Sitting in the same seats you get to know the faces around you, who sits where and the passing conversations with them.
Yesterday we had a newcomer amongst us, a pleasant bloke who in exchanges gave you the impression he knew is stuff. He hadn't been for a while but stayed till the end of the game and gave a damning indictment of what he saw, all very reasoned in his analysis and as we all left said there's something fundamentally wrong here. We asked him why ha'd come and said out of curiosity.The talk around was of not turning up on Boxing Day if Hignett's still in charge and surprised to see regulars missing, one in particular who travels up from near Leeds.
It's soul destroying because this team are like an aircraft that can suddenly explode in mid air.... would you use an airline where the planes keep crashing but the man who runs the organisation keeps blaming the crews and the aircraft and tells us he's working on it, but the planes keep crashing even more ?

Yes, but Snowy, we've been noticing this same pattern every season for years. I firmly believe we're cursed, along the lines of the parmo theory someone posted yesterday.

Or this. I've posted it before but I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQwQ_nPhx-o

I love that song. It's funny and thought provoking at the same time.

Jez is a canny songwriter to be sure.

I love it. But one thing I find amusing is when people try to bait people from hartlepool by calling us monkey hangers, chimp chokers etc and THICK for thinking a monkey could be a human being.

It really doesn't bother me one bit

Hartlepool would be less known without the story. Whether it's true or not is not important neither is the possibility of it being a 'powder monkey' that was hanged.
The town makes fun of itself because of it and probably benefits from it in more ways than one. It's a conversation starter as soon as you tell a stranger where you're from and like you say, no one should be daft enough to bothered by any mickey taking. Besides the country should thank Hartlepool for foiling the French spy.

I'd never heard of powder monkeys, pooliecrab, so have been off to read all about them. You learn something new every day on here, innit.

how come peoples memories are vague when trying to remember an event which took place during the napoleonic wars in north east england,yet are crystal clear when recounting events that took place in jerusalem/bethlehem/poorest part of the poorest part of the world,over 2000 years ago?puzzling that like

Because people founded a cult on them supposed events and it's easier to remember when you get presents for some dead guys birthday.

Why not?

Its more likely to be a true story than that other fairytale.

Allegedly took place.

I work in France and to be fair when we had the usual 'meet the team' meetings and I had to say something 'interesting' about myself I regaled them with the Monkey Legend. It went down a storm, they loved it my conclusion to them being that it was a perfectly natural decision. Small, hairy, couldn't speak English of course he was a French sailor

Did you change his nationality, purely for diplomatic reasons of course.

Don't forget pet monkeys of the period wore little uniforms, only adding to the evidence.

Oh no I laid it on thick about the Napoleonic wars

Yes the sailors uniform as well, the evidence quite frankly was compelling!!!

When I tell the story I always say there were two monkeys and that we hung the first one and sent the second one to ( insert here the place you are at or the place where the questioner was born) to breed !!!!