First, a bit of an
introduction to the game of
Cricket (youtube) for those of us who may not be
familiar with the
sport. Next, a few
clips (1, 2, 3, 4) on how
awesome the
Gentleman's Game can be (and you thought we didn't do anything but roam around in our white pants and cotton shirts...). But, if that wasn't enough for you, then here's a taste of
Twenty20 Cricket (the
fast,
fast paced version of the game), and the new
DLF Indian (pdf) Premier League. (This is in addition to the
One Day Matches, which were instituted to bring in a bit more excitement into the game during the 1970's, prior to which the match only consisted of
Tests. However, some purists still maintain that the game would've been better served had it not been
commercalized to the extent that it has, and still prefer the leisurely pace of the original format to its current incarnation.)
[more inside]
posted by hadjiboy
on Mar 20, 2008 -
56 comments
Barbara Pym’s books focused on women who rarely make it into any spotlight, literary or otherwise: quiet, sensible, independent women of a certain age. Like the spinsters who populate her novels, her genius has been too often overlooked, but she does have her
devotees. [more inside]
posted by freshwater_pr0n
on Dec 27, 2007 -
26 comments
In late March the body of
Lindsay Ann Hawker was
found in a bathtub on the balcony of a Chiba apartment. This week, with the
help of UK officers, the Hawker family has
returned to Tokyo, to seek help to find the main suspect Tatsuya Ichihashi, who has been missing since the discovery of the body.
posted by gomichild
on Jun 28, 2007 -
48 comments
Church Locking: shattering the myth that "all churches are locked". With the aim of visiting every church in England and recording whether it is kept locked or unlocked, this ten-year-old 'side project' now has statistics by county and diocese, county maps, and a
map of the country showing their progress.
posted by chrismear
on May 16, 2007 -
29 comments
Pinning down the elusive Banksy. "The art world is the biggest joke going," he has said. "It’s a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak." Yet the stencilist/graffiti writer's pieces regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds at places like Sotheby's--not bad for a man who still remains cloaked in complete anonymity. The
New Yorker gets a rare e-mail interview. [Previously:
1,
2,
3]
posted by dead_
on May 15, 2007 -
33 comments
BBC News: "Gee, I just love your accent." The American nation may be more wary of crossing borders, but their love affair with the British accent continues unabated. Despite the fact that there are multiple variants therein, and what may be considered a "low-class" accent in the UK is still considered a "high-class" posh accent in the US.
Naturally, the Brits will play this up to the hilt - and it may help in getting them jobs, credibility, Oscars and Emmys, by no less an authority than
Stephen Fry.
posted by badlydubbedboy
on Mar 21, 2007 -
178 comments
Victorian Turkish Baths - "Can the active, fox-hunting, cricketing, boating Englishman bear the same kind of treatment that benefits and gratifies the indolent, languid, luxurious Turk?"
posted by tellurian
on Jan 17, 2007 -
12 comments
The United Celtic Kingdom. A new study shows that most British are decended from the Celtic tribes that crossed over from Spain 7,000 years ago. Only 20% of the English are decended from Viking stock, even fewer are Anglo-Saxons.
posted by empath
on Sep 21, 2006 -
42 comments
Victorian Workhouses
I sometimes look up at the bit of blue sky
High over my head, with a tear in my eye.
Surrounded by walls that are too high to climb,
Confined like a felon without any crime...
posted by Miko
on Sep 18, 2006 -
14 comments
I know who brought Leonardo's greatest drawings to Britain. I may not be a Harvard professor of religious symbology or know much about the bloodline of the Magdalene, but I do enjoy a mystery and so I set out to solve this one. And I succeeded. Final proof is elusive, always, but in this case the circumstantial evidence is so overwhelming, I think I've got my man."
posted by Len
on Aug 30, 2006 -
6 comments
The Domesday Book is online. This book is "a great land survey from 1086, commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess the extent of the land and resources being owned in England at the time, and the extent of the taxes he could raise. The information collected was recorded by hand in two huge books, in the space of around a year." You can browse it
here. The site also has some background info both on
England at the time and
the book itself.
posted by marxchivist
on Aug 17, 2006 -
20 comments
Secret agent Huub Lauwers was
parachuted into occupied Holland in 1941 to relay intelligence back to London. His capture by the Germans marked the beginning of the
Englandspiel, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse intelligence that cost the lives of over fifty agents. Lauwers frantically tried to inform the
SOE that he had been caught, but the
Baker Street Irregulars just didn't get it. Or
did they? [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Aug 6, 2006 -
16 comments
London's 'flushers': "If you really thought about where you were going and what you were doing you'd either be shit scared or you wouldn't go there. We're shit shovellers. Some of the jobs I do a high percentage of the country would turn around and say: 'Poke that up yer arse mate as far as you can put it.'" The history of
London's sewers. The craptacular
sewerhistory.org. More entries in the
Night Haunts series.
posted by OmieWise
on Jul 13, 2006 -
14 comments
