#...Mornington Crescent!

[thunderstruck9]

Frank Auerbach (British, 1931-2024), Mornington Crescent, 1970. Oil on board, 48 x 60 in. Government Art Collection, London

[the-home]

[beardedmrbean]

I love America.

Crabby Dicks is a cherished American institution, and for good reason.

[arinewman7]

Study for Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II, Crayon on paper, 2004

Mornington Crescent, Summer Morning II oil on board, 2004

Frank Auerbach

[hanssloane]

Frank Auerbach (who died today)

Tree in Mornington Crescent , 1991–1992

Oil on canvas

Seen at Kelingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

[omgkatsudonplease]

the whispers of lady polixenes: london, 24-25 december 1995

“Pendragon Castle?” queried Harry, glancing over at an equally quizzical Hermione. “What’s that?” Ron was tempted to explain, but Malfoy was already on the Quaffle. “Excellent idea. Only one caveat: we play the Dodderidge Variation.” A groan from Fred, George, and Ginny. “Only if the Clagg subclause is revoked,” insisted Ginny. “No going around in circles.” “Fair enough. No circuitous plays,” declared Malfoy. “I’ll start: The Whispering Marsh.” “Bold opening manoeuvre,” said Fred. “But we see your bald-faced attempt at the Mopsus Gambit, and we won’t stand for it. The Labyrinthine Caves.” “Oh, putting pressure on the lateral,” remarked Sirius, through a bite of his bun. “Everdark Vale it is, then.” “The Misty Isles,” said Ginny quickly. “The Opal Mines!” shouted Regulus, and then cleared his throat. “Sorry. Got excited there.” “Why?” asked George, narrowing his eyes. “Seems like you’re a bit too familiar with this play, Reg.” “We’d better dodge that,” added Ron. “The Silver Isle.” The other half of the table groaned. “See, this is what happens when you blunder the Opal Mines six moves in,” rebuked Lord Malfoy, much to Ron’s surprise. “The Blood Moors it is.” Ron Weasley meditates on possessions and friendships. The second Weasley-Malfoy Games Showdown is held.

read HERE on ao3!

The illustration in this chapter was done by the wonderful @meemoop, who draws the most beautiful Narcissa Malfoys I have ever seen! Please go give them some love!

[weaversweek]

Which game shows have had the most episodes, part 9: HAV-ITV

The summer-long task is running out of summer: this week's installment goes from Have I Got News for You to ITV Play.

So, it's plenty of brown suits.

Lots of branded prizes.

Mornington Crescent - let me just explain the rules to you.

And It's a Knockout, it was good clean fun once upon a time.

Plus!

The million dollar question.

[adarrhiannon]

AU where the game chosen for the final challenge with the Toymaker is Monopoly

[lizamezzo]

Flanders and Swann’s The Slow Train is an elegy for the lost branch lines:

Slow train journeys in rural England sure are an experience. You're going ten miles and it takes a day and a half because it stops at every lamp-post and the announcement says "The next station stop is Ferretley" or something and you think "I didn't know that was a place" and you get there and it isn't

[radioprune]

i smell points!

[thunderstruck9]

Frank Auerbach (British, 1931-2024), Mornington Crescent II, 1991. Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in.

[the-home]

[beardedmrbean]

Autocorrect changing "fuck" to "duck" isn't that big of a stretch; after all, they're both fowl language.

[sanjitchudha]

Exploring Frank Auerbach: Britain's Post-War Artistic Titan

Frank Auerbach was one of Britain's pre-eminent post-war painters. I'm lucky enough to be quite close to one of his works.

One of Britain’s pre-eminent post-war painters, Frank Auerbach was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931. Auerbach arrived in England as a Jewish refugee in 1939. His parents sent letters and messages, until one day they stopped; they never made it out of Nazi Germany. Auerbach attended a boarding school in Kent and was fostered to a British family. Later in life, he attended St Martin’s School of…

[teacupthesauceror-blog]

I could get dropout to buy I think the best way to experience that sketch show disguised as a game show is in 3 minute bursts at random

[insidetheskinofthesun]

There’s also a version called “Mornington Crescent“ (named after a different tube station) where the goal is, essentially, to play Finchley Central but while making up wholly imaginary reasons as to why you can’t immediately say the tube station that means you win, often elaborating on the wholly imaginary rules guiding the game. It’s great fun.

The origins of The Game are uncertain. The most common hypothesis as is that The Game derives from another mental game, Finchley Central. While the original version of Finchley Central involves taking turns to name stations, in 1976 some members of the Cambridge University Science Fiction Society (CUSFS) developed a variant where the first person to think of the titular station loses. The game in this form demonstrates ironic processing, in which attempts to suppress or avoid certain thoughts make those thoughts more common or persistent than they would be at random.

How this became simplified into The Game is unknown; one hypothesis is that once it spread outside the Greater London area, among people who are less familiar with London stations, it morphed into its self-referential form. The creators of "LoseTheGame.net", a website which aims to catalogue information relating to the phenomenon, have received messages from multiple former members of the CUSFS commenting on the similarity between the Finchley Central variant and the modern Game. The first known reference to The Game is a blog post from 2002 – the author states that they "found out about it online about 6 months ago".

Finchley Central is a mind game in which two players take turns naming stations in the London Underground. The first person to name Finchley Central is the winner. Of course, the first player could say "Finchley Central" straight away, but as mathematics professor Jonathan Partington notes,

An opening move of "Finchley Central" is too much of a cheat, and you might wish to start with, say, Liverpool Street, when, assuming that your opponent isn't rude enough to reply with Finchley Central, leaves you with a mate on your second move (though you probably would prefer to stall by playing, say, Bank, in the hopes of a more spectacular win later).

It is clear that the ‘best’ time to say Finchley Central is exactly before your opponent does. Failing that it is good that he should be considering it. You could, of course, say ‘Finchley Central’ on your second turn. In that case, your opponent puffs on his cigarette and says, ‘Well… Shame on you.’

I think the American mind cannot comprehend the nature of finchley central