cup began Wednesday with the group stage. As the Scottish League Cup is returning to a group stage format in July, the Nabisco Cup demands some attention. My Japanese club for 2016 is in J3, and therefore not eligible, so let's follow Vegalta Sendai in Group B. The group stage involves two groups of seven. The teams play a single robin round. The top two from each group go on to the knock out stage. On Wednesday it was Vegalta 1 - 0 Albirex Niigata. Tomorrow it's Kashiwa Reysol [0 - 1] Vegalta. [Vegalta are at the top of their group.]

It's the preliminary round of the Faroe Islands Cup. Four lower-league clubs play for two spots in the first round.

Also today: Cobh Ramblers [0 - 2] UCD

Aizawl FC [2 - 1] Mohun Bagan. Aizawl is in Mizoram, a corner of India wedged between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Wolverhampton vs Aberdeen, July 14th, 1967.

Sports and games referenced in this blog post: soccer, car racing, cards, baseball, basketball, hockey, American football. I would have said simply 'games' but for some semantic reason you can't call a car race a game.

Train Girl

I think this story has the potential to be the equal and opposite of the Densha Otoko phenomenon. Twelve years ago the image of okatu as dangerously obsessive recluses was ameliorated by the story of the nerd who came to the rescue of a woman who was being threatened by a drunk on a train. Japanese media leapt on the plotline and produced a novel, four separate manga, a film, a play and a TV series. Since then otaku have moved into the mainstream of Japanese culture. But in December 2015 Asahi Shimbun published an article about a Hokkaido railway's decision to postpone the closure of an isolated train station because one student continued to use it to get to school. The railway decided to maintain the station (Kami-Shirataki) until her graduation. Unfortunately the publicity attracted a horde of train nerds who insisted on getting the student to pose for the camera, and the upshot is she stopped using the train. This would make a very neat bookend for the otaku era. Tomorrow is the closing date for the station. Source. Source.

Douce 66

Read the Bodleian Library's copy of Sebastian Brant, Das Narrenschiff (Douce 66) here.

Putin

Source.

How Many Kisses Are De Rigueur?

How many kisses should you dispense when greeting someone in France? Well, it depends! Le Monde published this map, breaking it down department by department. You might have to go as high as four. Go here to explore the interactive map.