Is anyone watching the Newcastle/Norwich game?
Can I rant?

OK, I know I sound like a bitter old man, but they just had a 'minutes applause' for Muamba. Why? When did a minutes silence, a genuine mark of respect for people who sacrificed something for their fellow countrymen, turn into first something we do at the drop of a hat for anyone who died into a minutes applause because silence isn't good enough into a minutes chanting for Gary Speed into...well...Muamba is actually alive. We're a nation of premature grief junkies.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:07, 2 replies, latest was 14 years ago)

Football fans are particularly prone to mass displays of emotion.
They are a terrifically vulgar bunch.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:08, Reply)

/Unthinking Mass generalisation is Mass and Unthinking.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:19, Reply)

Yes. But accurate.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:22, Reply)

*shrugs* people feel powerless
they want to do something

also feel like a part of any drama, hence the 'I met him once!' response to all deaths
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:10, Reply)

I met Osama Bin Laden once.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:12, Reply)

"...he was a lovely man, you could sense his warmth and I am shocked and touched by his death..."

( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:12, Reply)

He let me sit on his knee.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:14, Reply)

I think you're confusing him with another man with a long white beard that is known for wanting preteens to sit on his knee.
Buster Merryfield.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:16, Reply)

Preteens?
I was 28 at the time.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:19, Reply)

His eyesight was failing.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:24, Reply)

Clearly.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:24, Reply)

He had no feeling from the waist down either
so your 18 stone didn't register...
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:25, Reply)

18 stone?
I am 11 stone.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:26, Reply)

Bollocks.
You're from the internet. It's a well known fact that I am the only person online that isn't obese.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:32, Reply)

I am a former catalogue model.
I am very far from obese.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:33, Reply)

ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2010/08/16/1310314/gI_FatCatalogTwitter.PNG.jpg
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:35, Reply)

You're in danger of taking B3ta too seriously again I fear.
I mean, you already got CQ stepped...
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:35, Reply)

OH LOL
I didn't get anybody stepped.

You really think I take him seriously enough to report him to the mods for bellending?
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:37, Reply)

No, I don't. I don't think for a second you did that.
But you seemed to take me seriously, so...

...case rested, your honour.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:38, Reply)

Well I don't know if you're serious or not, do I?
But he seems to think I did. Which is peculiar, because when I got stepped, during the SpankyHanky wars, I was told the reason why. I'm assuming CQ would have been told why as well, and I'm pretty certain Scaryduck or whoever doled out the stepping wouldn't have told him that I reported him, because 1, I didn't, and 2, I don't think he said anything vaguely reportable or offensive.

Plus I don't think I should hold his learning difficulties against him. I used to work with an aspergic autism, who was pretty much the single most annoying person I have ever met. I didn't hold his autism against him either.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:42, Reply)

That reads a lot like
"I'm not racist but..."

It's OK though, Dozer, I don't hold your apparent "aspergic autism" against you either.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:46, Reply)

Phew!
I'm safe then.

EDIT: Fuck it, I'm going to gaz the mods again and get myself stepped.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:47, Reply)

I know.
Rationally, I do know.

But it's just so tacky, so crass.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:16, Reply)

Very tacky.
Back about 5 years ago or so, our head of department died. It was weird, we came in to work (he died mid-week) and our Director was there. You could tell he'd been crying.

He told us all that our boss had died the previous night, straight out of the blue.

One of the teams thought it would be a good idea to do a collectively-signed With Sympathy card. You know, twenty-odd scrawled messages to his widow.

I found that tacky to an offensive degree, and refused to sign it.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:19, Reply)

Actually, I'd have probably signed that.
It's someone a) you knew, and b) who had actually died.

My point at the moment is that 30,000 people have just done a bastardisation of a mark of respect for the dead for someone that isn't actually dead.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:22, Reply)

I made a donation to the British Heart Foundation, and donated to the flowers that we sent to his funeral.
He'd just had his redundancy confirmed. I expect his wife may have laid some of the blame for her husband's heart attack and death in his early forties at the door of his employer.

And yeah, the Muamba minute's applause thing is weird.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:24, Reply)

That does all make sense,
just in that situation I wouldn't have had any objection to putting my name to his card.

But it does seem we are pretty much on the same page apart from that.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:26, Reply)

Meh. Whatever you deem to be tasteful I suppose.
Obviously as a department we should show our respects, but I would have preferred a card on behalf of the department, signed by our director and accompanied by flowers, to be the most tasteful option.

I'm no doctor, I don't know if his death was in any way linked to his redundancy and associated stress etc, but I didn't think it was appropriate to have a multi-signature card sent to his widow and two young daughters.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:30, Reply)

Yeah, I really don't think we disagree actually.
The only difference is that if that card was put in front of me and being sent anyway, I wouldn't have refused to sign it. I think both of us agree that being asked to sign it in the first place may not be ideal
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:34, Reply)

This is a bizarre convo in which to establish mutual ground.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:35, Reply)

Well, at least Muamba's situation
has served some good then...
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:36, Reply)

I suppose.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:37, Reply)

His family will appreciate it.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:39, Reply)

I'm sure they are deeply touched by the action of strangers.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:42, Reply)

I was deeply touched by a stranger once.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:47, Reply)

Lucky you.

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 18 Mar 2012, 16:55, Reply)