• About Percival Henry

Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

~ Blogging the Fantastic Four issue by issue (plus whatever else grabs my attention)

Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

Tag Archives: London

67 Things I’ll Miss About London (and 9 Things I Won’t)

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by percivalhenry in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

London

After nearly four years living in London, we returned to the U.S. today. Here’s what I’ll miss:

1, Pub lunches with the family

2, the Jubilee Line

3, Match of the Day

4, Nunhead Cemetery

Nunhead

5, “flytipping”

6, Two hours to Paris

7, Borough Market

8, Graham Norton

9, the Jamaica Wine House in the City

10, riding fixed wheel cycles at the Herne Hill Velodrome

11142429_10101916496856732_7430421140693027039_o

11, Yannick Bolasie

12, day trips to Brighton

13, adventure playgrounds

14, canoeing on the Dart

15,  the Oval tube station

16, running through Dulwich Woods

17, “could do”

18, Ocado

19, Peckham Plex

20, Holmesdale Fanatics

HolmesdaleFanatics

21, The Heber Parents Disco

22, the Evening Standard

23, watching my daughter rider her scooter down Crystal Palace Road to school

24, lunch at White Cross Street market

25, Paolo Ucello at The National Gallery

Niccolo-da-Tolentino-Leads-the-Florentine-Troops-1450s

26, wolfing down pasties on the train home

27, sunset at 10 in June

28, the view from the top of Canonbie Road

29, “faffing about”

30,  running along the canals in Birmingham

31, The Richard Serra at Liverpool Street Station

32, watching the moon through the skylights of our flat

33, weekends in Vienna

34, blue plaques

IMG_0359

35, Cambridge

36, blackberry picking in Dulwich Park

37, climbing Ben Nevis with my son

38, date night at Franklin’s

39, “can’t be arsed”

40, Foyles Bookstore

41, sunrise from our flat

IMG_0295

42. Haunch of Venison Yard

43, “Stand in the Rain and Stand in the Sun, We are South London’s Number One”

44, Ye Olde Mitre, London’s oldest pub (allegedly), in Holborn

45, the canals of Paddington Basin

46, Southwark Tigers Rugby

47, The Olympics

48, St. Pancras Station

49, “a right barney”

50, The Walkie Talkie, the Cheese Grater and the Gherkin

11722117_10101940676270992_5465946164694489173_o

51, Bath

52, Forbidden Planet

53, Christmas Curry

54, lunch at an Oxford college

55, concerts at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

56, “sorted”

58, Bird-in-Bush Road

e598e4c08a980c451e96950c648c9365

59, track & field on television

60, the V&A

61, Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday

62, Joel Ward

1415540701736_wps_14_Joel_Ward_of_Crystal_Pala

63, heated towel racks

64, Snowdonia

65, Peckham’s car-park bars

66, SE22

67, “pootling”

Here’s what I won’t miss:

1, Elephant & Castle

2, roundabouts

3, TV tax

4, the Northern Line

london-021-northern-line

5, trying to find a bin

6, cling warp

7, “hiya”

8, the 176 night bus

9, Theresa May

 

 

 

Nobody Asked Me But … Here are Three Ways to Improve the NFL

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by percivalhenry in Nobody Asked Me But ..., Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

football, London, NFL

NFL-football-650x390

The National Football League is a sports and entertainment juggernaut, but it’s far from perfect. Here are three things it could do to improve the product.

1, Let quarterbacks deflate the ball.

Let me be clear here: if Tom Brady and the Patriots knowingly broke the rules, they should be punished. But no one has explained to my satisfaction the purpose of the rule. What harm is there in letting a quarterback adjust the ball so it’s easier to throw? Why not let teams inflate it to their preferred level? If both teams can do it, is any team gaining an advantage? While basketball and soccer teams share possession of the ball and might differ on what the proper pressure should be, a football is overwhelmingly possessed by one team (and a deflated football is probably easier to catch, and therefore intercept, anyway).  And unlike other forms of tinkering with sports equipment, like corking bats and using stickum, deflating balls is self regulating: if you lower the pressure by too much, it’s harder to throw. So the amount of variance between balls will always be modest. In sports, the fewer rules, the better, and this one’s unnecessary. Here’s my proposal: let teams try it next preseason. I bet no one would notice a difference.

2, Expand the season to 18 games.

Here’s the catch: Make the season 18 games, but mandate that no player can play more than 16 games a season. To make this work, I’d eliminate the bye week, and expand the roster from 53 to 60. An 18-game season has all sorts of benefits. The NFL gets the two extra games it wants, giving it more product to sell to networks, and each team gets one more home game (which will pay for the additional players). Fans get more games, and they get a new wrinkle in strategy, as coaches must weigh which teams to sit their best players against. Coaches get to see backups play in meaningful situations. Players get more rest (and forced rest, so there can be no accusations of being soft for sitting out a game) and with expanded rosters, there are more jobs. The integrity of the 16-game season is preserved, so individual records are still meaningful. It’s a win-win-win-win. The only hitch: I can’t see teams carrying two kickers and punters, so I might waive the 16-game rule for those positions.

3, Move the Jaguars to London.

This is more of a prediction than recommendation, as it looks like it may happen, but it makes sense and the league should do it. (Disclosure: I live in London). The Jaguars have signed up to play one game in London every year from 2013 through 2017, and while the games are purportedly to build an international fan base (and somehow entice Londoners to games in northeast Florida) it’s clear that the league is laying the groundwork for moving the franchise. Jacksonville’s owner, Shad Khan, already has a foothold in the U.K., owning the Fulham soccer team. The NFL has eyed Europe hungrily for decades, even sponsoring the ill-fated World League of American Football (Amsterdam Admirals, anyone?). They want this to happen. Jacksonville isn’t the smallest NFL market (that would be Green Bay), nor are they worst at drawing fans. But the team is the third NFL franchise in its state, and arguably the sixth most popular football team (trailing the Dolphins, Bucs and three college programs). Weighed against being the sole team in a city of 8.6 million (10 times Jacksonville’s population) and on a continent of 400 million, it seems a no brainer.

There are obstacles. One is the Jaguars stadium lease with the city Jacksonville, which locks them in until 2027 (this article has the details). But if the team and the NFL wanted them to move, I suspect it would happen. Then there’s scheduling. While the flights from the East Coast of the U.S. to London are long (six to eight hours, depending on the direction), it’s similar to a flight Miami to Seattle. The bigger problem is the time zone difference, which is five hours between the East Coast of the U.S. and London, and eight from the West Coast. Making that adjustment eight times a season (or nine, if you adopt my first suggestion) would be brutal for the Jaguars and competitive disadvantage. But here’s how to make it palatable: schedule two road trips of four and five games long.  The team would spend the duration in the US, then come back for a four or five game home stand, minimizing the number of transatlantic flights. Visiting teams would only have to make the trip once a year, and it could be done to so it’s the week after a bye or before a Monday game.

Would fans in London turn out? I think so. The NFL is now selling out 90,000 seat Wembley three games a year. They would need to fill it five (or six) more times, which wouldn’t be hard once fans had a home town to support (and the team could eventually move into a smaller stadium of their own). A winning product would help, but the initial novelty would sustain it for a few years. Look at the support for NYC FC, a fledgling soccer team, in New York. It had a fan club before it played a game. I suspect the reaction would be similar for an American sports product going th other way.

But they may not need to sell out to be a success for the league. The NFL last year experimented with a 2:30 p.m. London kickoff, meaning fans on the East Coast could watch the games at 9:30. a.m. Ratings were good, and this year all three games will have the early kick off. Having a full slate of morning games would give the NFL more inventory, which could be sold as a separate TV package (as suggested by ProFootballTalk here).

Ultimately, I think this will happen, even if the Jaguars have to wait until 2027, and a London franchise may be the first of four teams in Europe, enough to create another division and ease some of the travel burden. And the Super Bowl winners can finally claim to be world champions.

Year of Fiction: The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson (2010)

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by percivalhenry in Year of Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Books, London, Year of Fiction

Image

I resolved to read more fiction this year, and specifically tackle the enormous backlog of books I’ve been accumulating (and lugging from city to city, and continent to continent) for 20 years now. My strategy is to stop reading the New York Times on my commute and read paperbacks. It’s really only about 40 minutes a day but it adds up and I’m slowly nibbling my way through my stack. I intend these reviews to be very short. I’m also using this to keep track of what I’ve read.

The Finkler Question, set in contemporary London, is the story of the gloomy, directionless middle-aged Julian Treslove and his narrow circle of friends. Treslove is a gentile, but his friends are Jewish and he is drawn deeper and deeper into their world. The book explores modern Jewish identity, anti-Semitism and Zionism, overlaid with questions about aging, mourning and loss. Jacobson is a skilled stylist, and writes with humor and insight, but the book starts slowly and never picks up speed. Treslove starts out unsympathetic, and never seems convincing as a character – he’s more of a collection of neuroses. (It didn’t help that I read The Finkler Question immediately after finishing Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee, which treads some similar territory to much more powerful effect). There’s a claustrophobic quality to the work, as the book’s handful of characters keep on bumping into each other, and every conversation and event circles around the same theme of Jewishness. With its small cast, domestic setting and heavy message, I wonder if it might have made a better play than novel.

Books completed this year:
1, The Man in the High Castle (Dick)
2, Disgrace (Coetzee)
3, The Finkler Question (Jacobson)

  • “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual No. 15
  • “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 223
  • “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 222
  • “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 221
  • “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 220
  • July 2026
  • June 2026
  • May 2026
  • April 2026
  • March 2026
  • February 2026
  • January 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • February 2018
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • July 2026
  • June 2026
  • May 2026
  • April 2026
  • March 2026
  • February 2026
  • January 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • February 2018
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual No. 15

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual No. 15

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry July 18, 2026
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 223

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 223

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry July 14, 2026
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 222

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 222

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry July 5, 2026
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 221

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 221

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry June 25, 2026
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 220

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 220

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry June 15, 2026
“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 219

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 219

percivalhenry's avatar by percivalhenry June 7, 2026

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more
    • Join 74 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
Loading Comments...