Introduction
The first rule of Flanagan’s Running Club is everyone should talk about Flanagan’s Running Club!
Feel free to forward on to anyone you want, tell people about it the works, and just get them to sign up.
Can I ask you all a favour, please can you review my book on Inkitt, and the link is below. Even if you don’t take time to read it properly, please flick through a few chapters, give it ratings and a review and vote for it please. It may help me get it published.
On This Day – 11th September
1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan Island and the indigenous people living there.
1997 – NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.
2001 – The September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated suicide attacks killing 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Centre in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
It’s the Battle of Tendra Day in Russia
And it’s Emergency Number Day in the United States
Mapping The London Year
1897 – A 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk-driving, after slamming his cab into a building.
Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings.
Chuck D Presents This Day In Rap And Hip-Hop History
2001 – Jay-Z releases his sixth album “The Blueprint” on Roc-A-Fella records.
Despite its untimely release on the day of the terrorist attacks, “The Blueprint” sold over 420,000 copies in its first week, eventually going multi-platinum.
Produced by all-stars such as Just Blaze, Bink!, Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Eminem and critically acclaimed for its lyrical dexterity, the set featured three smash-hits “Jigga”, “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” produced by the then-aspiring beat-maker Kanye West. All three reached the top ten on the Rap chart. The only guest on “The Blueprint” was Eminem on the killer track “Renegade”.
365 – Great Stories From History For Every Day Of The Year
1697, 1709 On this date twelve years apart Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of Europe’s greatest generals, gained two of his most momentous victories. By far the more important was the first one at Zenta, when Eugene was 34 and had only recently received his command in the Imperial (Austrian) army.
Ever since the mid-16th century the Turks had been threatening Austria, and more than once had come to the very walls of Vienna. Thanks to a great Austrian victory there in 1683 the Turks had retreated into the Balkans, but the threat of their return was always there.
In 1697 the Austrian Emperor Leopold I ordered Eugene vigorously to attack the Turks in an attempt to end the constant menace. On this day Eugene caught up with the army of Sultan Mustafa II near Zenta (in present-day Serbia) where the Danube meets the Tisza. Discovering that Mustafa had already crossed the smaller river with his artillery – but had left his infantry for the moment on the other side – Eugene ordered an immediate attack, even though his force was far smaller than the Turks’s.
Without cannon the Turkish soldiers were helpless. Many ran in panic, and mutinous Janissaries (elite soldiers who were kidnapped as boys from Christian families and converted to Islam) murdered the Turkish general on the field of battle. When the rout was finally ended at ten o’clock that night, 20,000 Turks lay dead with 10,000 more drowned in the river trying to escape. Austrian losses amounted to only 300 killed.
The victory was enormous, and the resulting peace treaty ceded all of Hungary and Transylvania to the Austrian Emperor. Zenta was Eugene’s first major victory.
Twelve years later to the day Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough celebrated another major triumph, this against the French at Malplaquet. Although undoubtedly a victory for the Austrians and English (in the end the French retreated), it was hardly as glorious, as the allies suffered 22,000 casualties against only 12,000 for the French. After the battle the beaten French commander, the Duc de Villars, wrote to his king, Louis XIV: ‘If God should grant us another such defeat, our enemies would be destroyed.’ And the war of the Spanish Succession in which the battle was fought continued for another five years.
Births
1771 – Mungo Park
1885 – D. H. Lawrence
1945 – Franz Beckenbauer
1950 – Barry Sheene
Deaths
1971 – Nikita Khrushchev
1988 – Roger Hargreaves
1994 – Jessica Tandy
Number 1’s
Number 1 single in 1987 – Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
Number 1 album in 2009 – Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Number 1 compilation album in 1993 – The Best Dance Album In The World … Ever!
Random Results
1909 – Tottenham Hotspur 2 – Manchester United 2
2010 – Leicester Tigers 37 – Exeter Chiefs 27
1966 – San Francisco 49ers 20 – Minnesota Vikings 20
1962 – San Francisco Giants 2 – Pittsburgh Pirates 0
Drabble
A drabble is a complete story that is exactly one hundred words long.
Willow
It’s often said that I’m a bit of a diva, a prima donna if you will. I can see why people think that.
It’s true that I prefer to eat only freshly prepared food, and that it’s placed in exactly the right place before I’ll eat it.
It’s also true that I insist that people open doors for me, and I’ll go through them without thanking them or closing it behind me.
I do like a comfortable warm place to sleep, and yes I do get easily spooked with loud noise.
But what do you expect, I’m only a cat.
Joke
An elderly man was stopped by the police at around two am. They wondered what he was up to, and asked him where he was going at that time of night. The man replied, “I’m on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking and staying out late.” The officer then asked, “Really? Who’s giving that lecture at this time of night?” The man replied, “That would be my wife when I get home.”
Random Items
Fact
Alaska became the USA’s 49th state in 1959. It was originally purchased from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867.
Firsts
1859 – Charles Blondin makes first crossing of Niagara Falls on a tightrope
1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes first person to go over the Niagara Falls and survive
1989 – Peter de Bernardi and Jeffrey Petkovitch become first people to go over the Niagara Falls together.
Thought
What is the difference between “partly cloudy” and “partly sunny”?
Forgotten English
Epileny
A song in praise of wine. A drinking song.
Ambrose Bierce’s Demon’s Dictionary
KILT
A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America, and by Americans in Scotland.
Words You Should Know
Putative
From the Latin for to think, this means supposed, reputed, but as with Ostensible, there’s the implication that whatever is suggested isn’t true or proven. A putative romance between two Hollywood stars might have been cooked up by the studio’s publicity department, while a putative diabetes treatment is one that hasn’t yet been tested and about which the person using the expression has doubts.
Popular Expressions – What They Mean And Where We Got Them
The bottom line
The main point of an argument, the basic characteristic of something, the actual value of a financial deal, or the nub or truth of the matter.
The phrase itself is an accounting term, and refers to the figure at the end of a financial statement, indicating the net profit or loss of a company.
Rappers of the Nineties Trumps
Quote(s)
Anna – You’ve given me a complex about talking with my mouth open
Richard – I just got rained on.
Vanessa – Is it raining out there then?
Going Underground
Regent’s Park
Once Marylebone Park was a royal hunting ground until the Interregnum, 1649. It reverted to the crown in 1811 and was laid out a fresh from 1812 onwards by John Nash for the Prince Regent, after whom it is named. At the same time Nash designed and built Regent Street as part of the ‘Royal Mile’ connecting the park with the Prince’s house in St James’s. Roughly circular in shape, the park covers an area of 472 acres and includes the famous London Zoo.
The station was opened as REGENT’S PARK on 10 March 1906.
Top Ten
| 10 Highest Rated Films by IMDB ratings | |||
| Rank | Title | Year | IMDb Rating |
| 1 | The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | 9.2 |
| 2 | The Godfather | 1972 | 9.2 |
| 3 | The Godfather: Part II | 1974 | 9 |
| 4 | The Dark Knight | 2008 | 9 |
| 5 | 12 Angry Men | 1957 | 8.9 |
| 6 | Schindler’s List | 1993 | 8.9 |
| 7 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | 8.9 |
| 8 | Pulp Fiction | 1994 | 8.9 |
| 9 | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 1966 | 8.8 |
| 10 | Fight Club | 1999 | 8.8 |
Cathedral Fact Files
| Cathedral | Lichfield Cathedral | ||
| Dedicated To | St Mary and St Chad | ||
| Type | Medieval | Architecture | Old English |
| Religion | COE | Tower / Spire | 3 Spires |
| Site Founded | 669 | Height (External) | 258ft |
| Church Founded | 1195 | Height (Internal) | 57ft |
| Bishopric Founded | 656 | Length | 397ft |
| Current Bishopric Founded | 1836 | Width | 177ft |
Thirty-Three And One Third Revolutions Per Minute
Pet Shop Boys – Please
Please was the debut album by English electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 24 March 1986 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by EMI America Records in the United States. According to the duo, the album’s title was chosen so that people had to go into a record shop and say “Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, ‘Please’?“. Please spawned four singles: “West End Girls”, “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)”, “Suburbia”, and “Love Comes Quickly“; “West End Girls” reached number one in both the UK and the US.
Please is musically simpler than but lyrically just as rich as Pet Shop Boys’ later work. The instrumentals are comparable to other techno pop of this period. As with many early PSB albums, the lyrics were considered androgynous, the stories they contain being equally applicable to gay and heterosexual relationships. Tennant, in particular, enjoyed this ambiguity and refused to comment on his own sexuality until he came out shortly prior to the 1993 release of Very.
The tiny cover photograph enclosed by a sea of white has been seen by some design observers as a reaction to the traditional album cover. With the new CD cases of the time being necessarily smaller than designs seen on 12″ albums, the passport-sized photograph is far removed from standard cover artwork. The actual size of the image is the same size as a 35mm photographic negative.
“Suburbia” was dramatically remixed for the single release.
“Violence” was later re-recorded by the Pet Shop Boys for a charity concert at The Haçienda nightclub in the early 1990s. This version, known as the ‘Haçienda version’, was released as one of the B-sides to “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing” and was then made available on the B-sides album Alternative and the 2001 2-disc re-release of the Very album.
The Pet Shop Boys later sampled the Please version of “Love Comes Quickly” for their song “Somebody Else’s Business“, which appeared on the Disco 3 album. “Tonight Is Forever” was later covered by Liza Minnelli on the Pet Shop Boys-produced album Results.
All the songs were written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe except “Two Divided by Zero” written by Neil Tennant & Bobby Orlando and “Love Comes Quickly” written by Tennant/Lowe & Stephen Hague
Track listing
Side One
1 – “Two Divided by Zero” – 3:32
2 – “West End Girls” – 4:41 – First single from the album, having been the first new UK number one single of 1986, it was also number one in the US and Canada, and top five in Australia, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Yet it was the third time it had been released and on the third different label. One of the versions of the release on the German ZYX label was a mash up with them doing a cover version of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses At Night“. Covered by East 17 who reached number 11 in the UK charts with it in 1993.
3 – “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” – 3:43 – Third single release from the album, reaching number 11 on the UK singles chart and number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This had been released as a single without chart success prior to the album’s release in 1985.
4 – “Love Comes Quickly” – 4:18 – Second single release from the album it hit number 19 on the UK singles chart and number 62 on the US Billboard Hot 100
5 – “Suburbia” – 5:07 – Fourth single from the album, it reached number 8 on the UK singles chart and number 70 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and hit the top ten in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
6 – “Opportunities (Reprise)” – 0:32
Side Two
7 – “Tonight Is Forever” – 4:30
8 – “Violence” – 4:27
9 – “I Want a Lover” – 4:04
10 – “Later Tonight” – 2:44
11 – “Why Don’t We Live Together?” – 4:44
Personnel
Pet Shop Boys
Neil Tennant – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Chris Lowe – vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, programming, sequencers, samples, computer-generated effects, piano, electronic piano, electric piano, drums, electronic drums
Guest musicians
Andy Mackay – saxophone on track 4
Helena Springs – additional vocals on tracks 2 & 8
Stephen Hague – keyboards and programming (uncredited)
Ron Dean Miller – original production and guitar (uncredited) on track 11 and “New York overdubs” on track 3
Blue Weaver – original production on track 9
J.J. Jeczalik and Nicholas Froome – original production on track 3
Chart performance
Australia – 10
Canadian Albums – 3
Finnish Albums – 4
German Albums – 38
New Zealand Albums Chart – 2
Norwegian Albums – 13
Swedish Albums – 21
Swiss Albums – 20
UK Albums – 3
US Billboard 200 – 7
Certifications
Canada – Platinum
United Kingdom (BPI) – Platinum
United States (RIAA) – Platinum
Club Fact File
| Manchester United | |
| Founded | 1878 |
| Turned Professional | 1885 |
| Admitted to the League | 1892 |
| Ground | Old Trafford |
| Capacity | 74,994 |
| Previous Ground(s) | North Road, Monsall Bank, Bank Street, Maine Road |
| Previous Names | Newton Heath |
| Nickname(s) | The Red Devils |
| Trophies | |
| League Champions | 1907-08, 1910-11, 1951-52, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1964-65, 1966-67, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11, 2012-13 |
| Division 2 Winners | 1935-36, 1974-75 |
| FA Cup Winners | 1909, 1948, 1963, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2014, 2016 |
| League Cup Winners | 1992, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2017 |
| Charity Shield | 1908, 1911, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1983, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 and shared in 1965, 1967, 1977, 1990 |
| Champions League / European Cup | 1968, 1999, 2008 |
| European Cup Winners Cup | 1991 |
| UEFA Cup | 2017 |
| European Super Cup | 1991 |
| World Club Championship | 1999, 2008 |
| League Seasons | |
| Seasons in Premier League (Top Flight) | 94 |
| Seasons in Championship (Tier 2) | 22 |
| Seasons in League 1 (Tier 3) | 0 |
| Seasons in League 2 (Tier 4) | 0 |
Story Time
Breaking Point
I stood there with the gun in my hand, to the best of my knowledge the gun was loaded and ready to fire, but my knowledge of guns is only what I’ve seen on TV and in films, so there’s always the possibility that I will pull the trigger and nothing will happen. There is a man in front of me who is pleading for his life; he is willing to own up to everything he has done. In the distance I can hear the wail of a siren, I never know if the sirens are from a police car, an ambulance or a fire engine. Whichever it is, it is getting closer. The man on the floor is starting to look as if the police may be his saviour, he is still pleading, but now it’s for me to let him give himself up to the police. I have no idea what he has done, he is not the reason I have the gun in my hand, I have other issues. I had broken into this abandoned hosiery mill to find a quiet place with no witnesses to kill myself; only to find this man cowering behind a solitary overlock machine. With all the distractions I’m not sure I can pull the trigger now, but I put the gun to my head anyway.
When the alarm had gone off that morning, I was a happily married father of two children, with a good job, a large circle of friends, and a decent social life. I really didn’t have a care in the world; I’d paid the mortgage off on the maisonette a couple of years before and definitely worked to live, rather than lived to work.
With the radio playing in the background I rolled over, only to find that Kathy wasn’t there in bed with me, and by the looks of it hadn’t been for quite a while. Her side of the bed was neatly made, with the pillows fluffed up and the quilt all in place. It was unusual for her to be up before me, but I just thought she must have had one of those nights where she’d given up on sleep and gone down to watch TV instead.
I wandered into the bathroom and had a shower before getting dressed ready for work, and making my way down the stairs. It was deathly quiet downstairs, and there was no sign of Kathy. I went back upstairs and checked in on the kids, but neither of them were there either. I checked my watch to make sure I hadn’t slept an extra couple of hours without knowing, but it was definitely only half past seven.
I looked for my phone, checking around the work surfaces in the kitchen where I normally left it at random, but it wasn’t there. I went and checked my jacket and bag, but again no sign. I went to get a drink and opened the fridge door to find my phone, or what was left of it, sat on the second shelf with five nails hammered into it. The nails also held a note in place that read,
“Don’t ever try to contact me again you rotting piece of evil garbage.”
To be fair, it was a bit of a step down from the normal messages left for me, and I was somewhat bemused by it, but shrugged it off as a bit of a practical joke. Kathy knew I was going to be getting a new phone, and that I backed up all my data and numbers religiously. I’d been on about getting a new phone for a couple of years, and it had been a standing joke that I said “when I get a new phone”, at least three or four times a week. It was probably her way of actually getting me to do so.
No sooner had I retrieved the phone and closed the fridge door then there was an almighty bang on the front window. Another bang followed as I made my way out to the front door to see what on earth was going on. As I opened the front door I heard someone shout “Scarper,” and saw a couple of the estate’s more delinquent teenagers running from the scene. A couple of bricks sat on the ground in the front yard, both with pieces of paper wrapped around them. It would appear that the local teenage imbeciles had been trying to throw the bricks through my front window. Unsurprisingly, the tripled glazed, bullet and shatter proof windows had just bounced them back. I’d lived in this dodgy estate since being born; there was no way I wouldn’t take appropriate action to keep my windows intact.
I picked the bricks up and removed the paper wrapped around them. I laughed at the spelling on them, but the underlying message made my blood run cold. “Nonse” and “Noonce” may both have been missed from the last Oxford English Dictionary, but I assumed they meant to spell out “nonce”, and that worried me. The teenagers weren’t bright enough to come up with something like this by themselves, which meant someone else had put them up to it, and if someone on the estate thought that, my life wouldn’t be worth living.
I got my stuff and jumped in the car to head for work, I’d be able to call Kathy from there, and try and find out what on Earth was going on. When I got to my office, my ID card wouldn’t work, every time I swiped it on the door the little red light showed. I buzzed and spoke to security, and they said they’d be there in a minute. When the door did eventually open, my manager stood there, with the most solemn face I’d ever seen.
“The police were here earlier, they took away your computer to do a forensic search of the hard drive and your internet history. They said there were on-going investigations. You’re suspended until the outcome of those investigations, do not come back to work until we contact you.”
“What investigations,” I asked dumbfounded.
My manager looked at me with what was now undisguised disgust on his face.
“You know full well what investigations, you disgusting excuse for a human being.”
And with that he slammed the door in my face. I stood rooted to the spot unable to take in what was happening. Had everyone taken leave of their senses this morning? The fact that the police had been to my office and taken my computer wasn’t a good sign, and the look of disgust on my manager’s face gave me a good idea what he thought they were investigating me for. I just had no idea why they had started such an investigation.
I got back in my car and headed for home, if the police had taken my work computer, it would suggest they had already got my own laptop from home, but I’d had no visit from them, and as far as I knew it still sat in the study at home. When I pulled up outside my house, it was obvious that the teenage brains trust had been back in full effect. The word “Peedo”, was now daubed across the front of my window and door in bright red paint, apart from the bottom part of the O which was in a dark green where they’d obviously ran out of the red paint.
I ignored the sparse crowd of half-witted gawping busy-bodies as I opened the door of the house and headed for the study. There on the desk was a nice big space where normally the laptop sat, and the back-up drives were gone from the cupboard. I went back out of the house slamming and locking the door behind me. One of the crowd picked up a pebble from the front of another maisonette and threw it at me. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for another of the busy-bodies, they missed me by a foot, and hit someone else smack in the middle of the forehead.
The crowd started hurling insults instead; at least they couldn’t miss with them. I headed across the road and into The Horse & Jockey. The barman looked up in my direction and did a double take.
“You’ve got a nerve showing your face in here ain’t you?”
“I’ve got lots of nerves, and none of them are any of your business. Where’s Rich?”
“Why?”
“I want a gun.”
As if by magic Rich popped up from behind a pool table. He looked like he’d been drinking for a week.
“Are you sure? I don’t think it would help. Kathy’s mum is raising hell at what Kathy found on your laptop.”
“I wish I knew what they’d found, but no one bothers telling me anything.”
“It’s your funeral, two hundred quid – cash.”
“Done” and I got the money out of my wallet and dumped it on the pool table. Rich went into the pub toilets and came back out with a wet plastic bag. He unwrapped the many sealed layers and put the gun down in front of me.
“Flick that switch so it shows green, and then point and shoot, even a nonce like you could manage that.”
“I’m not a nonce, I don’t know where all this tosh started, but I’m not.”
“Then why the gun?”
“Because, no one will believe a word, and I’ll be dead within the day living around here. I might as well either take a load of them with me, or do the job myself.”
So here I am in the old Corah building. I know I’ve not done anything wrong, but being labelled a paedophile on the St Marks’ Estate will see me torn apart by the mob, they won’t care about evidence or the truth, life won’t be worth living, but I’m still struggling to pull the trigger.
The police are here shouting at me to drop the gun, and then I hear Kathy screaming at me.
“Don’t do it Chris, it was the damn kids that downloaded the porn.”
Puzzle Corner
Quiz
Answers from Issue 12
Famous Fives
The Famous five were Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy the dog.
The five books of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy for the bonus points the Hebrew names are Bresheit, Shemot, Vayicra, Bamidbar and Devarim.
The colours of the Olympic rings are Black, Green, Blue, Red and Yellow.
The five elements that start with the letter H are: Hafnium, Hassium, Helium, Holmium and Hydrogen.
The five Dickens; novels that are men’s names are Barnaby Rudge, David Copperfield, Martin Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist.
This Issue’s quiz.
When Manchester United were last promoted back to the First Division in the 1970’s, the sides finishing second and third to them in Division Two were the same two sides that finished second and third to them when they won the first Premier League title in 1992-93. Name the two sides.
Crossword
Charing
Sudoku
Issue 12’s Solution
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 1 |
| 8 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| 1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 5 |
| 2 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| 9 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 9 |
This issue’s puzzle
| 8 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 9 | ||||
| 9 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
| 7 | 3 | |||||||
| 2 | 6 | |||||||
| 9 | 8 | |||||||
| 3 | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | 5 | |||||||
| 7 | 4 | |||||||
| 9 | 7 | 6 |
Dilbert
Epilogue
If you want to catch up on old issues, Drabbles I’ve had published, or the random scribbling from a bored mind on my blog then they are all available at http://www.onetruekev.co.uk/
Sign up to the mailing list on the home page there. E-mail any ideas or suggestions to kev@onetruekev.co.uk