Dear Sir Charles, Stephen A., Cris and other interested parties,
Thank you for your recent outpouring of concern about my well being. In what has been a difficult time for my family, friends and fans, you — and those like you — have taken it upon yourselves to express just how much you care about me and my future. For that, I am truly appreciative.
The thing is, though, you don’t even know me.
Chuck, you have never so much as shook my hand, let alone exchanged a single word with me. Few of you have, to be honest. Respectfully, your worry over my “problems” with substance abuse and my twisting descent into darkness and, apparently, my impending death, is misplaced — mostly because you have very little idea what you are talking about. None of you do, even those of you who seem...
Sport
Dear Mr Smurthwaite,
Crewe will always be a small club – but we don’t have a problem with that.
We thrive on being a small club – we’re not a massive club like Port Vale!
You questioned the levels of our away support on Twitter. Well, we may have only taken 1,384 supporters to Vale Park but hopefully that will help you pay for the extra police and stewards.
Many Crewe supporters don’t like the hatred before and after the derby.
We have had coaches stoned on three of our last five visits there and now have problems getting companies to transport us to Vale Park.
Plus, the £25 we are asked to pay to park each coach is the most expensive in League One.
The highlight of the day was achieving the double over our neighbours, even though on Saturday the lads had to play on a...
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As Rose George writes, it is not only female athletes who face the “taboo” of menstruation (Let’s stop being so bloody-minded about menstruation, 23 January). Across the developing world women struggle during their periods. From not being able to afford sanitary pads or tampons to being hidden away while they bleed, the impact can be devastating.
ActionAid often hears of girls being pulled out of school for a week at a time because their families cannot afford protection or even because there are not enough toilets. In refugee camps, a young girl or woman who has fled her home with few or no belongings has limited access to water or soap and has to travel long distances to communal toilets. When she gets her period, the chances are she has no sanitary products. She has to cope with...
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Dear David,
I was surprised to hear some critics’ negative jibes at you revealing you would be donating all your wages from Paris Saint-Germain to charity.
So what if they describe it as a ‘public relations stunt’, the number of people the £3.4 million is going to benefit and the fact that the generous gesture came without the usual case of footballers causing a scandal and paying their way out of it, is refreshing.
Everyone is well aware how poor the ‘game that brings everyone together’ is at actually sharing its wealth. Players from all sorts of adverse backgrounds are given astronomical wages of over £200,000 a week, seemingly forgetting the poverty they have come from and are still reluctant to donate a significant amount to charity. So for you to donate a full contract’s...
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Dear David,
I was surprised to hear some critics’ negative jibes at you revealing you would be donating all your wages from Paris Saint-Germain to charity.
So what if they describe it as a "public relations stunt", the number of people the £3.4 million is going to benefit and the fact that the generous gesture came without the usual case of footballers causing a scandal and paying their way out of it, is refreshing.
Everyone is well aware how poor the "game that brings everyone together" is at actually sharing its wealth. Players from all sorts of adverse backgrounds are given astronomical wages of over £200,000 a week, seemingly forgetting the poverty they have come from and are still reluctant to donate a significant amount to charity. So for you to donate a full contract’s...
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Dear Lance,
I need to get a few things off of my chest. I’m conflicted. I am a fellow cancer survivor and was one of your biggest fans, supporters, and advocates. I read your two books. I continue to wear a LIVESTRONG wristband. But I’m conflicted.
Our local YMCA is a LIVESTRONG YMCA. I am a board member there, and one of the LIVESTRONG liaisons. I have spoken to LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman on more than one occasion about LIVESTRONG and the legend of Lance Armstrong. We share a handful of friends in the multisport community. I am a triathlete and have followed your career where since the age of 16, you were giving some pros a run for their money prior to turning your sights to the sport of cycling.
I understand a little bit about the sport of pro cycling. Probably not as much as I...
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Dear Mr Taylor,
In a year that has seen Team GB take honour, glory and prestige from our superb arrangements for and performance in, the London Olympic Games, I congratulate you on winning the Darts World Championship. As a 53 year old, it shows that there are some games where age isn’t a bar to international success.
I use the word “game” advisedly. I am afraid that darts is just that. A game. It is not a sport. And while I applaud your competitiveness and bulldog spirit, I do think that the media coverage of the darts world championship is just a damp squib after the fireworks of the most successful Olympic Games in history in London last year. At those Olympic Games we saw the finest honed, trained athletes at the top of their game stretching their sinews to be the best in the...
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Hello to all of you who visit rafabenitez.com regularly and to all new readers. Can I first say congratulations to all at Chelsea FC for the win today - the first for me in the Premier League since I took charge of the 'Blues ' bench and the second of the week with the Champions League match this past Wednesday.
From the moment I accepted the offer to join Chelsea, my team and I have worked towards improving the results and getting the wins that we all want - no matter what hours we have to put in and the effort and sacrifice in order to achieve this. That said, you should understand that is the first time since the announcement of my engagement with Chelsea that I have had time to write but I am taking the time just before boarding the flight that will take us to Japan, I decided...
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I am writing to you, an innovative coach or trainer of elite athletes, concerning a revolutionary new exercise system – the Rowperfect Indoor Sculler Rowing simulator. Rowperfect's have been the secret weapon in the training regime of many World and Olympic champion rowers over the past ten years, and it is now being manufactured in Australia, by an Australian company.
Would you like your athletes to have better balance, better endurance, better strength (including core strength) and better all-round coordination?
Would you like them to recover faster from leg injuries, particularly knee injuries?
And would you be interested in an exercise system which minimized the number of cycles on those same legs while allowing them to maintain aerobic fitness between games...
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