I’ve been reading ‘A Christmas Carol’, a few pages at a time not because it’s difficult (it’s not) and not because I don’t have the time (I do.) It’s because on an entirely trivial level I’m comparing it with each of the films I’ve watched over the years (and the 2019 BBC 3-parter.)

These in particular stand out:

• Scrooge (1951)
• Scrooge (1970)
• Scrooged (1988)
• The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)

There are a lot of film adaptations here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_A_Christmas_Carol

The book I decided to buy, the Penguin ‘A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings’ occupies only a quarter of the page total; I’m really looking forward to exploring the rest.

The list of annotations provides historical context, changes in language, etc., and has been efficacious a couple of times already. (Yeah, I know.)

It’s Twelfth Night – time those Christmas decorations were put away until next time. If you don’t it’s considered unlucky, but to ward it off they’ve got to stay up until Candlemas Day February 2nd. Or Easter. Or until next Christmas.

Um…

Before thinking ‘what’s a seemly time to put them up again?’ it’d probably be better to just take them down now eh?

I’m not making resolutions.

Recycling 2017’s:

I’m a Browns fan.

What will I doing over our offseason (the NFL’s centenary year playoffs)?

• Wondering where my 8-7-1 season prediction went. (We finished 6-10 and our Head Coach was just fired after losing the final game to a 1-14 team – of all teams to end a season with it had to be a loss to the Bengals.)
• Watching the playoffs. (Cheering for the Bills – our Lake Erie Bros. It’s an emotional and a logical choice; emotional because I’ll never forget their greatness in 4 consecutive Super Bowls when I first started watching the sport, logical for geographical proximity and an absence of antipathy between our franchises. (I’m undecided whether to root for the underdog or for teams who’ve beaten us – it’d only be an attempt to legitimise our losses. Don’t ask who I’m thinking of.)
• Getting more value from NFL GamePass International. (Though the live games were amazing after a long break listening to the radio, a through-the-ages Browns TV marathon might better prep me for 2020.)
• Following the inevitable roster cuts. (And hoping Jamie Gillan, ‘The Scottish Hammer’, makes it; he’s earned his place.)
• Hoping free agency brings us a dynasty, or at least some successful years. (It’ll only work if we don’t do the Browns thing and collect wayward personalities and borderline/actual criminals.)
• Hoping all who need treatment either return at 100% or have success elsewhere (just not against us!)
• Also hoping Myles Garrett’s suspension is lifted and he’s ready for next season; there’s unfinished business – sacks, pressures, dominance, not the other thing.
• Speculating on upcoming coaching staff appointments (and how effective they’re likely to be. Something tells me though that Sam Rutigliano won’t even apply for the Head Coach job. We absolutely need someone with experience in that role though, someone with proven ability too.)
• Wondering what the hell that ‘unique’ organisational thing for the Browns, mentioned before the Bengals game, actually is! (My request in Reddit’s r/Browns for ways we could go headless wasn’t at all well received; I’ve speculated that everyone thought I actually wanted it! It would be the most unique thing if it happened, not much else qualifies.)
• Living in r/Browns. (And hoping more actually read all the way through my admittedly often silly questions before commenting negatively or downvoting.)
• Awaiting the draft (even though I don’t believe we’ll find success there, though I know we need O-line I proved to myself I’m rubbish at guessing who we’ll actually take.)
• Reading more Browns history. (I started with Terry Pluto’s excellent but depressing/maddening ‘False Start: How the New Browns Were Set Up to Fail’.)
• I’ve been reminded there’s still room in my life for Britball. (British American football, alongside NFL Europe’s Scottish Claymores at one point a bigger part of my life than the NFL. Yeah.)
• Wearing what Browns gear I have, often. (I’m no ambassador, I’m just this fan, you know?)
• Scouring eBay listings for clothes worn by others. (No, it’s not what you think! Or maybe it is.)

I don’t understand the hate directed at Greta Thunberg and the relentless campaign against her and the inevitability of the depletion of the finite resources our planet holds. Honestly I don’t. Neglect climate change and her concerns remain valid.

It depresses me when people use nonsensical arguments masquerading as facts (or science), attack her Aspergers, attack her parents… it’s almost as-if a 16 year old cannot be allowed to have an opinion, and must not be allowed to convert that opinion into action.

The most depressing thing, everyone with an inquiring mind can wade through the bullshit and examine the evidence behind her concerns. We’re living in what I naively thought an age in which information is so readily available there’s zero excuse for ignorance.

Oh, as for writing a book and those accusations of personally cashing in, it’s not even true.

What’s the thing that buries its head in the sand when danger approaches? That’s right, it’s a myth too.

Now, the only thing that remains to be said, do I get her book as a paperback, a hardback, or as an electronic download (that’d be for my Kindle)? I can’t share it with my daughters if it’s all-electronic, and yet…

After watching the BBC’s Christmas 2019 oddly controversial adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I bought the paperback. It’s quite the allegory for our times this book, and for the world in which we now find ourselves.

Prompted by a tweet by @mlv:

‘Daughter gave me a challenge. Write a story using only these verbs in this order (verbs like “will be” are okay).’

Abused
Bargain
Cease
Decapitate
Elaborating
Fabricate
Gnashing
Honeymooning
Ignite
Jam
Knitting
Loved
Minced
Notified
Object
Petrify
Querying
Resist
Savvy
Tax
Unfrozen
Verbified
Waxed
X-irradiate
Yelped
Zeroed

“Verbified”‽ Wow.

Challenge accepted:

The Cleveland Browns fans, abused by all and sundry and one particular owner, bargain for their lives in 1995 (cease operation, decapitate the fan base.) Elaborating, the owner fabricates the narrative leading to gnashing of teeth throughout football.

Fast-forward to 1999, a honeymooning of sorts, a phoenix team with desire to ignite a new dynasty; but with an unprecedentedly short time to jam a knitting team, a loved fanbase minced by the previous owner, one who notified his intentions, into the established order.

Object back in ‘95 though, it’s useless. Petrify one’s desires until the return. Querying why brings no joy, resist and a savvy owner, with tax unfrozen, verbified The Move.

Thr press waxed lyrical. Who X-irradiated their brains?

The fans yelped “the league zeroed our chances!”

I am a Cleveland Browns fan.

I have 3 items of official merchandise: a #57 Matthews jersey predating my fandom, a cap also predating my fandom but worn in First Energy Stadium on opening day 2004, and a Cleveland Browns phone case commemorating the NFL’s Centenary year – this just arrived on Christmas Eve. This isn’t what makes me a fan.

Since becoming a fan I’ve also bought a Bulgarian-made bright orange custom Red Right 88 tee, a #7 Scottish Hammer tee (Szabo Apparel) and a bright orange CLE beanie (also Szabo.) This isn’t what makes me a fan.

I met Sam Rutigliano before that 2004 game, and what a great guy he is (long story), but even meeting him and Dante Lavelli and Kevin Mack in the stadium didn’t make me a fan.

It’s not seeing Browns memorabilia in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio.

It’s not the parallels I saw between the Browns at the end of the 2017 season and the Dallas Cowboys – a team to which I committed after their 1-15 season, at the point the JJs took the reins, after which they went on to win a Super Bowl within, 3 years was it?!

It’s not because I read Terry Pluto’s ‘False Start: How The New Browns Were Set Up To Fail’ – the account of how the Browns were shipped off to Baltimore one night in 1995, and Cleveland had no football until the league grudgingly allowed a new team to exist in 1999.

It’s definitely not the team’s W-L-T record since 1999, but who doesn’t love the underdog‽

I didn’t even become a fan because I’ve found a home of sorts in Reddit’s r/Browns discussion forum, or due to the fact that only a small number there habitually downvote my posts and comments.

I can probably think of more reasons which singly didn’t contribute much to me becoming a Browns fan.

Jamie Gillan from Inverness made the Browns 2019 roster cut; we have a starter. I’m buzzing about the season now for the first time!

I asked the guy a totally trivial question earlier. Given the magnitude of what’s just happened for him I’m not expecting a reply. (If I allowed myself to post them in the blog I’d put a smiley face here.)

My wife mentioned the gift she’d left for me in the top of the kitchen cupboard. Due to the length of time I’ve been on the Internet, I quite naturally parsed what she said incorrectly.

Earlier this afternoon we arrived home from our week away in a farm cottage between Bridgnorth and Ironbridge, within an area promoted as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

I bought a cheap souvenir anvil which is, though predating the Industrial Revolution by thousands of years, indicative of industry, of engineering. What’s it’s not indicative of though is the massive social upheaval brought about by the increasingly rapid change starting in the early 18th century.

Here’s my anvil, it’s 3-1/2″ long and awesome:

We visited a range of museums throughout the week:

• Blists Hill Victorian town (a wide range of buildings moved from elsewhere and reconstructed.) (Here we purchased annual passes for most of the biggest attractions in the area.)
• The Broseley clay tobacco pipe works (at which pipes are still made in limited numbers, most notably for films such as The Lord of the Rings),
• Abraham Darby’s home, incongruously opulent for a Quaker,
• The Jackfield ceramic tile museum,
• We travelled from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway, and had an excellent meal at the King and Castle pub (which has a wide range of local beers),
• The Acton Scott historic working farm,
• Enginuity, a series of interactive exhibits targeted at children of all ages.
• The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway (a magnificent 1-1/4 minutes of travel on a 64% incline),
• The world famous Ironbridge Iron Bridge.
• The Museum of the Gorge,
• The Coalport China Museum,
• To top all this off we had a last night meal and drinks at the Old Castle pub in Bridgnorth, known for its hanging baskets.

I might add links to the list at some point, and check if I’ve missed anything out (apart from a few visits to the Bridgnorth Sainsbury store.) Here are some map screenshots.

The area we explored, the cottage is indicated by the blue flag:

Aside from the Southern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster, the longest drive to a starred point on this map is just about 35 minutes (from the cottage to Acton Scott farm.)

The area around the Iron Bridge:

Incidentally, the Ironbridge Gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s entirely justifiable!