Scottish FA Cup, Round 3, Cappielow Park, 28/11/09

This was a clean sheet against a team from a higher league who have scored nine goals in their past two games. A fair result, then.

But that’s 180 minutes we’ve played against Morton this season and not put the ball in the back of their net.

And there’s no Sons TV because of a ludicrous SFA contract with a certain broadcasting organisation. (Who probably haven’t and won’t broadcast any footage of the game.)

Plus my trip to Stirling next Saturday has been kiboshed by the replay.*

Looks like I’ll not be seeing the Sons again till Boxing Day.

*Time was there had to be 100 or more miles between the two clubs’ grounds before a Saturday Scottish Cup replay was sanctioned.

I know Christmas starts in about August for some shops (especially with the Children’s Annuals coming out then) but most nowadays have the decency to get at least Halloween, if not Bonfire Night, out of the way before setting out the bunting and the baubles.

(That’s the only bonus about the commercialisation of Halloween. It fends off Christmas for a bit. When I was a lad there wasn’t much “ghostly” tat, apart from perhaps paper masks or witches’ hats, on sale in the run up to All Hallows Eve. Certainly no pumpkins and none of the peculiar orange and black creations that seem to be the marker these days. We had our guising costumes made for us by the sweat of mother’s brow – or sewing fingers.)

In Kirkcaldy, Santa visits the Mercat and the town’s Christmas lights are switched on halfway through November but at least the latter has some point to it, as it brightens up the dark winter afternoons.

Yesterday, though, the 27^th of November, in my local corner shop I saw for sale not Christmas stuff, oh no, but creme eggs.

Creme eggs! In November. The leftovers from last Easter have barely cleared away.

It takes all the anticipation away.

Year round creme eggs. It’s just not right.

Yesterday for the first time in ages I caught Countdown on Channel 4.

Jeff Stelling doesn’t seem right to me (but a lot better than Des O’Connor anyway.)

But the numbers game! The replacement for Carol Vorderman said “times it by.” Times it by!

She’s a grown woman, presumably with a Maths degree or something involving Maths at least.

She should know there is no such verb as “times it by.” It’s multiply.

Susie Dent in dictionary corner ought to be correcting her.

[Carol Vorderman also annoyed me with the way she set out the arithmetic as she would write things like:-
100/50 = 2 x 6 = (12 + 1) x 25 = 325. The "new" woman (I'm sorry, I don't know her name) did this sort of thing too.

Now, 100/50 = 2. It does not equal 2 x 6.
2 x 6 = 12; not (12 + 1) x 25.

It might seem like a little thing .......
but I get faced with such arithmetical rubbish on almost a daily basis in my day job.

Don't give the pupils any excuse, please.]

When you are in a supermarket does anything make the heart sink quite so much as the above two words?

What they usually mean is “smaller” or “worse tasting because made with cheaper ingredients.”

Never in my experience do they actually mean the product concerned has been improved.

So here I was posting a rant about the rankness of “no added sugar” soft drinks and what comment do I receive?

One about the merits of a new drink with …..

No added sugar.

Complete with a link to where to buy the stuff, of course. (A link I shall not be including here.)

So thanks but no thanks, Margaret. I’ll not be trying it.

Even if it does come in six delicious flavours.

Time was when bottles labelled as above were rare in shops. Not so now. Just try to find any diluting juice that has sugar added to it at all (at least in my local supermarkets.)

It may not actually be the case – they may be perfectly all right – but I remember reading somewhere years ago that the tests on the stuff that’s used instead of sugar in these drinks (aspartame or E951 and acesulfame K or E950 – but not so much saccharin, which came earlier) didn’t properly pass the safety tests. Either that or the results were massaged to put them in a more positive light. Something iffy anyway. This, I find, is supported by the Wikipedia article on aspartame, which does, though, contain a warning as to its disputed content. The main article states that the latest information is that the safety of aspartame is clear cut.
Acesulfame K has also been questioned but declared safe by the FDA and its European equvalent.

Aspartame is the methyl ester of a phenylalanine-aspartic acid dipeptide. Ah, a bit of Chemistry!

Both phenylalanine and aspartic acid are essential amino acids; which is to say our bodies need a certain supply of them – along with other amino acids – to make protein for muscles and cell repair and so on. We get these amino acids normally from our food. The plain dipeptide would present no health problems as the body would hydrolyse it to the individual amino acids before utilising those. I presume the dipeptide itself is not sweet since they use the methyl ester as aspartame. This ester can potentially hydrolyse to produce methanol – which is a poison, as found in wood alcohol (wood spirit.) I can see that the quantities of methanol involved will be small unless you imbibe bucket-loads of the drinks and the body will be able to get rid of it reasonably easily – though its metabolite, methanoic acid (or formic acid,) apparently lingers and is the main problem in causing the blindness and acidosis associated with drinking methanol.

Acesulfame K has a more complicated chemical structure (see link above,) containing what is known as a heterocyclic ring and bristling with oxygen atoms. As it is relatively stable under heating it is probably reasonably safe though I suspect it will hydrolyse to form an amino sulphonic acid.

Whatever, these “no added sugar” drinks have a slimy quality to them that is extremely unpleasant. I much prefer the sugared varieties (when I drink any at all) but they’re so hard to find.

I would also take, for myself, any health risks associated with the increased sugar intake. I’m sure these risks will also be acceptable for children if their sugar consumption from elsewhere isn’t excessive.

What?

No. I’ll just have a black coffee, thanks.