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Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 23:45 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Roll Up Roll Up

"WP 'chose not to send Png to Parliament'"

- this bit of critical news shared the front page of the May 21 edition of The Straits Times, together with
"G-8 leaders urge Greece to stay in euro zone"


The latest revamp of the official national broadsheet evidently hasn't extended to the content - well, it has managed to lift itself from 154th in the world in 2007, to the dizzing heights of 135th in the latest instalment of the Press Freedom Index, so I suppose that calls for a drink. Two kopi kosong!

Well, even if the medicine remains unchanged, the flavour of the soup is at least different now; here's a short trip down memory lane (and beyond):



The mouthpiece over the years
(Original sources: the NLB NewspaperSG for mastheads up to 1980, manic.com.sg for 2004, thepaginator.wordpress.com for 2008,
asiaone for 2012)


Startlingly, the original masthead's boldness and modernity wouldn't look too out of place even today. It shifted to a more ornate look in the first few decades, and by 1900 had taken on the form that it would retain through the 1970s (see 1965), with a brief switch (reflecting a martial mood?) just before the fall of Singapore to the Japanese; Note particularly the period at the end of the early mastheads, which disappeared only to be restored in 2008 (and is now gone again)

Justrambling.sg has an analysis of the design changes from the 1960s through the 2000s (including the 1998 overhaul which saw advertisements disappear from the masthead among many other updates, though the font stayed). 2004's more dramatic Trajan wasn't universally beloved, and the paper soon returned to a more solid Big Caslon in 2008 (see a student redesign) until the latest incarnation, which appears to be Linotype Didot Bold, or something very close to it.

Then again, the fonts and design were never the real problem.


FAKEBERT versus Mr. Ham

The inaugural Man vs. Ham EPL punting challenge has concluded, and the winner is... FAKEBERT!




While both participants ended up above water level, having wagered 3200 seeds over the course of the season, FAKEBERT takes it by 3308 and a half seeds to 3207, after Mr. Ham threw away his lead on the final day. He however did well to manage that after going through the first ten weeks scoreless, recovering with four huge wins:

25th November: Fulham to draw Arsenal [ended 1-1] (won 390 seeds)
4th December: Fulham to beat Liverpool [ended 1-0] (won 335 seeds)
14th January: Tottenham to draw Wolverhampton [ended 1-1] (won 530 seeds)
28th January: Birmingham City (-1.5) vs. Sheffield United [ended 4-0] (won 505 seeds)

Mr. Ham still took the defeat hard, and had to be mollified out of reporting FAKEBERT for match-fixing with a consolation prize of a fifty-seed headstart for the reboot. Although Wolverhampton go down, with Southampton and West Ham (along with Reading) making a return, Mr. Ham is confident of turning the tables.

Reviewing the recently-concluded European season, Manchester City sensationally captured the league from United in the dying minutes, a painful experience that Mr. Ham well understands; the other big winners are Chelsea, who scooped both the FA Cup and Champions League trophy.


It's nice to see world leaders focused on important things for once
(Source: fastcocreate.com)


I thought it kind of funny when their league meeting was labelled El Plastico on Redcafe, a dig at the slightly, well, manufactured support (though a Chelsea fan has something to say about that); they have gotten the last laugh for now, although it was probably inevitable given the sums of money (from non-footballing sources) that had been tossed about. Well, it would certainly be hard on Abu Dhabi and Abramovich had their clubs not won anything before the Financial Fair Play regulations kick in, so fair do's to them... this time.

Over at La Liga, Real Madrid ousted Barcelona, and the undisputed best team in the world for some time are looking vulnerable, especially with Pep Guardiola gone; So's King Kenny for that matter, and even as Liverpool are turning to a former England manager to replace him, guess who has been installed as his replacement? Then again, I'm not convinced that managers are miracle workers, and that seems to be the thinking at Stamford Bridge too.

And ah, is Rooney really as good as he's commonly made out to be? I've watched most of United's games, and he can lose the ball at an absolutely appalling clip at times.

With soccer done with for now, I've taken to viewing quite a bit of rugby (both codes) [N.B. The national netball team appears to have found a new application for the lineout lift (which was also invented fairly recently)], though I'm still a bit miffed at there no longer being American football on the Starhub box - the occasional arena football game's just not the same. One can hardly beat Gaelic football for sheer delightful complexity, though... or can one? Well, Quidditch has made its way to local shores.

Oh, I've got to hand it to Nike, they make memorable ads:




Rolled Up


Proof by example


Contrary to what some are complaining about, legendaries do drop, or at least can be spawned from an unprepossessing old chest in the Scavenger's Den. Sadly, Monks don't shoot.



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