The Times offers their top fifty “wish you’d been there” moments in football.

What if you had a time machine and could set it to take you back to any point in football history? Which matches, which moments, would you choose—so you could proudly say, years later, “I was there”?

For me, No. 2, “The miracle of Istanbul, 2005,” will always be No. 1 (until, of course, Liverpool wins No. 6 or No. 19; or England wins No. 2). 

On our way home tonight from a relatively impromtu dinner with Dave, Robyn, Karl & Baby Finn in Redondo Beach, side one of Rush’s 2112 shuffled its way to the front of my iPod.

Racing down the 405, The Wife and I sang our way through the entire suite at the top of our lungs.

And, yes, she knew every line, from “We are the priests” to “We have assumed control.”

Beyond cool.

Seems like I’m not the only one who thinks Geoff Ryman’s Air: Or, Have Not Have is an absolutely brilliant novel.

From his guest blogging duties at Omnivoracious, Richard K Morgan:

There has to be a reason why books like DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little or Yann Martel’s Life of Pi walk off with the Booker prize, while Geoff Ryman’s Air isn’t even short-listed (and it sure as shit ain’t about how good they are, because Ryman’s book pisses all over the other two in every meaningful measure there is of literary quality).

I’ve recommended few novels with as much gusto as I have Ryman’s.