Cornish Steve

Congratulations to nyblue23 for a 10-pointer. That was just enough to put him ahead of MikeO and Blue250 to win for the month of October. For the season and points per prediction, Blue250 still holds the lead.

As a result, we'll be playing one of the youngest starting lineups in the league.

Don't agree. We've faced the more difficult teams and now have several weeks of winnable games.

Galloway was superb at times. Typical was the tackle in the first half against Oxlade-Chamberlain that won us a goal kick instead of Arsenal a corner. And he was more forward today as well. Turning out to be another youngster who'll soon be part of the team's core.

Agreed. Personally, I think this is the right way to play against Arsenal.

Reminds me of when Wang was a big name in computers. Their CEO at the time, not understanding the intricacies of British English, copied IBM (IBMers) and referred to everyone in his company as Wangers. In one company meeting, he apparently told everyone they were wangers and could pull things off that others couldn't manage. Caused more than one stifled laugh. But, I digress...

Amazing what teachers used to get away with, isn't it? We had one who would through a blackboard rubber at you from distance. He once hit the wrong person with it on the head and almost knocked them out. Another (unsurprisingly known as Porkie) would force people to go buy him pork pies during class. He'd also steal our rulers and break them over people's hands or backsides - and we'd get in trouble the next day for not having an unbroken ruler. Another would cover himself with pieces of sticky tape - no idea why.

And they have a man sent off. Clearly, the ref is weak and naive, the fourth official is weak and naive, even the bus driver is weak and naive. It's all their fault.

Or, in our case, having to write "three threes are nine, not is nine" several hundred times. We had to recite tables as a class, and someone inevitably said "is". Hearing the 's' caused the teacher to go into paroxysms of rage!

OK. Let me post a link. It's 320 pages with 750 references. The challenge was how to make such a book readable. In additional to a conversational style, I chose to write and include three fictional short stories to get some of the points across. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016WUQM4O

Coutinho is the only player worth having, IMO.

I mentioned it because I sighed a huge sigh of relief when it was finished: It took over a year. Plus, the process was interesting, especially today's ability to publish and distribute books at zero cost. I'd be happy to let anyone know the title and subject. As mentioned, though, I promised my wife I would use a pseudonym.

Nonfiction.

If it means we convince you to publish a book yourself, then I'm delighted about that.

Nope. Could only manage a draw at home against ten men, against the team bottom of the group table.

It's sad there are many messages here when he has a bad game and virtually none when he's voted, almost unanimously, Everton's MotM against United.

Then you must, John. The knowledge and experience you have are valuable!

It was a very interesting experience. I spent about four months doing nothing but reading books and online articles to understand all aspects of the subject better. I then pulled all this material together into topics, which broke down into chapters. Then I wrote the narrative, fitting these references in where appropriate. Perhaps the most important task was the final editing, where I managed to cut the number of words from 112K to 69K and the number of references from 1200 to about 750. (They say a book should not go beyond 70K words.) Getting all the references in the right format and adding small 1, 2, 3, ...,750 and hyperlinks to the bibliography took, literally, weeks! Still, I'm quite pleased with the result.

Yes, self-published. I have a couple of friends who are authors, and they've been providing excellent advice. The standard route these days is to self-publish. The publishing companies monitor and then approach authors of books that are selling well. It's a very different model these days. The trick, of course, is marketing. Word of mouth can only get you so far.

Dammit. Can't keep any secrets around here!

Funny.

It took a little over a year to write - in my "spare" time called evenings and weekends - but it's done. In Kindle format, it's 320 pages. Given it's a controversial topic, I had to use a pseudonym (promised that to my wife). It will be interesting to see how ( or if!) it sells. Years ago, I had to write up my PhD thesis, with all kinds of multidimensional integrals, Bessel functions, and the like. I also published about 12 scientific papers. It took forever using a PC called an Apricot. Nowadays, it's so much easier to write and edit that I felt comfortable attempting an entire book - although I'm surprised how spelling and grammar checkers missed several typos. I caught some on my umpteenth review of the text.

Arsenal 1-0 Everton

Apologies for the delay. I've been tied up these last few days. When Matt comes out top, be worried. Be very worried! For the month, season, and per prediction, Blue 250 leads by a mile. He's going to take some catching.

Maybe you're right, but I can't help but think he's past his sell-by date. And why would he give up a ridiculously huge salary to join Everton?