It's always baffled me how British and European food is often a punchline on American sitcoms (most obviously Daphne's cooking in Frasier) when American food is, to us, the lowest-standard food in the west

I'm not sure, but he definitely had a spell at Everton ~5 years ago

That last sentence reads like a snippet you'd find in the Horizon games

Also, lol at it being published at 00:03. "Right, that's Auld Lang Syne sung, time to forward this email from Clearwater onto our front page"

"[Chelsea] Sources have indicated"... "have had their patience tested"... "left Chelsea baffled"... "Club insiders were left surprised"... "They were prepared to give Maresca time"... "Chelsea have contingency plans"... "They are reluctant to make mid-season managerial changes"..."Chelsea were bold"

Ah, Club Football! I remember spending a full school day off sick playing the Liverpool version. As far as non-EA/Konami games from that era go, it played okay

Quality. We've acquired an owl for our tree this year, but I have to confess it wasn't because of Wednesday (the 6yo has been doing the Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark at school)

Glad there's a mention of the TNT price-gouge. A classic example of a big broadcaster steamrollering a long-standing relationship between the channel and viewers.

Happily, the second half of the calendar is mainly covered by freeview TV

It's funny that 2025 was the first year where (a) an amateur won a ranking event and (b) someone made two 147s in a match... and both happened twice this year.

Tbf part of this is the traditional level of detail given to menu items at curry houses ("made with tomatoes, onion, spices" for about half the entries)

We only get an Indian takeaway roughly every 6 months, so I nearly always just go for my favourite (pathia, fwiw). Part of that is because I cannot remember how much I liked any other orders I may have made.