Farmduck

This shouldn't be a joke but it comes pretty close. This from a Victoria Police press release: "Police said one men had a larger build while the other one had a smaller build." I think I know those guys.

Joe Greenwood had a mixed bag - 22 games for Titans in his first year then 0 in his second. Not sure he should make the "underwhelming" team though since he was a starting player for most of his first year and only Ash Taylor made more first grade appearances.

Flanagan had a good first year at Wests - and Wests were a different team back then. In Flanagan's first year they finished 3rd on the ladder. Nobody thought he was a game-breaking marquee player but, like Mike Cooper at St George, he deserved his regular first grade slot. I think Cooper only missed about 4 games in 3 years at St George.

To be pedantic, Betts didn't play in the NRL. He played for Auckland in 1995-1997 when they were in the ARL and Super League. I assume the OP was restricting the list to the NRL period otherwise someone would have mentioned Mal Reilly and Kevin Ward.

Yes and surprising he wouldn't have hired a photographer to put together a coffee-table book of his collection. I've seen a couple of excerpts from the catalogue and it is, as you say, a hugely-expensive guitar accompanied by some back story.

I can relate somewhat. When I started playing, guitars were this expensive luxury item you had to save up forever to buy. Now, even on the Pension, I could probably buy a reasonable playable new guitar every month if I wanted to. (I've actually set myself a limit and I'm on a no-guitar embargo until the end of the year. I've still got an Italia Torino I bought on Yahoo Japan auction 9 months ago and haven't even unpacked it yet. I paid $A3800 for a White Falcon in July 2022 and I haven't even plugged it in yet. It's a sickness!) And the one I've been playing all year is an Artist 335 which are only $A300 brand new, including delivery.

For those among us with a couple of hundred grand burning a hole in their pockets, Christie's presents the Mark Knopfler auction. https://www.christies.com/en/events/the-mark-knopfler-guitar-collection/what-is-on They want £40 just for the catalogue but the few snippets they've shown surprised me a bit. There's all the stuff he used on all the big albums. I'm not very sentimental but, considering Knopfler's career trajectory, I would keep the Strat he used on Sultans of Swing. (even though it wasn't even a Strat, apparently, some well-made knock-off) Because of my financial reality I don't know if I'd ever pay huge $$$ for celebrity premium on a guitar. My Gibson 335 was supposedly owned by Vincent Nguini who was in the Paul Simon band for about 20 years but the guitar is a 2008 model so he didn't use it on any famous Simon albums and Simon's music isn't renowned for its guitar solos. I also can't find any picture of Vincent ever playing a 335. Hypothetically, if I was a gazillionaire, I might want the Strat Hendrix used at Woodstock but Hendrix went through a lot of guitars so clearly he didn't think any specific axe was all that special. The 2 items in the Knopfler collection that interest me are the 60s cheapies - an EKO 700v4 and a Teisco Spectrum 5, both great examples of Italian and Japanese 60s guitar kitsch. Oddly both have the logo badges missing. If I had Knopfler's resources and guitar connections I would have sorted that out but, to me, the Eko badge is central to the whole aesthetic of those guitars.

Even the ranking points wouldn't have any real effect. We don't need them yet for entry to pre-WC qualifiers but Samoa, as finalists last time round, would be automatic qualifiers next WC. If we had a lot more viable national teams and there was a tougher path to get into a WC final 16 (or 12 or whatever) then the IRL might have some leverage. If you remember Samoa's last "England tour", there were no repercussions then.

I saw a headline today that fashions of the early 2000s are making a comeback. Does this mean I'll have to ignore them all over again?

Wasn't his back in July? Why did they wait so long to upload the vid?

I put some of it down to being 83, insulin-dependent diabetic, possibly a bit of dementia, and watching SKY news.

My landlord changed his mind a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why. It's overall a good thing for me. There is such a tight housing market in Sydney - or Australia generally - that I would have been screwed. So, for now I get to keep my slum and he gets to keep his income. He also changed his mind on getting paid by direct transfer after only 4 weeks. Apparently, "someone in USA took a few grand out of his a/c" but I couldn't get any useful details about the specifics. He's such a technophobe and 83 so he doesn't have the vocabulary to explain what happened. It seems odd, considering he doesn't have any online presence, doesn't even have an internet connection and has probably never even used an ATM.

Define "Ashes Test" between ENG and AUS. As opposed to rugby league international between ENG and AUS.

My last post is only 1 minute old and I've got another one: What URL?

As if spam emails and heaps of scam emails aren't bad enough, at least they put in some effort. I've been getting these ones, with minor variations in wording, for about a week: or this one from earlier today What website? There's nothing clickable and no website name. I wonder if they are just training new spammers. I have received this from at least 10 different email addresses so I can't add them all to my filters - and why bother when each email is only used once. I can't see any possible scenario where an email like this could produce a good result for the spammer. There are roughly 350,000 people out there who were literally born yesterday but I don't think they'd be using the internet yet.