Marka Ragnos

That's legal now in the UK? Just asking for someone's ID for no apparent reason?

Can't seem to get enough of this guitar part this week. Love the simplicity and for me at least the fuzzy haunting twangy distant-dreams sound of it all.

Jeez. Kind of heartbreaking. I still feel bad for him. I can't imagine what that kind of pressure feels like.

I don't want to see Villa play by the skin of their teeth to the very end this season. It will stink if we still need to win and even achieve a certain goal difference on May 19 to get Champions League. Please, no. But no amount of stress would alter my positive perspective about Villa this year or about our future. It seems like the least I can do as a supporter is to back the players right now as our club faces our most momentous weeks in decades. My ill-informed bs opinions about this or that just aren't worth much in these times (if they're ever ), but I will offer this one: this is a really special and fun time to be a Villa fan. I've already been paid back in spades for my investment of supporting. I don't have much to complain about, no matter what happens. I just won't. Meanwhile, up the Villa.

Yes. I'm non-specifically "East Coast."

Does every country have travelers who want to be the only person from their country who travels? I remember when living abroad that I sometimes met Americans who seemed really bothered to encounter other Americans. (Of course, maybe they just found me really irritating. ) They wanted to be the only American in the room, and here I was, messing things up. I actually worked with an American in London who seemed like this too, at least for a while. But do people from other countries also do this? I always felt like people from other countries would actually be kind of glad to see their fellow country men and women. When you travel to, say, Japan, do you feel irritated when you run into another person from Britain?

Yup. It does my head in to contemplate.

I guess puppets are out, too? Smiling Friends.

I suspect, but mostly from the 20th century: Everybody Hates Chris: A very rare sitcom that absolutely works for the whole family, from tweens to gramps. Only Fools and Horses: Somehow, an 80s English show that reminds me of a 1970s American show, Sanford and Son, that's based on another English 1960s show (Steptoe and Son) Andy Griffith: One of the best-written and sweetest sitcoms of all time with influential performances by West Virginian Don Knotts that were copied by countless comedians for years to come. All In The Family (unusually, improved a British sitcom, Till Death ...): Fearless, still relevant, offensive, at times heartbreaking, hilarious. Curb Your Enthusiasm: Seasons 1-5, after that it fades, but smartly written and improvised. Good Times: Not sure if this ever reached the UK. Mid-1970s family sitcom about a working class black family in the Chicago projects. SpongeBob Squarepants: Incredible and sometimes surreal, another show that plays to completely different age groups at once. A perfect show for younger parents to watch with their kids. Flight of the Conchords: So funny. Barney Miller: Probably the most realistic comedic TV depiction of 1970s police work. Totally captures 70s New York. Still, love your list.

The recency bias is off the charts here. Dougie is fine. Having a run of bad form is all. He'll be hard on himself, and Unai won't exactly pull punches either. Need to be patient. Here's the insightful VT "assessment" of Leon Bailey, not too long ago ... All I'm saying is look at the bigger picture. He's a huge part of our success this year, and he will be again.

I've voted 1-4 consistently for Where do you think we will finish this season? almost the entire season. One of the very few who did, tbh. I guess I'm pretty optimistic --- or a bit thick.

... is an incredible midfielder who had an incredibly bad night. Onward and upwards we go.

Life-saver.

I'm sorry, and not sorry, but I just think that this is one of those games where we'd be mad to draw a bunch of massive general conclusions about "what's going on" with Aston Villa. Write this one off. It ain't worth navel gazing. Not on this one. Consider all the random misfortunes: Dougie's hand A deflection on a goal shot A MISSED PEN (!) from arguably our best pen men on the squad One or two hinky ref calls Our regular world-class keeper out Anyone of those is very hard to deal with. It was a freaky and unlucky turn of events -- bad things happen to good teams and all that. We can still come back -- and we will. Let's bring vengeance to Athens next week, and take our destined place in the final. We need to keep a clean sheet, and claw back two goals. It's ours.