RED MISSED: HOW STEWART HOUSTON AND GORDON HILL MADE ME ANGRY AND DEPRESSED

United’s FA Cup tie with Wolves last weekend and Auntie’s ‘flashback’ (Rio Ferdinand?), reminded me to finally get around to posting a few of my own memories, originally prompted by George Best’s sad demise in November. George had quit United long before I can first remember watching them. But Best remained an important part of my United life - the school chant was “Georgie Best, Superstar, He walks like a woman and he wears a bra!

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THE COLORADO TRAIL

I am rapt. Tight and warm in my sleeping bag, I stare out at the night sky. It is perfectly clear. My fellow hikers are nearby, and in the distance we can hear the sound of coyotes. They are neither barking nor howling, but something between the two, as if they are calling to one another. Their calls become louder. In the corner of my eye I can see our food, in white plastic bags, hanging from a tree.

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MULTI-CULTURAL SOCIETIES

Mark Twain once informed a preacher visiting Hartford that every word of a sermon the latter had just delivered was in a book at Twain’s home. Concerned about the apparent plagiarism, the preacher was only too grateful to receive the book in a parcel at his hotel. It was a dictionary (Wister ziii). As one of Twain’s characters, Huckleberry Finn, said of his creator, he told the truth, mainly (Twain 441).

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BIG (IN AMERICA)

A mass twiddling of thumbs and looking at the ceiling prompted me: “It’s Big,” I said. They laughed. Little did they know. All were there, as I was, to find out more about exchange programmes to America. The speaker, Rick, was an American from student services. Rick wanted to know what were our preconceptions of his country? I told him. Impressions gained from film, television and literature ensured I was right about the houses, the cars and the roads.

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