“Deciding on a name for your baby is one of the hardest decisions you’ll have to make,” starts the A-Z of Baby Names. Maybe, maybe not. But if you’re struggling, pay careful attention to the advice on the back of the same book: “These days, virtually anything goes when it comes to babies’ names!” (Note the exclamation mark, because chosing an unusual baby name really is that much fun!!!)
In fact, if you’re really stuck for names, just turn to page 14 and pay careful attention to the lists entitled: “Made-up names for boys and girls”. Here are five of the book’s made-up suggestions for boys:
- Dantrell
- Daquan
- Markell
- Quintavius
- Tevin
And here’s five of the book’s made-up names for girls:
- Amberkalay
- Dalondra
- Jameka
- Keoshawn
- Quanisha
But what about when you’ve run out of ideas because all your mates have already picked all the Dantrells and Keoshawns? Don’t worry, just make up some of your own – and here are ten suggestions from me (I might turn this into a baby name book, because there’s only 487,549 on the market right now and someone could make 38p from a book like this):
- Anubriffpentam
- Collectingcars
- Crrdft
- Farmyardken
- Loodmubbaois 87f.g SD338WE69AMN
- Mz
- Prestonnorthend
- Trejanfoog
- Snakehead
- Zabs
So, there’s this theory. I stole it (I think) from Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein. It’s a pretty good theory and allows you to see the final Premier League table months before the season ends. Sceptical? Then, let me explain.
Order the Premier League teams after they’ve played 12 games (this process is harder than it sounds, because most sites don’t allow you to look at tables retrospectively – which means you have to keep the League tables for a couple of weeks).
Once you’ve worked out the maths – and every team in the table has played 12 games – you’re left with an ordered list. And this table, give or take a place or two, is likely to be the final Premier League table. Still sceptical?
Well, I heard about the theory a couple of years ago and – give or take a bit of movement – the theory was sound. There’s normally a couple of big changes (Hull dropping like a stone last year, Spurs zooming up the League). And as I said before, you have to have an accepted error of one or two places around most teams.
Which – if you look at the table below – is either Champions League or nothing (if you’re an Aston Villa fan, like me). And it’s time to get excited if you’re a Chelsea or Spurs supporter, and time to look away if you’re a West Ham, Pompey or Wolves fan. Anyway, here’s the [predicted] final table for 2009/10 (goal difference after 12 games in brackets, followed by points):
- Chelsea (21, 30)
- Arsenal (21, 25)
- Man Utd (11, 25)
- Tottenham (6, 22)
- Aston Villa (8, 21)
- Man City (7, 21)
- Liverpool (9, 19)
- Sunderland (1, 17)
- Stoke (-3, 16)
- Blackburn (-9, 16)
- Burnley (-10, 16)
- Fulham (-1, 15)
- Everton (-5, 15)
- Wigan (-9, 14)
- Birmingham (-4, 12)
- Bolton (-11, 11)
- Hull (-15, 11)
- West Ham (-4, 10)
- Wolverhampton (-10, 10)
- Portsmouth (-8, 7)
I’ve been updating my blog. Well, actually I’ve done some of the updating. The vast amount of grunt work has been done by my good friend Jonny – he is a very decent egg. The end result of this updating process is that the blog has been moved from one platform (Mr Site) to another (WordPress).
I am currently uploading old content to WordPress. Re-publishing this old stuff in a backwards chronology is a bit like living your life in reverse style – dead features lists have been re-born, Wimbledon is still rubbish. And Aston Villa are still about 6th in the Premier League (again).