Plenty of Nothing

Peter Wust

1904 Postage Stamp Vending Machine

Can't you see Soseki Natsume using this? Postal Museum Japan.

1978-79

The Post Office designed this commemorative stamp in 1978, just in case.

 

It's the first day of the 2017-18 Scottish Championship. Morton visit Dumbarton.

Dumbarton are now into their sixth straight year in tier II, their best showing since the 1980s. That's not too bad for a parttime club consistently predicted to finish ninth or tenth in the division. (They have finished 7th, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 8th.) They feel so confident in their future that they're embarking on the construction of a new stadium. On the other hand, they've just scrapped their youth program.

Dumbarton had a very bad League Cup group stage, with only one point earned in a shootout loss to Annan. Last year they got two points. In preseason friendlies the Sons posted two wins (including one against Partick Thistle) and two draws.

Last season Morton had two wins, a draw and a loss against the Sons. In the 21st Century Morton have 19 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses.

Last year Dumbarton won their home opener, beating Dundee United. In 2015 they won their home opener, beating Hibs.

Dumbarton signed thirteen new players during the close season, the highest number of any Championship club, and behind only Clyde in the SPFL. Morton signed six.

Morton's starting XI: [Gaston, Murdoch, Lamie, Doyle, Forbes, Quitongo, Thomson, McHugh, Tidser, Russell, Connor McManus.]

Compare last year: Gaston, Kilday, Lamie, O'Ware, Doyle, Oliver, Forbes, Lindsay, Tidser, McDonagh, Quitongo.

[That's the sixth consecutive opening day for GK Derek Gaston.]

Which clubs are in the 2017-18 Scottish Championship, and when did they know for sure?

Livingston                April 8

Dunfermline             April 22

QoS                         April 22

St Mirren                  May 6

Dumbarton               May 6

Morton                     May 12

Falkirk                      May 19

Inverness CT           May 20

Brechin                    May 20

Dundee United        May 28

Which year did each one most recently enter the division, and was it from above or below?

2017    Inverness CT (above)

2017    Livingston (below)

2017    Brechin (below)

2016    Dundee United (above)

2016    Dunfermline (below)

2015    St Mirren (above)

2015    Morton (below)

2013    Queen of the South (below)

2012    Dumbarton (below)

2010    Falkirk (above)

How many years has each one spent in the second tier since 1994, including 2017-18?

17        Falkirk

16        Morton

15        Queen of the South

14        St Mirren

11        Livingston

10        Dunfermline

  7        Dumbarton

  7        Inverness CT

  3        Dundee United

  3        Brechin

Plenty of Nothing's objectives for Morton 2017-18:

1) Beat everyone at least once.

2) Beat someone four times.

3) Finish above St Mirren.

4) Finish above Inverness CT.

5) Make the playoffs.

6) Get on television. This is less likely now that Dundee United are the only big club in the Championship.

7) Score more goals than last season.

8) Play Hearts. Morton haven't played them since 1988. This would be the year to do it too -- they sacked their manager five days before the start of the season.

9) Win the Challenge Cup. Well, why not? Stenhousemuir have done it.

How high will Morton finish? Based on the League Predictions thread at Pie & Bovril (as of June 22nd, when I looked), Morton should finish in 5.8th place. An interesting discussion sprang from one post predicting a 10th place finish. Essentially the point was: they can't score. And it's true, Morton's 44 goals last season was the lowest total among the eight Championship clubs that were not relegated.

When was the last time each club won its first league match of the season, and who did they beat?

Brechin               2016/8/6            Stenhousemuir

Dunfermline        2016/8/6            Dumbarton

Livingston           2016/8/6            Stranraer

Dumbarton         2015/8/8            Hibs

QoS                    2015/8/8            Alloa

Inverness CT      2014/8/9            Hamilton

Dundee Utd        2014/8/10          Aberdeen

Morton                2013/8/10          Cowdenbeath

Falkirk                 2007/8/4           Gretna

St Mirren             2006/7/29         Inverness CT

[FT: Dumbarton 0 - 0 Morton. Video.]

1978-79. Last season we followed Morton through their 1898-99 campaign. This year Saturday falls on the same calendar dates as in 1978-79, so let's follow Morton through that very interesting season.

Morton won promotion to the Premier Division at the end of 1977-78 along with second-place Hearts, while third-place Dundee, who had the superior goal difference of the three, missed out by one point. In the late Seventies there were three divisions, a win was worth two points, and the top two and bottom two teams were automatically promoted or relegated.

The World Cup took place in June in Argentina. Scotland came in third in Group 4, with a loss to Peru, a draw against Iran, and an astounding 3 - 2 win over the Netherlands on the strength of two goals by Archie Gemmill and one by Kenny Dalglish, but it was not enough for the Scots to advance. None of the Scotland players were with Morton at the time, though Joe Jordan and Joe Harper had started out with them in the Sixties.

Morton began their campaign on August 5th, 1978, with an away game against Raith Rovers in the Anglo-Scottish Cup. What was the Anglo-Scottish Cup? The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament in the late 1970s for English and Scottish clubs that had missed out on European competition. It was a continuation under a new name of the Texaco Cup, which began in 1970-71 and included six English clubs, six Scottish clubs, two clubs from the Republic of Ireland and two from Northern Ireland. The 1978-79 version was made up of sixteen English clubs and eight Scottish ones: Celtic, Clyde, Hearts, Morton, Motherwell, Partick, Raith Rovers and St Mirren. Yep, Celtic missed out on Europe in 1978.

The eight Scottish clubs paired off, and each played home and away games against its opponent. Morton's opponent was Raith Rovers. On August 5th, 1978, it was Raith 1 - 2 Morton in Kirkcaldy. (Morton goals by James Rooney and Andy Ritchie.) On August 8th the return leg was played at Cappielow: Morton 4 - 1 Raith. (Morton goals by Rooney, Robert Russell, Alistair Scott, and Ritchie.) Morton moved on to the quarter-finals in September. Raith's home strip in 1978-79 consisted of a medium-blue top and socks, with white shorts.

Largs Thistle. Their season began midweek with a West Region League Cup group stage match against Winton Rovers. Largs' opponents in the group stage are Winton, Kilbirnie, Beith, Dalry and Kilwinning. Three of them are in the top (Super Premier) division, and two in the third (Ayrshire District) division. Largs are in the second (Super First) division.

Largs 3 - 1 Winton Rovers (Wed)

Largs [3 - 1] Kilbirnie (today)

UEFA Champions League 3QR, second leg:

Rosenborg 0 - 1 Celtic

Celtic advance.

FH 0 - 1 Maribor

FH are out.

Europa League 3QR, second leg:

Fola Esch 1 - 2 Östersund

Östersund advance.

Apollon Limossol 2 - 0 Aberdeen

Aberdeen are out.

CONCACAF League. Determining the best club of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is a long and complicated process involving three tournaments. The first one is the CFU Club Championship, which winnows down the top clubs of the Caribbean countries to four. (We followed the CFU Club Championship in the spring.) The Caribbean champion gets a bye and the three runners-up are thrown into the CONCACAF League tournament along with thirteen Central American clubs. Five other Central American clubs have a bye. The CFU Club champion and the CONCACAF League winner go into the 2018 Champions League along with those five Central American clubs and nine North American clubs.

It's the CONCACAF League Round of 16. Let's follow the three clubs we already know from the Caribbean club championship. The first leg was played this week.

San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad) 2 - 6 Santos de Guápiles (Costa Rica)

Árabe Unido (Panama) 2 - 1 Central (Trinidad)

Plaza Amador (Panama) 0 - 1 Portmore United (Jamaica)

Emperor's Cup: On August 2nd Vanraure Hachinohe and Nagoya Grampus completed their Third Round match abandoned July 12th in the 65th minute due to lightning. The continued match ended 2 - 1 in favour of Nagoya. Both the 65-minute game and the 25-minute continuation were played in Nagoya.

If the Emperor's Cup were under the Scottish Football Association the original match would have been abandoned and a complete 90-minute rematch played.

A third possibility, which I've never seen used, would have been to treat the original 65-minute game as the first game of a two-legged tie, with a second complete game in Hachinohe.

SWFL Div 2 West: Morton [13 - 0] Pollok United

It's the Extra Preliminary Round of the English FA Cup. There are 170 matches going on today. Let's watch:

Cheddar [0 - 2] Willand Rovers

Germany:

SV Elversberg (0 - 0) 1. FC Saarbrücken (August 2nd)

1. FC Saarbrücken [3 - 1] Hessen Kassel (tomorrow)

Inuit Tactile Maps

Read about them here.

Nova Scotian Three Pence Postage Stamp

Nova Scotia had control of its own postal system from April 5th, 1851 until July 1st, 1867. The province issued its own postage stamps, like this 1857 three pence stamp featuring the British Crown surrounded by shamrock, rose, thistle and mayflower. Source. And. During this phase of postal history the Postmaster General of Nova Scotia was John Howe, brother of Joe, who got the job from their dad.

Anne of the Post Office

In 2008 the Japanese and Canadian post offices jointly issued this Anne of Green Gables commemorative set, on the hundredth anniversary of the publication of the first Anne novel. The two stamps at the top were designed in Canada, while the rest reference the 1979 anime Akage no An.

Go Genji

Here is a game of go reconstructed from the Genji Monogatari Emaki, as reproduced on a 1989 postage stamp. Source.

Victor Ambrus

I'm a huge fan of Victor Ambrus, an illustrator whose eye for historical costume is unsurpassed in our day and age. You might know him from Time Team, or from one of about a million children's books he's illustrated. Here's a set of stamps he designed for the Isle of Man. I pretty desperately need to study his book Ways of Drawing Hands. His website. Time Team Isle of Man episode.

Bécassine

This postage stamp, issued in France in 2005, commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the Breton cartoon character Bécassine, who first appeared in a girls' magazine in 1905, a generation before Tintin.  It's also an illustration of how the modern world is not as globalised as we believe.  There are plenty of cultural icons out there who are happy to go on representing national or local identity without the benefit of a Disney contract.

Personification of Ankh-Morpork

Heather's been after me for a while to read Terry Pratchett.  But you know me, I won't do something unless it's my own idea.  And I'm reasonably certain the Discworld books were recommended to me by coworkers in the 1980s, back in my "I used to read science fiction, but then I grew up" phase.  So I've just finished Going Postal and of course it's brilliant.  And another period of willful ignorance comes to a close.  The upside is that he's been writing these for decades, so I won't be able to burn through them in a week.  And there's stamps!  Douglas