SAM Burgess, the noted rugby player, has been praised for his candour after admitting that he did not understand certain parts of the rugby union game.
He made the switch from rugby league and says: "There are so many differences, I would say they [codes] are almost opposite. I have enjoyed some parts of scrummaging, not so much the line-outs - being blatantly honest, because I don't understand them."
Whereas any other player would have flannelled in a manly attempt to hide his ignorance, Burgess has won admirers for taking the honest approach.
In that spirit, I would like to admit that there are many, many things I do not understand. And probably never will.
* CERN, for example. And the Large Hadron Collider. I've studied the official website and hunted down simple explanations that even a child would be able to comprehend. But the more I read about fundamental particles being the basic constituents of matter, and being made to collide together at close to the speed of light, the more confused and embarrassed I feel. It's like staring into a black hole for all eternity.
* Then there's Rangers. I'm on slightly surer ground here - prosaic Scottish football, and all that. What I can't understand is why so many crises have been permitted to flourish at Ibrox. All this talk about the need for urgent cash injections, all these different consortia, Mike Ashley's plans for the club, the fact that you never know from week to week just who is in charge. It seems as endless as it is mysterious. A few days ago I sought clarification from a friend who has been a Rangers fan for 20 years. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and changed the subject. He did say, though, that he has stopped going to see them.
* Celebrity Big Brother. Big Brother, for that matter, too. They were innovative once but were milked dry to the point of exhaustion. Now CBB is back. Why?
* Why did Steve Emerson, the 'terrorism expert', see fit to tell Fox News (of course, it had to be Fox News) that Birmingham was a Muslim-only city where non-Muslims feared to tread? Did he not make any, you know, independent checks? And why, when he appeared on Sky to apologise, did he make matters worse by saying: "Hearing it over when you played it was like waterboarding, I guess"?
* And lastly, a small question, but one that continues to nag at me: how on earth do they make sugar-cubes?
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