One of the things I like about the Massive is that we are a broad church, encompassing many opinions on a variety of topics... So, as we approach the launch of the new Super League season this weekend (yes, I can't believe you didn't know either...) I have to ask...

Which do you prefer..?

Rugby League...

or Rugby Union..?

Mr Hepworth asked this question on his own blog this morning...
http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-has-borders-ever-done...
... and he got me thinking because Borders did quite a lot for me.

I worked for Borders for over 10 years. There are a myriad of reasons behind them going into administration, some external and some internal (and most of those available to read in the comments field on thebookseller.com) but whatever happens in the future, there are plenty of good things I remember from the past...

1. Watching Ian Rankin & Hugh Cornwell duet on a karaoke machine at the General Manager conference on Brighton Pier.
2. Terry Pratchett stealing my lunch.
3. Meeting Richard "Pitch" Pitcciotto, a NYC firefighter trapped under the World Trade Centre on 9/11. He wrote a book about his experience and did a book tour. We took him out to dinner afterwards. He did magic tricks at the table and told some rum old tales...
4. Recommending books to people. No bigger thrill.
5. DInner with Ken Follett, when a colleague of mine compared his Pillars Of The Earth with Thackeray's Vanity Fair. I've never seen a man so thrilled. Or a colleague so wrong.
6. Our Kids departments. Not for nothing did Borders win Children's Bookseller Of The Year for 3 years in a row. On a bad day, you'd go help out in the kids department and see the young faces looking up in wonder at the rows of books, picking out something new and realise why you worked there. Not available on Amazon.
7. Hosting a week of Syd Barrett events in Cambridge. People travelled from all over the world to be there. It felt like an honour to host them.
8. The people I worked with. I realised today that two thirds of my friends on Facebook I know through Borders. As well as highlighting my poor social skills outside of the workplace, I hope this shows how close knit the teams were. Sure we employed the odd idiot, but that was part of the fun too.
9. Causing chaos on the launch night of the last Harry Potter book with a tannoy announcement that resulted in several hundred people leaving their place in the queue only to find they were right & I was wrong... the queue should have remained where it was. Oops.
10. Being able to pop my head into the instore Starbucks knowing my tall, black Americano would be sat there waiting. The modern equivalent of a local pub.
11. Catching people shoplifting erotic novels.
12. Opening a delivery and getting to see all the new stuff first.
13. Reading a whole pile of magazines without paying for them. See, not only the customers did that.
14. Choosing the instore playlist. Then somebody wanting to buy what was playing. My record was 3 copies of Donald Fagen's The Nightfly in one night.
15. Learning that, in a lot of cases, you actually can judge a book by its cover. And if one day you decide to fill a table with books that you just like the covers of, then that table will sell like hot cakes.

There are many, many more too... just thought today was the right time to record a few.

Was just sent this by a good friend... we're both Maria Mckee nuts. Must be plenty of other artists out there who have been honoured in a similar fashion...