Charlie Brown

You close your eyes and its all different now. You wake up and don't recognize the sight in front of your eyes. Its a strange beat, perhaps the same beat even - but somehow still its just not the same. Someone took the lyric sheet away and you try to sway, you try and try and try, but you just can't. You close your eyes again, you think its all going to come back, that you are going to awaken, or perhaps fall asleep and that flight will lift you off the ground. But all I see is spots - spots of light and you don't know where you are. You don't know what your name is. You don't know what this life is.

Straws

Envelop and swallow me.
Whole and in pieces.

Drink from me,
of my blood
and of my sweat.

Star laden night,
low hung,
sprawled across the grass.

Liam Herringshaw: The origins of the name 'yorker' | Specials | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

Liam Herringshaw: The origins of the name 'yorker' | Specials | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

Sporting Old Parson, "I didn't ask you what a 'yorker' was - (with dignity) - I know that as well as you do. But why is it called a 'yorker'?"

Professional Player, "Well, I can't say, sir. I don't know what else you could call it."
Punch magazine, September 23, 1882

	Yorker: a delivery that can make the batsman look like he's on skates going over a banana peel © PA Photos Enlarge

What's the most exciting delivery in cricket? A glorious googly? A brutal bouncer? A deadly doosra?
All these will have their proponents, I'm sure, but all would be wrong. When it comes to a heart-stopping instant of sheer, visceral pleasure, there is only one winner. Nothing beats the yorker. From Lasith Malinga skittling Kenya with a burst of unplayable missiles, to Waqar Younis blasting Brian Lara off his feet, it is the quintessential death ball, and the most devastating weapon in a fast bowler's armoury.
But why is a yorker a yorker, and where does it come from? I play my cricket in York, where the natives are known, at least in some quarters, as Yorkers. Does this mean that this is the home of the delivery, then, and are the locals experts in bowling the ball? I donned my academic research hat, one that looks suspiciously similar to my regular cricket hat, and set off to find out.
Even from a cursory online search, it is clear that plenty of theories abound. For proper etymological work, however, the only sensible place to start is theOxford English Dictionary. There, three forms of yorker are listed - the bowling variety, the demonym, and the cryptically intriguing "something that is used to tie a trouser leg beneath the knee".
The cricketing yorker is first documented from August 1861, when Bell's Life in London & Sporting Chroniclereported that "Buchanan stopped some time, and bothered the bowlers much, as he would not hit even a 'Yorker'." Ignoring the fact that not hitting a yorker would surely end a batsman's innings, rather than prolong it, it is clear that the writer assumed his readers knew what a Yorker was. Less than a decade on, and the inverted commas had gone, as well as any ambiguity, as the Sporting Magazine (1870) noted that, "A fast Yorker is as disagreeable a first ball as an incoming batsman could receive."
When it comes to why it is so-called, the OED plumps for a geographical explanation, suggesting that it probably was from York, as a ball introduced by Yorkshire players.
Michael Rundell, however, finds this "really quite unconvincing". In his Wisden Dictionary of Cricket (3rd ed., 2006), Rundell argues that the true story is one of deception; that the yorker is from Yorkshire, but only because "york" is a slang word for cheating.
Rundell refers to the English Dialect Dictionary, compiled by linguist Joseph Wright at the turn of the 20th century. Wright found that, in various parts of the British Isles, "york" meant being shrewd or sharp, or simply "to cheat". He cites an example from Warwickshire, where a disgruntled plaintiff complains of an unknown person: "He has yorked me".
Indeed, though this isn't going to win me many friends in my new home, there is a substantial body of work relating to Yorkers being people whose personal dealings involve various unsavoury attributes. To outsiders at least, Yorkshire folk were always on the look-out for a new way to fleece someone.
One of the first cricketing dictionaries to define the yorker (Steel & Lyttelton, 1888) states that it was "called in days gone by a 'tice', an abbreviation of 'entice'". It seems a simple leap of logic, therefore, to make the crafty-cricket connection, and many have made it.
In its version of the yorker story, Wikipedia says "to pull Yorkshire" on someone was to deceive them, but as usual it is slightly wrong. The correct phrase is "to come [or put] Yorkshire" on someone, meaning to cheat or dupe them, as gleefully pointed out by the Lancashire CCC website.

	To be "yerked" or "yarked" is to be struck, smacked or hit; to have something thrown at you suddenly; or to have your shoes tied together. It's entirely correct to mutter, after being yorked, that you've also been yarked

I asked David Hall, director of the Yorkshire CCC museum whether he could shed any light on the matter. He told me that they have gone back through the records to the start of the county club in 1833, but don't have an answer. When pushed, the museum refers (or defers) to the Cricket Lexicon of Leigh & Woodhouse (2006). They therefore prefer the idea "that the ball was invented in Yorkshire, [to] the fact that york was slang for 'deceive'".
The third option put forward by Leigh and Woodhouse is that yorkers were originally bowled with a jerky action. Even though it is a dialect variation of "jerker", I can find no evidence that the ball was ever called a "yerker", so this is perhaps a leap too far.
There does seem to some mileage in the many meanings of the verb, though. To be "yerked" or "yarked" is to be struck, smacked or hit; to have something thrown at you suddenly; or to have your shoes tied together. Many a batsman has suffered all these indignities as a yorker knocks them over, so I like the idea of the "yarker", even if I can't prove it is the true forefather. Either way, it's entirely correct to mutter, after being yorked, that you've also been yarked.
So what are we left with? Hypotheses still, but we can at least do a bit of clarifying. One website claims with certainty that the yorker gets its name from the device for tying your trouser legs below the knee. This doesn't take into account that the cricketing term appears in the 19th century, whereas the trousering one is not recorded until the 20th. Given that it is quite difficult for an older word to derive from a newer one, barring some kind of quantum delivery, I think we can rule that theory out.
We can also rule out 19th century Yorkshire and England star Tom Emmett as the original Yorker. Emmett was certainly a very influential and successful left-arm quick bowler, and, according to Anthony Woodhouse, "perhaps cricket's greatest character". Emmett didn't make his Yorkshire debut till 1866, though, some five years after the yorker was first recorded, so there's no way he was responsible for inventing the delivery. He did invent his own slower ball, though, one that pitched on a right-hander's leg stump and then cut away towards off. Emmett called it the "sosteneuter", and it is surely due for a comeback. Perhaps Zaheer Khan might like to add it to his repertoire?
It's interesting that none of the quoted examples are from Yorkshire, indicating that yorker was a term applied by outsiders, not locals. The early yorkers are also capitalised, suggesting a geographical noun. And as hinted at by the original 1861 quote, temptation and bamboozlement are what the yorker is all about. The deceitful Yorker with his deceptive yorker might just be the true story.
Whatever its origins, it's reassuring to those of us still trying and failing to master it, that Lasith Malinga "didn't have any idea of how to bowl a yorker" when he was called up to the Sri Lankan national team. He's certainly nailed it now, and Waqar Younis says his performance against Kenya in the 2011 World Cup "reminded me of myself in the good old days".
And, having apparently honed his skills by bowling at a pair of shoes in the nets, I can't help but wonder if Malinga is inadvertently giving us a glimpse back into history, and returning the yarker to its boots.
Liam Herringshaw is a medium-paced palaeontologist who moved to Newfoundland from the UK to improve his chances of opening the bowling

Slice

A thousand tiny cuts.
Paper cuts gush sometimes too.

Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand (1978)

Lokpal Bill Petition

From The Hindu April 5th

Garnering impressive support from the public, veteran anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare embarked on a fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday, demanding passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted through a civil society initiative.
He also rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to call off the fast and engage in a discussion with a Sub-Committee of the Group of Ministers over the framing of the Lokpal Bill.
Visits Rajghat
Mr. Hazare first visited Rajghat, where he paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, before proceeding to India Gate atop an open jeep accompanied by several social workers and members of the public.
From there, he proceeded to the public meeting at Jantar Mantar with tricolour-waving students cheering him all along the way. Mr. Hazare demanded setting up of a joint committee with 50 per cent representation for citizens and 50 per cent for the government for formulation of a strong Lokpal Bill.
“We want a joint committee. If you want to end corruption, then why don't you constitute it? It means you do not want to end the corruption. I will fast till the joint committee is constituted and till there is pran (life) in me,” Mr. Hazare said in response to the Prime Minister's offer.
At Rajghat, Mr. Hazare said: “I have come to request Gandhiji to give good sense to this Government. So many sacrifices were made for this country. But everything is being destroyed. You [Gandhiji] gave direction to this country but these people are destroying it.''
PMO ‘disappointed'
The Prime Minister's Office had on Monday night expressed “deep disappointment” over Mr. Hazare's decision to go on fast. The statement from the PMO added that the Prime Minister had “enormous respect for Mr. Hazare and his mission.”
Mr. Hazare said he had got the same assurances from the Prime Minister at an earlier meeting on March 7. “He said we have faith in you; we respect you; then why did he not sit with us on this issue again?...If the Government alone drafts this bill, it will be autocratic, not democratic; there will be discrepancies,” Mr. Hazare added.
‘Not acceptable'
RTI activist and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal said the Prime Minister at that meeting had offered to pass on their suggestions to the Group of Ministers constituted to formulate the draft of the Lokpal Bill.
“This is not acceptable to us. We want to be part of the formulation. Who are the Ministers in this GoM? They include people like Veerappa Moily who drafted a weak Lokpal Bill, Kapil Sibal who could see no revenue loss in the 2G spectrum scam and Sharad Pawar,” Mr. Kejriwal remarked.
Former IPS officer and social activist Kiran Bedi echoed Mr. Hazare's demand for a joint committee with at least half the members chosen from civil society like senior advocates Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan and Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde. “The remaining members can be from the Government. This committee should treat the Jan Lokpal Bill as its working draft. It should submit its report by mid-May and the Government should then place the Bill drafted by the committee in Parliament,” Dr. Bedi said, adding that such a committee's work would plug all loopholes in the Bill.
A number of politicians from the Opposition parties and public figures visited Mr. Hazare during the course of the day to express solidarity with him. Marking a change from usual protest demonstrations where party flags dominate, both sides of Jantar Mantar Road were lined instead with rows of tricolour flags.

Sign the online petition for the Lokpal Bill - Lokpal Bill Petition

We Are the Champions

What a moment. Glory,glory be the sweet taste of victory, for we are the champions now.