HiddenEntries (A Wholly Owned Cynthia Publishing Company Subsidiary Blog)

Thursday!

Well, your No. London Arse have escaped for the moment, progressing to the Champions League semifinals via a bore draw (read: nil-nil) at home against a decidedly unambitious Sporting Lisbon side. Thank goodness for what seemed like an afterthought of a goal in stoppage time in the opening leg of the tie last week. On aggregate, it finishes 1-nil to The Arsenal, with a showdown against Atletico Madrid awaiting in the penultimate round of this year’s competition. As always, #COYG!

This demographic — certain light-skinned (and thin-skinned!) males of qualifying creed & orientation — well, they surely make up an outsized percentage of bullies & worse (think ‘molesters’) — surely! This demographic does not get enough pushback from the many more persons who are not squarely in that demographic. But as soon as the right kind of pushback is applied, the bully demographic suddenly gets quiet! Who knew! Pushback is key! Push-back as soon as it’s necessary; don’t put up with the bully for too long. Get that pushback in early & often, just like the majority of voters in Hungary did yesterday. RUSSIANS, GO HOME! TO PRISON! etc.

Yes, it would have been much easier and more on-brand for us to lament your No. London Arse’s latest pratfall — fresh off the fail-factory conveyor belt this morning (PDT)! — as they keep letting slip their opportunities to win some hardware this year. And those chances will resume again a couple of times in the next week: Champions League second leg, the putative title-decider this coming weekend at Manchester City! But for now, we will celebrate the amazing career, leadership & genuine good-sportsmanship the man featured in today’s video lede; he just played his last regular-season home game a few moments ago.

The reentry into Earth’s atmosphere is nigh, with the service module & capsule scheduled to separate from each other in a few moments from now. Godspeed!

For First Ladies of The United States of ’murriKKKa, a forgettable first…

Hit-and-run tonight.

Your No. London Arse traveled to Lisbon this evening (BST) for the first leg of its UEFA Champions League showdown against Sporting CP. It was a reasonably cagey affair for the 90 mins., neither team bombing forward recklessly, lest they get caught-out on the counteroffensive and surrender a cheap, outmanned goal. But then came a couple of minutes of second-half stoppage time, and a previous Champions League trophy-clinching scorer, one Mistah Herr Kai Havertz, had only the ’keeper to beat after being sprung free from a deft, delicate and delightfully defense-splitting dink from Gabriel Martinelli. Havertz had no problem with his first touch, and his second touch was a simple pass into the near corner to give the Gunners the 1-nil advantage going into the second leg in a week’s time at The Emirates. This was the epitome of a smash-and-grab! For the buildup to the goal, scrub-on over to the 7:05 mark of today’s video lede. SMASH-AND-GRAB! As always, #COYG!

And the seeming opposite of your No. London Arse are your big-league ice-hockey Philadelphians, also known as the Flyers or, if they are in a brawling mood, the Broad Street Bullies. While the Arse started from lofty heights only to fall ignominiously in their two chances (so far) to win hardware, the Flyers here are the opposite, as you can see from the rapidly ascending squiggly purple line in today’s graphic lede. Yesterday the Flyers gutted-out a 2-1 OT win while many of their direct playoff-hopeful rivals ended-up losing, the combined effect of which boosted the Flyers’ playoff chances a full 35 percentage points in the span of a few hours, to just under 50 percent at the end of Sunday, a day that began with them sitting at about a 15 percent probability. Only a handful of regular-season games remain — get there, Flyers! One time!

(Screengrab from the Bluesky social-media account of the incomparable hockey data-viz wizard Mistah Micah McCurdy, @hockeyviz.com; thank you to him and all his fine & interesting work!)

Resurrection Sunday now, so here’s your music-video lede from this group’s eponymous debut album, which remains an all-timer, debut album or otherwise. Get-up and groove!