Month: May 2020

L’actrice Christina Applegate, à qui on avait décelé un cancer du sein début août 2008, vient de prendre une décision radicale. L’actrice après réflexion a fait le choix de se faire retirer les deux seins afin d’éviter toutes complications. Après l’opération, la blonde, découverte dans Mariés, deux enfants semble se remettre de son opération.

“Je suis saine et sauve“ a déclaré Christina Applegate mardi 19 août, sur le plateau télé de Good Morning America, sur ABC. Après une mastectomie bilatérale (ablation des deux seins), la jeune femme a assuré être “guérie à 100 %“ et que la tumeur cancéreuse ne s’est pas propagée. “Je ne mourrai donc manifestement pas d’un cancer du sein“ a-t-elle ajouté.
La jeune femme a donc subi cette opération lourde en conséquences psychologiques, il y a trois semaines. Christina Applegate a fait ce choix radical même si seulement un de ses seins était atteint.
A 36 ans, l’actrice va devoir subir maintenant une opération de chirurgie plastique et reconstructrice étalée sur 8 mois. L’écervelée de Mariés, deux enfants, prend la chose avec humour : “au moins, j’aurai la plus belle poitrine quand je jouerai au bridge en maison de retraite à 90 ans“.
Christina Applegate sera à nouveau sur le petit écran le 5 septembre prochain pour une émission spéciale “Stand up to Cancer“, afin de récolter des fonds pour la recherche contre ce type de cancer.
L’ablation totale du sein est encore couramment utilisée aux Etats-Unis tandis qu’en France, les pratiques sont moins radicales. La radiothérapie, la chimio ou la thérapie hormonale ayant bien progressé, les médecins n’envisagent la mastectomie que dans certains cas particuliers. C’est ce que confirmait à Doctissimo le Dr Krishna Clough de l’Institut Curie : “Les traitements conservateurs sont toujours privilégiés. Ils sont pratiqués en Europe depuis les années 1960, alors qu’ils n’ont débuté que vingt ans plus tard Outre-Atlantique“.
Plusieurs études ont en effet montré que la mastectomie totale ne diminuait pas le taux de récidive par rapport au retrait de la tumeur seule, mais les médecins américains ne semblent pas totalement prêts à sauter le pas. Un débat qui est loin d’être clos.Photo : ©SipaClick Here: Cheap QLD Maroons Jersey

Elle est la force de “Polisse”, l’auteur de ce film coup de poing qui a éraflé le vernis cannois au mois de mai dernier. Le Prix du jury, elle l’a reçu en plein cœur, bouleversée et à bout de souffle, comme si elle descendait du ring après un long combat. Désarmante Maïwenn, réputée pour ses humeurs, sa franchise et son impudeur. La rencontrer était tentant, peut-être un peu intimidant… Surtout très émouvant.

“Cette reconnaissance, ça soigne une plaie. Tout ce qui se passe autour du film me console de la souffrance du tournage, mais pour la suite, ça me fait très peur. Ça me met la pression…” A l’étage du Café Beaubourg, assise sur le rebord de la fenêtre ouverte, Maïwenn a déjà la cigarette et la sincérité aux lèvres : “C’est dur de diriger les gens qu’on aime et qui, sur un plateau, ne sont plus les mêmes. C’est dur d’être une femme  réalisatrice. C’est un métier qui fait appel à des hormones masculines. Pour porter une équipe, des enfants, des acteurs avec tous une personnalité forte, un ego fort, c’est très dur…” Dur comme son polar social qui parle de viol et de maltraitance, sans détour ni faux semblants. L’enfance maltraitée, Maïwenn en témoigne comme personne, elle qui on le sait, en a été l’objet. Une douleur vécue qu’elle n’a jamais cachée et sur laquelle elle a pris le parti de s’appuyer pour créer.

Enfant et femme de…

De son enfance elle a déjà beaucoup parlé et c’est d’un commun accord qu’on en diminuera la portée. C’est lorsqu’on parlera cinéma que d’elle-même elle y reviendra, décrivant une mère actrice “trop” cinéphile qui à 12 ans la blâmait de ne pas connaitre Antonioni et de lui préférer La Boum ou Subway. Avec malice, elle nous raconte comment en trainant aux Halles, elle s’est fait sa propre culture cinéma,  en se liant d’amitié avec le caissier de l’UGC Orient Express qui lui a fait voir pendant des années tous les films qu’elle désirait, en douce : “Il y a des gens comme ça qui changent une vie…”

Johnny Hallyday et Maïwenn dans La Gamine

 

Sa vie ? Elle la resserre vite fait : pour recevoir de l’amour de sa mère qui rêve de la voir à l’écran, elle a couru les castings dès l’âge de trois ans. “Ma vie professionnelle a vraiment démarré pour moi au moment où j’ai monté mon propre spectacle. Tout ce que j’ai fait avant comme enfant actrice, c’était ma vie d’enfant. Vous avez sûrement joué à faire des interviews lorsque vous étiez petite, non ? Ça n’a pas la même résonnance le jour où vous êtes majeure, avec votre propre compte en banque.” En effet… A ceci près qu’au moment où de notre coté on improvisait un entretien au magnétophone avec nos poupées, elle fréquentait les plateaux d’Isabelle Adjani (L’ Année prochaine… si tout va bien, L’ Eté meurtrier) et donnait la réplique à Daniel Auteuil (Lacenaire) et Johnny Hallyday (La Gamine).

 

Cette “vie d’avant” dont on a évité de parler, Luc Besson l’a fréquentée. Le Luc Besson du Grand bleu et de Nikita, qu’elle rencontre à 16 ans. Il a le double de son âge, la prend sous son aile, comble ses manques, l’épouse, lui fait un enfant et l’emmène à Hollywood. Une parenthèse enchantée pendant laquelle Maïwenn prend le temps : de former sa propre famille, d’étudier, d’être elle-même, sans jouer à faire plaisir. A part son rôle de diva dans Le Cinquième élément, elle ne joue plus justement et se découvre une autre passion : “J’ai réalisé le making-of de Léon, mais il n’a pas été exploité je crois. C’était marrant de toucher pour la première fois à la mise en scène. Mais attention, dans un making-of on capte la vérité et on la sublime. Dans un film, on capte la vérité et on la malaxe…”

 

Maïwenn dans Le Cinquième élément

Maïwenn sans Le Besco

Nous y voilà. L’acte créateur et fondateur. Celui dont on se plait enfin à discuter et qui a eu lieu “après”. Après l’enfant Le Besco malmenée et après la femme Besson quittée. Après avoir écrit un livre non publié car “larmoyant et inintéressant dans lequel [elle] racontait [s]a vie au premier degré”, Maïwenn monte toute seule son one woman show Le Pois Chiche, encouragée par sa psychanalyste : “J’ai joué pour la première fois mon spectacle un 28 mai 2001 et du jour au lendemain ce n’était plus pareil. J’ai senti que je m’exprimais enfin, que je savais faire autre chose que m’occuper de mes enfants. J’ai senti que j’avais mon univers à moi”. Un règlement de comptes détonnant avec son passé, qui plait, et qui, à défaut de la guérir lui apporte le respect. Elle n’avait rien à perdre, elle a tout gagné. Boostée, la jeune femme réinvestit l’amour et l’argent reçus dans un court métrage qui ne lui “ressemble plus vraiment aujourd’hui” et dans lequel elle fait jouer sa fille, Shana Besson : ” Jamais je ne l’ai poussée, ni ne la pousserai à être actrice… Je l’ai choisie à ce moment-là parce qu’elle était la plus naturelle, la plus vraie de toutes”.

 

La vérité… Tout un programme pour Maïwenn, qui en fera son obsession. En 2006, seule à nouveau et en trois semaines à peine, elle écrit, produit, réalise et joue dans Pardonnez-moi, son premier long métrage. Tourné à la manière d’un documentaire, cette autofiction aux allures de Festen raconte la révolte d’une future maman, ex-enfant battue par son père, qui confronte sa famille à ses mensonges et à ses non-dits. La réalisatrice y exprime les blessures béantes de l’enfance et suscite le malaise autant que l’admiration par sa manière d’entremêler avec science le fantasme et la réalité : “La vie est un mauvais scénario qu’on ne peut se contenter de copier. La vérité de la vraie vie n’appartient qu’à la vraie vie, la vérité du cinéma est autre. Vous savez, si mes fictions semblent si réelles, c’est parce qu’il y a beaucoup de travail derrière, de ma part et de celle des acteurs.”

 

Le travail des acteurs, elle connait et c’est sur lui qu’elle décide ensuite de porter un regard distancié. Comédie sur la face cachée du métier, Le Bal des actrices met en scène une pléiade d’actrices parmi lesquelles Marina Foïs, Karin Viard et Charlotte Rampling qui se dévoilent avec ironie et second degré. “Les clichés ne se fondent pas sur rien. Oui ce sont des gens névrosés, égocentriques on le sait, mais ce sont surtout des êtres à vif, assoiffés de regards et d’amour…” Des gens qu’elle aime en tous cas, et en qui elle se plait à déceler “coûte que coûte” le potentiel et la vérité.

 

Artiste ni polie, ni lisse

“Attention je n’ai pas de famille d’acteurs. Pour Polisse, j’ai retravaillé avec Karin Viard, Marina Foïs ou Joey Starr parce qu’ils correspondaient aux personnages. Les acteurs ne sont pas fidèles, pourquoi le serais-je ?” L’actrice infidèle, Maïwenn elle-même l’a jouée pour d’autres entre temps, fréquentant aussi bien le thriller d’épouvante d’ Alexandre Aja (Haute tension) que le drame romantique de Claude Lelouch (Les Parisiens et Le Courage d’aimer), un “homme qui aime autant la vie que le cinéma, ce qui est très rare et très enrichissant”. Bientôt, elle côtoiera la comédie avec le Télé gaucho de Michel Leclerc, cinéaste césarisé du Nom des gens. “Mais je me sens plus légitime en tant que réalisatrice qu’en tant qu’actrice”, avoue-t-elle. Avant de s’évader : “J’aimerais faire un film avec un metteur en scène qui me mette en valeur, chose que je ne fais jamais sur mes films. C’est vrai, non? Je me donne à chaque fois le mauvais rôle…”. Son seul bémol ? La nudité : “On peut m’emmener partout dans toutes sortes de rôles mais ça c’est un gros problème pour moi, j’ai refusé plein de choses à cause de cela. Mon corps est ma limite”. Normal pour une écorchée.

 

Le Courage d’aimer

 

Cathartique, le cinéma l’a néanmoins fait avancer. “Je vais mieux parce que je me sens reconnue, aimée et respectée par les gens de mon métier. Ça me donne des ailes et me rend plus forte. Ce n’est pas en parlant de ma vie au cinéma que je me suis soignée. C’est minimiser les séquelles et les bénéfices d’une analyse que d’assimiler le cinéma à une thérapie. La psychanalyse m’a appris à vivre, à me contrôler, mais jamais je ne serai soignée.” Réaliste et radicale. Comme ses films. Avec Polisse, Maïwenn a encore grandi, mettant en scène l’horreur sans la crudité, expulsant hors d’elle la violence sans frapper, et faisant du langage clair et précis la seule arme acceptée. A l’image des policiers de la Brigade de Protection des Mineurs, elle est en quête et enquête sur LA vérité : “Je travaillais avec des enfants et j’avais besoin de sentir que les parents avaient confiance en ma démarche et la trouvaient sans ostentation, ni perversité ou racolage. Les limites qui m’étaient imposées avec eux m’ont en outre permis d’apprécier à sa juste valeur la force du suggéré.” Et en digne héritière de Maurice Pialat, de réussir à émouvoir avec sa Police aussi dure que douce, toujours brute de décoffrage et vue cette fois-ci sous le prisme de l’enfance. D’où la faute d’orthographe…

 

Elle a éteint sa dernière cigarette et d’un franc sourire, a clos l’entretien en même temps que la fenêtre. “On aurait pu parler encore, mais on m’attend…” Déroutante et touchante Maïwenn… Ni polie, ni lisse. Tantôt joyeuse, sitôt méfiante, souvent exaltée et même absente. Sa devise du moment ? “L’humour c’est la politesse du désespoir”. C’est vrai. Et du sien, elle a fait un Art…

 

Laetitia Ratane

 

Bande-annonce “Polisse”

Jurgen Klopp ‘is keen for the Premier League to resume’ but Pep Guardiola is one of four managers known to be reluctant.

Managers of all 20 Premier League clubs were informed on Wednesday of plans to return to full training in phases, starting with small groups before gradually moving to full teams and proper contact.

Jose Mourinho was said to be most vocal during the meeting, particularly with regards to ensuring players and clubs have long enough to prepare. But the Daily Mirror are clearly confused as he has now ‘made it clear he is desperate to return’.

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MEDIAWATCH: Is Jose Mourinho ‘concerned’ or a bit of a c***?

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Liverpool boss Klopp and Merseyside rival Carlo Ancelotti are similarly eager to restart whenever it is proved to be safe to do so.

Roy Hodgson of Crystal Palace even noted that ‘it was safer to be at the training ground rather than make a trip to Tesco’. He’s great, isn’t he?

But support was not unanimous as four managers are known to have ‘raised concerns about coming back and rushing back to games’.

Contrary to popular belief, it seems that not only clubs threatened by relegation are proving difficult to persuade, as while Nigel Pearson and Graham Potter voiced concerns, they were joined by Pep Guardiola and Frank Lampard.

The Premier League outlined in Wednesday’s meeting that playing games is not yet part of the consideration for returning to training as they are taking ”a baby steps’ approach’ in that government health guidelines must first be met before the league can restart.

With mixed messages now emerging from these conference calls, the Premier League faces a difficult task to convince all stakeholders that football can resume in a safe environment.

We could not keep away from the camera for long so we made a Football365 Isolation Show. Watch it, subscribe and share until we get back in the studio/pub and produce something a little slicker…

 

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Jamie Carragher has compared the Premier League’s planned return to a collective comeback from injury instead of another pre-season.

Despite the Premier League suffering an apparent setback in their hopes to resume the season, plans are still afoot to play again by mid-June.

Managers have expressed particular concern about how little training that would allow their squads before playing again.

Carragher is unsure how long players would need in terms of weeks, but believes the challenge is more akin to returning from an injury rather than coming back for pre-season.

“I keep hearing how long it takes to get back up to speed, how fit you need to be,” he told Sky Sports.

“I always liken it – this is not like going back to pre-season – I see this as more like an injury you’d have in the middle of a season.

“Players have been keeping fit. They’ve had their programmes. Yes, they will need time to get up to speed, but it’s not a pre-season type of thing.

“Whatever the timeframe is, it’s the same for everyone. There’s no doubt managers will want more weeks to prepare and they will want everything absolutely perfect.”

Fellow pundit Jamie Redknapp warned not to “expect” as high a standard as usual when the game does come back.

“Two months off now for players, that’s a huge amount of time,” he said. “When they do come back it’s going to be played at a totally different pace to what we expect. It will be disappointing.

“Players are mentally switched off, as well. It will be difficult for them. They’re gonna want to get back to playing and when you get a taste you want to do it more and more.

“I think it’ll take a lot longer than people think. We need to be careful not to expect too much of players right now.

“I can’t wait for it to happen but don’t expect these players to come out firing just like before the Premier League finished.”

We could not keep away from the camera for long so we made a Football365 Isolation Show. Watch it, subscribe and share until we get back in the studio/pub and produce something a little slicker…

 

Keep your mails coming to [email protected]…

 

Cap concerns
A salary cap will have a massive impact in equalising the league as teams often have to get rid of players to make cap room and often favour younger cheaper prospects as a result.

This will have a massive benefit in developing home grown talent too.

Yes, teams like Bayern may continue to dominate by cherrypicking youngsters but they will be unable to bring in players like Coutinho on massive wages if they already have other huge salaries on the books. The reason why the Pats have done well, is by having a winning culture which the players buy into and willing to take a lower salary for.

The issue with instilling salary cap will be getting the major European leagues to sign up, deciding a fair cap that works for all teams and stopping leagues like China swooping up players in a non salary cap league.

Also, what happens to the cap when a team is relegated?
Adam, Midlands

 

In defence of Danny Rose
First time writing in but I just thought I’d send an e-mail defending Danny Rose although judging from the comments section I doubt I’ll be the only one. I’ll start by admitting I am a Newcastle fan but Danny Rose has barely played for us so there’s no bias involved here.

I think Rose has a way of speaking that rubs people up the wrong way; his tone, his choice of words. I think he struggles to articulate what he wants to say and a lot of people get the wrong end of the stick, it also doesn’t help that this site decided to use the quote ‘I don’t give a f*ck about the country’s morale’ as the headline. Yes, he did say that but out of context it looks like an attack on the public when in fact the deeper message was that ‘people are dying’ and he therefore didn’t want to risk playing football and potentially spread the virus further and cause more deaths (and I’m sure there was a part of it which was self serving but we all have to look after number one too). But he’s not that stupid, he surely knows he’s young and healthy and is unlikely to die, I genuinely think he was considering others during his rant.

When he said he didn’t care about the country’s morale, I think what he meant to say is, what use is morale if we’re causing more deaths by restarting football and he’s right. This whole ‘well I have to go back to work so why shouldn’t he’ attitude is flawed, I think Danny’s point is that no one should be going back while lives are still at risk, I think people are misplacing their anger at the wrong person in all of this. And furthermore, if I had to go back and I didn’t think it was the right time, I’d take that up with my employer or the government rather than other people who weren’t having to go back. We’re not just looking after ourselves here, we’re trying to stem the spread to protect vulnerable people remember.

But I do get why people dislike Rose but he’s a human and he doesn’t seem to worry too much about his public image which is quite refreshing. I respected him for his comments about Ruud Gullit but again he got a lot of stick for that based on the way he put his point across.
David, London

 

Global game
Quick point on the subject of the supposed “morale boost” which would result from Project Restart and the restart of the Premier League. From a UK-centric perspective, I totally agree with the doubts expressed by John Nicholson and many mailbox contributors about the likelihood of this actually working, both from the perspective that millions of Brits don’t care about football no matter what, and from the perspective that behind-closed-doors football would be spooky/eerie and not provoke the response hoped for.

However, there are 7 billion people in the world. The Premier League has quantified this by claiming that 1.35 billion people watched live matches of the 2018/19 season in some form. Does that change your perspective at all? This is a global pandemic, we are all in this together. I am not suggesting that the British government should put its own nation at unnecessary risk for the sake of entertaining the rest of the world – for the umpteenth time, nobody has ever suggested playing football until it is safe to do so, I don’t know why hypocondriacs keep insisting that safety is not being adequately considered – but rather that if the specific concern is “nobody will care”, I suggest that you think about the subject more broadly.

Other countries with other specialist industries will be thinking along the same lines. In Spain, for specific example, La Liga has outright pointed out that football represents 1.3% of the country’s GDP; the only more internationally-recognized brand than Barca and Real is ZARA. When Netflix and major Hollywood studios consider taking risks to begin film production again, they will be thinking about global markets, not narrowly considering how many Americans would enjoy watching new content.

In any event, I totally agree with Dave Allen, IOM when he wrote that morale will be boosted more by a quicker end to the spread of the virus; my argument in favor of Project Restart would not involve the words “morale boost” at all and would be entirely based on both adequate safety and economic necessity. But if anyone indeed wants to discuss a “morale boost”, you are talking about 1.3 billion people around the world, not 1 million on Albion.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

 

And another thing…
In response to those who disagreed with Mike, LFC, London’s morning mailbox entry on the “Get Back To Work” debate (Dave Allen, Gareth, Seamus, Dan, Steve, Neill) – I guess I would just want to understand whether you are arguing that Project Restart’s timeline is too aggressive by a factor of a few weeks, or whether you are arguing that Project Restart is months too soon, or whether you are arguing that football should simply be cancelled until there is a cure or vaccine.

If anyone says “I think Project Restart can work, but we are jumping the gun by 2-3 weeks”, I don’t think there is any way to argue with that. They might be right, or Project Restart might be right. I certainly don’t have the latest data on how infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the UK are trending, to help in predicting exactly when the improved situation in the UK would be in-line with what we have seen in other countries when they decided to open back up.

If anyone is arguing the latter, that Project Restart is months too soon or that football shouldn’t return before a cure/vaccine – I would just ask for their explanation for why the UK is different from other countries. It would be unfair to compare the UK to Germany or Switzerland, which have not been hit nearly as hard, but very fair to compare to Spain and Italy. These two countries have many parallels with the UK overall, and their two leagues have many parallels with the PL. They are 3-4 weeks ahead of the UK in terms of their COVID situations. La Liga is resuming play on June 12. Serie A have not confirmed a date but the government’s minister for sport “hopes it will return soon” (ie. not months from now, not “once a cure/vaccine arrives”).

My understanding of Project Restart is that they are putting things in place to get ready to return on June 13, and that this is entirely conditional on the situation improving in all key metrics (infections, hospitalizations, deaths, testing + safety equipment availability, etc). The decision can therefore be made to backtrack if the situation worsens, but it is necessary to plan weeks in advance, due to player mini-pre-season requirements. I really fail to see where the problem is, unless you are of the opinion that the situation will not improve ahead of June 13 and that the government will ignore this and decide to proceed anyway. While that isn’t strictly impossible, it is certainly very implausible.
Oliver (got my haircut 15 days ago, used a public laundromat 15 days ago, went to the gym last night – like/agree with it or not, life is only weeks away from some semblence of normality) Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

 

Furloughing footballers
A few suggestions of “if footballers refuse to play then furlough” them in today’s mailbox. First off, refusing to play will almost definitely be a breach of contract and they’ll be able to be fined or have wages withheld as result.

However, they don’t have regular employment contracts so I don’t think the furlough rules will apply. But even if they did – don’t bloody furlough them! All that happens then is the Gov’t will expend more cash funding giving a bunch of vastly overpaid, multi-millionaires a few grand more. And by Gov’t I mean all of us via the inevitable increased taxation and spending cuts to pay for it. Furlough is not a good thing in any business; it’s supposed to be a measure of last resort. It’s 100% not being used as designed, with large companies shoring up their cash positions rather than genuinely at risk businesses using it to avoid redundancy. Football clubs (in the Premier League) absolutely should not be using it.
Alex, Ayr

 

Hey now, you’re an all-star
A Premier League All Stars game that Cormac (THFC), Co.Clare suggested in the Mailbox is something that would be awesome on paper, the best players from each European league in a knockout style tournament, it sounds something we would all be on board for, however as a huge NFL fan I can say that it is NOT what you may expect it to be, the NFL have a Pro Bowl game, scheduled a week before the Super Bowl, in the Pro Bowl you will have two sides, usually the AFC vs NFC, where the best players from that season as voted for by the fans play off against one another in an all star game (the only players who are not included are players who are in one of the two sides playing in the Super Bowl).

On paper it sounds fantastic, fantasy stuff, but as I can say the Pro Bowl is one of the most laid back, almost a bit boring games to watch, mainly due to the rules put in place to stop tackling, it is played at quite an exhibition style pace, as no one wants to get injured and most are thinking about their long earnt holiday break coming up after the game, which you cannot blame them for, but I would have loved to have seen the 2015/16 La Liga and Premier League Team Of The Seasons play off against one another, for those who don’t know, these would be the line ups;

DDG, Bellerin, Morgan, Alderweireld, Rose, Kante, Alli, Mahrez, Payet, Vardy, Kane
Oblak, Ramos, Godin, Pique, Marcelo, Busquets, Modric, Iniesta, Suarez, Messi, Ronaldo

That would be one incredible game, I am sure some are laughing at seeing Wes Morgan come up against a front three of Messi, Suarez and Ronaldo, but he may surprise us, this was after all the Leicester title season, where Wes Morgan was arguably one of the best centre backs over 38 games.

Which other vintage year teams would others like to see play against one another?
Mikey, CFC

 

Time travel
I liked Johnny Nic’s piece on time travel at a game, but I think he does a disservice to rugby and cricket in his piece.

What I’m going to describe will firmly place me in a particular era, and I’m sure a lot of your readers won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, but I’ll give you a couple of examples from each game.

When I lived in London I went to test matches at Lord’s (down the street from me, I never went to the Oval) and rugby – internationals at Twickenham and Harlequins games at The Stoop.

Have you ever heard the expression “a six from the moment it left the bat”? You knew. When Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Sunil Gavaskar put a foot down the pitch you could see the eagerness in their eyes. And boom! There it goes. David Gower? My favorite of the time, but “a short life but a merry one” was his motto. You never got the same feeling about him, he was more likely to play two great square cuts to the Tavern boundary, and then wave at an outswinger and get caught in the slips. Bowling? Imran Khan, Dennis Lillee and Richard Hadlee. It was not the one ball, but the lead-up. Two teasers, play-and-misses and you just knew that the third would be outside edge or straight through, bowled middle stump. The West Indian quicks, and Jeff Thompson, Bob Willis – great bowlers all but you always had the feeling they could go for 20 or more in the over as soon as take a wicket.

Rugby? Rob Andrew with a penalty or a point-after conversion. You knew the moment you heard that “thump” that the ball was headed straight through the middle, no matter how far or how wide the ball was placed. Thump, Andrew turns away, and it’s good.

The Stoop? Harlequins flanker “Mick the Munch” Mickey Skinner. When he came off the scrum within ten yards of the try-line with the ball in his hands, you just knew he was in. He’d do the Roman “salute” – one fist to the chest – as he was jogging back for the restart. And he had “that tackle” on Marc Cecillon against France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Paris in 1991.

So John – you’re right, you do have that great “I know what’s going to happen” moment, but it’s not just soccer.

Stay safe
Steve, Los Angeles

 

World Cup farce
In the most recent mailbox, Glen was reminiscing about England’s Admiral kit, Spain ’82 and little facts that he had discovered. During my own research, I found out that the controversial West Germany-Austria match (the last game of Group 2) was played at the same time as England-Kuwait (the last match in Group 4). Different groups concluding simultaneously!! No wonder people doubt FIFA’s organisational ability. For some bizarre reason, England and West Germany played their first round group games at the same time.

Everyone “remembers” being outraged about the West Germany-Austria farce but this game wasn’t shown live anywhere on British TV. No viewer in the UK ever saw the full 90 minutes live. ITV showed the England game but the Beeb ran its usual late afternoon schedule. The Beeb didn’t show any football that day until 7.30pm – the mighty Northern Ireland’s 1-0 win against Spain (“when yer man get the ball, Northern Ireland has it all…”, not my words Carol, the words of Dana and the Northern Ireland squad).

Compared to today, coverage of World Cups, even as late as 1994, was quite haphazard with full matches not being shown live.
Matthew, Belfast

 

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CITY INVOLVED IN THREE-WAY SWAP
Player swaps are set to be more prominent this summer since few clubs have got the spare cash to chuck around in the transfer market. But few are likely to be as complicated as this three-way transaction between Manchester City, Barcelona and Inter Milan. Strap in…

Sport reckon the clubs are working on a deal that would leave all three satisfied, with Barca ultimately getting their hands on Lautaro Martinez. They cannot afford the Argentina forward in a straight cash deal but they know Inter want a right-back. Inter were offered Nelson Semedo by Barca, but the Italians didn’t fancy him. City, however, would take the Portugal international.

So Barca would exchange Semedo for City flop Joao Cancelo, but Cancelo would immediately be dispatched to Inter to grease the wheels of the Martinez deal. Barca might have to throw in another player, possibly Arturo Vidal, and still have to find another £50million but it is felt that a deal is achievable. It helps that Cancelo and Semedo are both represented by Jorge Mendes.

 

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MEDIAWATCH: Gareth Bale and the bizarre £53m transfer trail

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BAYERN PONDER BIG OFFER FOR SANE
City also have Leroy Sane on their agenda this summer…

The Germany winger hasn’t played since the Community Shield and is approaching the final year of his contract. Bayern Munich have tailed Sane for the last two years and the Bavarians went hard for the winger last summer but they were put off by City’s ‘insane’ demands.

Given his contract situation, Bayern are in a much stronger bargaining position, especially while Sane seems keen to move. But the figures The Telegraph are talking about still seem extravagant for a player who has missed the entirety of the season and is a year away from walking away for nothing.

This morning’s report suggests Bayern are mulling over a £56.75million move for the 24-year-old having already been told that £35million just won’t do.

 

DEMBELE DEAL DONE
Tuesday morning’s whispers suggested Manchester United were feeling confident about signing Moussa Dembele for £60million this summer. According to Todofichajes (we know…) things have moved on even further.

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It is claimed that ‘the agreement between the three parties is total’ and Dembele will move to Old Trafford for around £61million, or whatever 70million euros is worth by the time the deal goes through.

 

AND THE REST
Chelsea will sell Tiemoue Bakayoko for £31m but PSG value the midfielder at £26.5million… Barcelona want £53million for winger Ousmane Dembele… Barca have also held talks with Juventus about Mattia de Sciglio… Everton will let Maarten Stekelenburg leave this summer and sign a new back-up for Jordan Pickford.

 

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MADISON, WI — The best city in America to raise a family is Madison, Wisconsin, and two of the top 10 are in Nebraska. That’s according to a new study by the apartment-finding service Zumper, which ranked America’s largest cities earlier this month based on 10 key factors, including price per additional room, median household income, commute and even dropout rate.

Madison, the capital of Wisconsin and home of the University of Wisconsin, has a lot to offer for families, the authors noted, including the lowest dropout rate of any city in the rankings. Residents often have low commute times, about 19 minutes — take that, New Yorkers! — and about 69 percent of the population is under 45 years old. The unemployment rate currently sits at just over 2 percent.

“Thanks to a large population of younger adults, a strong local economy, and low crime high school dropout rates, Madison scored well above the other cities in our rankings,” the authors wrote.

Perhaps the most surprising find in the study was that not one city in the Northeast even approached the top of the rankings. Syracuse, New York, ranked the highest of large cities in that region at 25. The authors noted that many cities in the Northeast have large populations of young people and were dragged down by higher spending on mortgages, long commutes, and high child care costs.

Also notable: The Midwest and South dominated the rankings. Nine of the 10 best cities to raise a family were either in the Midwest or the South, largely due to lower mortgage expenses for homeowners, short commutes, strong local economies and lower child care costs.

Here are the top 10 cities for raising a family:

Zumper, based in San Francisco, created the rankings by looking at the 100 cities in its monthly rent reports. That list was then narrowed down to 95 cities becasuse several either had incomplete data or overlapped with one another in the census data. The key factors in the rankings were each equally weighted and then normalized to determine a final score.

Click here to see the full rankings and methodology.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

WILLIAMSPORT, PA — The unofficial kick off of the 2018 Little League World Series is nearly here, and we’re not talking about the first game. No, we’re talking about an evening of marching bands, silly costumes and copious amounts of shimmying. It’s the Grand Slam Parade! The one-of-its-kind event where participation is incredibly exclusive — you have to be one of the 16 champions that survived the regional tournament.

Participants also include the Guest Grand Marshall, national, regional and local marching bands, antique cars, fire trucks, military equipment and much, much more. The parade starts at the intersections of Susquehanna and West Fourth streets, moving past City Hall and ending at Market Street. More than 100 units will strut their stuff along the parade route, with bleachers along the way and plenty of sidewalk space to cheer.

The parade, scheduled to begin around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, will broadcast live on WYOU-TV from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dave Kuharchik, co-host of “PA Live!”, and Kelly Byrne, co-anchor of Eyewitness News’s early morning newscasts, will host the station’s coverage.

The station said it will also include a live stream of the event on its Facebook page and at pahomepage.com.

U.S. Teams

International Teams

Photo credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images

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HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Harford County Executive Barry Glassman has declared a state of emergency in Harford County Saturday, as crews are working to repair roads and bridges damaged by the deadly flash flood that roared through the area Friday night. The body of one person swept up in the flood has been recovered, according to police.

The search for a second victim will resume Sunday morning, according to Maryland State Police, which reported it suspended the effort around 8 p.m. Saturday.

Daniel Samis, 67, of Abingdon, was found deceased on Saturday morning, officials reported. He had been in a vehicle that got carried by the flood waters, according to investigators.

Samis was one of two people washed away in the flash flood around 6 p.m. Friday in the Creswell area, police said.

The other was a woman trying to help Samis when she saw his vehicle submerged up to its roof on a bridge along Calvary Road at James Run Road, officials reported.

Police said that Samis was located deceased around 8:30 a.m. Saturday a quarter of a mile away from the Broad Run Bridge. On Friday night crews located the sedan but were unable to access it because of high water, officials reported; technical rescue teams assisted in the recovery of the man’s body Saturday morning.

Initially, authorities said there were two people in the sedan, but interviews with witnesses and Samis’s next of kin later led authorities to believe he was alone in the vehicle.

Based on witness accounts, police said that the vehicle on the Broad Run Bridge had become submerged up to the roof when a truck pulled up with a man and woman who tried to assist with a rope.

“At some point, the woman trying to assist fell and the man with her helped her up only for her to fall again before being swept over the bridge and into the rushing water of Broad Run,” police said in a statement.

The driver of the truck went to a nearby quarry to search for the victim and call 911, and while he was on the phone he saw the disabled vehicle go over the side of the bridge and be swept down Broad Run, police reported.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Saturday morning that he and First Lady Yumi Hogan were praying for the people who were missing, and the state “continues to offer any support necessary” to Harford County.

Maryland State Police said that the following agencies were assisting in the search efforts: Harford County Department of Emergency Services; Maryland State Police dive team, criminal enforcement division and K9 unit; Maryland Natural Resources Police; Baltimore County Police Department; Baltimore Police Department; Bay Area Rescue K9; Chesapeake Search and Rescue; and Mid-Atlantic D.O.G.S. Search and Rescue.

A 5-mile stretch of MD 136/Calvary Road remains closed Saturday, from MD 543 to MD 22.

Flash flooding closed several roads Friday night around the county, some of which remained closed due to high water on Saturday, including Calvary Road.

Officials warn that flash floods can come without warning when there is excessive rainfall.

“Following the simple advice of ‘Turn Around, Don’t Drown,’ could save lives during flash flooding conditions,” Maryland State Police advised.

Approximately 6.24 inches of rain had been reported in Scarboro by Saturday morning, according to unofficial data provided to the National Weather Service.

Stay on top of the latest. Get news alerts from Harford County Patches.

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Still picture of high water on MD 543 from WJZ/YouTube.

Au XXIe siècle, on pourrait penser que l’égalité homme-femme est devenue réalité en France. Mais les différences persistent. Travail, santé, scolarité, famille… Petit tour d’horizon de la condition féminine dans l’Hexagone.

Selon les derniers chiffres de l’Insee, il y a en France 63,8 millions de personnes… dont 51,5 % de femmes. Si la société a évolué vers plus d’égalité, il reste encore de nombreuses différences entre les deux sexes, à tous les âges de la vie.
Education : Les femmes meilleures à l’école
Premier constat : les filles sont bien meilleures que les garçons à l’école. Elles sont ainsi moins concernées par les retards scolaires et les redoublements : parmi les écoliers entrés en CP en 1997, 85 % des filles contre 80 % des garçons sont parvenus en sixième sans redoubler. En grandissant, les adolescentes sont moins nombreuses à quitter le système scolaire sans aucun diplôme : 11 % d’entre-elles partent sans CAP, BEP ou Bac, contre plus de 15 % des garçons.
Enfin, les filles ont une meilleure réussite au Bac que les garçons : 1 % de plus de réussite aux séries générales, 3 % dans les séries technologiques et 5 % dans les séries professionnelles !
Les femmes sont d’ailleurs plus nombreuses à faire des études supérieures. Mais leurs choix d’orientation sont bien différents : les filles privilégient l’université, dans les filières langues, lettres ou art et sont très peu représentées dans les filières scientifiques.
De plus, les femmes restent minoritaires dans les classes préparatoires et les écoles d’ingénieur, même si les choses évoluent.
Travail : les femmes moins bien payées
En partie peut-être à cause de leurs orientations scolaires, la situation des femmes dans le monde du travail est marquée par de nombreuses inégalités. En considérant le revenu annuel, les femmes gagnent 26 % de moins que les hommes. Un constat qui s’explique en partie par le fait qu’elles travaillent un peu moins (30 % des femmes sont à temps partiel par exemple, contre moins de 6 % des hommes). Selon l’Insee, l’écart serait moins fort que l’on peut le penser : 75 % des écarts de salaires entre hommes et femmes s’expliquent par les différences de diplômes, de temps de travail, d’expérience et seraient donc “justifiés“. Mais il reste 25 % qui n’ont pas d’explication…
Indépendamment des salaires, les femmes accèdent beaucoup moins facilement à des postes d’encadrement. Dans le public, seules 16 % des emplois de dirigeants d’administration sont occupés par des femmes à la fin 2005. Dans le privé, ce n’est pas mieux : seul un poste d’encadrement sur quatre est occupé par une représentante de la gent féminine. Point positif : la tendance évolue dans le bon sens depuis quelques années.
Enfin, il faut souligner que les femmes qui travaillent sont plus souvent touchées par le chômage.
Santé : des problèmes différents entre hommes et femmes
Côté santé, les différences ente hommes et femmes sont essentiellement marquées entre 25 et 69 ans. Car avant 25 ans, les deux sexes consultent surtout pour des problèmes respiratoires. Ensuite, les hommes souffrent plus de troubles cardiovasculaires, alors que les femmes consultent plutôt pour de la prévention. Après 65 ans, il y a une certaine parité en matière de consultations, essentiellement pour des problèmes cardiovasculaires.
Par contre, les femmes sont nettement plus souvent hospitalisées que les hommes. Mais deux phénomènes expliquent en partie ce phénomène : les grossesses bien sûr, mais aussi la plus grande espérance de vie.
La cause principale de mortalité féminine, ce sont les maladies de l’appareil circulatoire (infarctus, accidents vasculaires…) alors que chez les hommes, c’est le cancer qui arrive en tête.
Maternité : Plus de mamans solos
Ce n’est pas un mystère : il y a de plus en plus de couples, souvent avec enfants, qui se séparent. Ainsi, le nombre de familles monoparentales devient de plus en plus important sur l’ensemble des foyers : 9 % en 1975, 10 % en 1982, 13 % en1990, 17 % en 1999 et près de 20 % en 2005 ! Et c’est la maman qui a la garde dans la majorité des cas. Résultats : le nombre de mamans solos a augmenté fortement depuis quelques années. 85 % des 1,7 millions de familles monoparentales ont à leur tête une femme.
Age : Les femmes qui vieillissent seules
La solitude des personnes âgées est aussi un problème qui va toucher en majorité les femmes. Bien sûr, cela s’explique notamment par la plus forte longévité féminine. Mais le constat est sans appel : après 80 ans, 60 % des femmes vivent seules, contre 15 % des hommes.
Et les maisons de retraite accueillent trois-quart de femmes. Mais cette situation devrait changer, avec l’allongement progressif de la durée de vie masculine : l’écart ne sera plus que de 5 ans dans les années 2050.
Ces chiffres de l’Insee montrent ainsi que les inégalités ont décidément la vie dure, même en ce début de troisième millénaire. Mais les choses évoluent très rapidement en la matière, et la réelle parité hommes-femmes est certainement pour demain… ou en tout cas pour après-demain.
Alain SousaSource : Femmes et Hommes – Regards sur la parité – Edition 2008 – Insee Références