Bit of a game...

Reading 5 v 7 Arsenal (AET)

According to the luvvies, sport is entertainment.

According to the suits, it's business.

According to the politicians, it's an unnecessary evil (Thatcher and Hillsborough, Blair recalling the minister for sport for a tight vote, on the eve of England winning the rugby world cup, mother and son the new generation of cup final absentee Pms); or something to exploit (all of them since we were awarded the Olympics, hardly a mention now, all of a couple of months later).

Well, it's not any of those things. Sport is unique, something totally out on it's own, capable of the brilliance, beauty, bewilderment and wonder that only the arts can rival.

Who would stick with watching a team 0-4 down and being torn a new one? None of the above. No-one with a statistician’s mind, for sure. Some Arsenal fans left early, heading home from Reading before the first half was over. The vast majority stayed, singing their heads off. The usual gallows humour, anger and outrageous optimism at first (gonna win 5-4 at 0-4, that sort of thing) then increasing belief, disbelief, and unbridled jubilation. When they've travelled and are out in the cold singing their hearts out, it would be churlish not to stick with it on the Sky computer feed in the warmth of the kitchen.

I think that I can see every doping scandal and gambling investigation and raise another moment of incredible, improbable, brilliance. That's without including all the people taking part at grass roots.

I've said this before, but I think it's worth saying again. People draw, and they paint. They write poems and plays and novels and short stories. They learn to play musical instruments. They go out on a Saturday in the summer and have a very hard ball fired at them by athletes over thirty years younger than they are (that'd be me). They pay for doing these things. Yes, the occasional oddity (William Hague) exists, but people do not generally spend their free time in suits in front of spreadsheets, wishing they could be real full time bankers or Jeremies (both rhyming slang).

The Garlic Ballads

I'm on the last pages now, and it's now a courtroom drama. One of the (wrongly) accused answers all questions with “I despise you”. Not sure how that stands up as a defence, but as long as it's true then under oath and all that.

Everyone, by now is at least beaten, arrested and harshly treated, or dead. Some are all three.

Standing at the Sky's Edge

Richard Hawley played guitar in Pulp, and now makes great solo albums. Standing at the Sky's Edge is more unusual and edgy than Coles Corner, and I'm looking forward to second and third listenings.

New favourite pizza

Onion and leak, mushroom, chillies, anchovies and olives, tomato and cheese.