h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i'm here
gd

having finished the backlog, i have only a few comments:
elwood, you're older than i thought you were.
i never could get into dr. who.
does anyone know if the new star trek is showing on any national networks besides upn? we don't get upn in our market.

*off to check out gd's new improved page*

Hi elwood Sorry I missed your posting last week. I would have come back and said somemore had I noticed.

Hi Bro Well what did you think of my updated page? Originally you got the credit for the classic goo button, as it was your page I ripped to learn GuideML. Then along came Ottox to say he was the inventor, so I changed it. Perhaps as you've not come back you don't appreciate my comment about Wierd Al

I suppose I had better start saying something a bit more frequently here if I want to keep my/any fans

*hands around and to keep the troops happy*

*takes and *
terribly sorry.... got distracted for a bit. i had to make a bat. don't ask. well, okay... ask if you like. i might even answer

yes! indeed, i did visit your page very nice! and i'm honored that you used my page for guidance . everything on my page i learned here, mostly from ormondroyd and ottox! and i don't mind anything you have to say about weird al... the more press he gets the better! (and you're not the only one who thinks my knowledge is unhealthy )

good job!!

Hellooooooooo GreyDesk!

Thanks for the You know I'm addicted to this stuff?!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiya Bro!

I'm not as old as I look in backlog!

I live up to my motto "You're only old once, but you can be immature forever."

(Hey the Rams finally lost, but the Lions still haven't won. Their worst start since 1955 )

Have you seen the VH1 "Behind the Music" show on Weird Al?

*lip smacking sound as elwood finishes his *

First things first - GD
Second things second - I think it's only on UPN bro, they tend to keep the first run for themselves. For two weeks prior to the final series of Voyager, our UPN channel was giving it the heavy sell. So there I was on the Wednesday night, all ready for the season opener, and there it wasn't The UPN station had been bought by someone else literally the day before, and wasn't UPN any more I still haven't seen any of them But I can see the new Star Trek now because our cable company recently added a UPN station from San Antonio to the lineup, just for us Trekkies (and for Buffy I think)

*leaves more for the fans*

Its a shame I can't join in with the banter as I know nothing of US TV schedules, nor US sports. Apart from the fact that Toronto winning the World Series a few years back was rather embarrassing for the US nation and a point of hysterical amusement to the Canadians. I know as my Mum who lives over there kept going on and on about it. Quite why I really don't know, as she comes across as more English than the Queen!

We in the Detroit area loved Toronto winning the series.
At the time we had a great rivalry going.
But since then the teams are in seperate divisions.
(and the Tigers SUCK)

What we really hate is New York winning every year!

Yummy!!!

Just to humor the UK contingent what does
"The Piggies back up to minus 13 goal difference" mean anyway?

Its a reference to the current goal difference achieved by Sheffield Wednesday football club.

Played 16. Won 3. Drawn 5. Lost 8. Goals for 16. Goals against 29

I'm only really doing it to wind up one of the other researchers here abouts as he is a Sheffield Wednesday fan. To be honest I'm getting a bit bored of it and I'll probably change it soon. But I will wait until the weekend when they play their next match to see if they muck it up again and I can make some more rude comments about the team.

So you all hate New York winning everything? I guess that's just like all English football fans hating Manchester United because they win everything over here.

Oooooh those Manchesterers make me soooo mad!!!

They can unite this!!!

So am I now a hooligan?

Nah, we don't really have much in the way of hooliganism in English club football anymore. There are a few games where there can be a bit of trouble, Cardiff versus Swansea springs to mind.

The support for the game has changed so much over the last 15 years that there is no longer any place for violence. The main changes are that the stadiums are all seater, there is no more standing. Also the price of the tickets has gone up so much that it has priced the hooligan element out of the game. Some season tickets now cost more than £1,000 for a season, which guarantees you a seat for maybe only 20 games in the season.

So have all the hooligans moved to pubs to watch on television?

How does a thousand pounds compare to an average yearly working wage?
It doesn't mean much to me. Pounds to dollars exchange rate is not in my everyday experience.

£1,000 = $1,400.

The average male earnings in the UK is about £23,000 per annum or about £1,300 per month in take home pay.

Wow nearly one month pay for season tickets!
How do they fill the stadiums?

When I had season tickets for football it was only half that much!
But the team went 5-11 that year and had games on a Monday night,
Halloween night, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve -
out of eight games that was ridiculous.
Also the current stadium is a 1-1/2 hour drive,
next year the new location is 1/2 hour away.

I think I'll try then!

True £1,000 is for the most expensive club (Chelsea) but all clubs are expensive. My team isn't in the top division and isn't that expensive for that division, yet I still pay £20 for a ticket to any game.

So how do they fill the grounds? Well its a tribal thing. You will follow your club through thick and thin. You can never change your team, once you've got it, its with you for life. I now live 250 miles from Sheffield yet will think nothing of driving 4 hours there and back for a game against a decent team.

One question for you. What with the bigger distances in the US, do you have away supporters going to the games? Over here in most grounds about 15% of the stadium is reserved for the away support. And for Sheffield United we always fill that space regardless of the distance.

There aren't reserved areas for opposing fans. But if a nearby city's team is having a good season there will be a large group of their fans. But our stadium sells out nearly every game so that leaves few tickets for others.

The year I had season tickets all the seats around me were owned by scalping services. So I spent 8 games surrounded by the enemy and getting pelted by whatever was being thrown at them. Chicago, Green Bay, Cincinatti and Pittsburg fans showed up. Every year we get alot of Green Bay fans because that's a tiny town and that's all they have to do there, so it's hard for them to get home tickets.

But all this applies only to our football. Baseball, hockey and basketball have so many games in their season that there is only slight traveling to follow your team. Until the playoffs.

A 4 hour drive to see soccer...really?

I did hear an interesting thing about your football from the English fellow my cousin is dating. That when your teams win they can move up to a better division. I like that system. Right now my team would be playing with the children down the block!

Thats right about the teams moving up and down different divisions. In simple terms there are four divisions: Premier, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The Premier has 20 teams and the lower three have 24 each.

At the end of each season the bottom three clubs in the Premier, 1st and 2nd divisions drop into lower division. The winner and runner up in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd get promotion into the higher division.

(This is where it starts to get complicated)

The teams that finished 3rd to 6th in those divisions then play off to see who takes the third promotion place. 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th. Two games home and away. The teams with the best aggregate score over the two games meet in final to decide this final promotion place.

The bottom team in the 3rd division. Well they get relegated out of the football league into the nether worlds of non-league and (usually) amateur football. This is a long long pyramid of leagues all the way down to your local pub football team.

My team have spent most of their time in the 1st division over the last century, but at one time dropped to the third, yet made it back up to the Premier within 9 years. (We've now dropped back to the 1st )

Have you ever played at any of those levels? Pub or otherwise?

I had no idea there were so many football teams there. Is there room for any other sport?

I guess if you figure in college teams we probably have as many or more teams here. (American Football I mean)

I've no real idea how many teams there are affiliated to the football league. I guess it must be in the region of 30,000 or so when you factor in all of the kids teams.

I never played football much as a kid. My game was Rugby. That's the game that your football evolved from.

Do you still have all your real teeth?

We at least play with helmets!
(I know it's wimpier, but at least we stay pretty)

We do use gum shields just like boxers. And anyone who is unvolved in the scrum usually tapes their ears down to stop them getting ripped off.

I was never much good at rugby, it was good fun, but my playing days are long behind me now.