OK so my recent posts haven’t been that flash

But today, I have a good addition to the Sick Phoque Club: various staff and visitors at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. A field trip to said institution was supposed to be a reward for good grades and excellent behavior. 

Instead, chaperones say, students from the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, left in tears last week after they were subjected to racial profiling from museum employees and offensive comments from visitors. On the 24th, the museum again apologized to the students and the middle school, where the majority of students are black or Latino. The museum said in a statement that, following an investigation, it had banned visitors accused of making racist comments and is retraining staff and security. "These young people left the Museum feeling disrespected, harassed and targeted because of the color of their skin," said the museum's director, Matthew Teitelbaum. "And that is unacceptable." The 26 seventh-graders who went on the school trip are students of color, according to school officials, and the allegations have prompted a larger conversation about how museums and other elite cultural institutions can be uncomfortable spaces for people of color. Security guards closely shadowed the seventh-graders throughout their visit and followed them from one gallery to another, Marvelyne Lamy, an English language arts teacher at the charter school, told local media outlets. She and her students noticed that their group seemed to be subject to more scrutiny than predominantly white school groups that were touring the museum at the same time. "We were instructed not to touch any of the artifacts in the museum, yet the white students there touched the displays several times while security looked on without saying anything," Lamy wrote on Monday in a Facebook post, where she first detailed her frustrations with the museum. "The minute one of our students followed suit, the security guards would yell at them that they should not touch exhibits." A staff member who was explaining the museum's rules allegedly told the group, "No food, no drink, no watermelon." Lamy told the Globe that she did not hear the comment herself, but students who were upset by the apparent reference to a well-known racist trope told her about it. One 13-year-old told the Globe that the remark left her feeling angry, uncomfortable, and disrespected. The middle-schoolers also reported hearing disparaging remarks from other museum visitors. One student told Lamy that she had been dancing to music played as part of an exhibit when a museumgoer said, "It's a shame that she is not learning and instead stripping." Another seventh-grade teacher at the school, Taliana Jeune, described the remark differently, telling WCVB that the student had been warned, "I hope you're paying attention so that you don't become a stripper.'" The remark about stripping was the last straw, Lamy wrote on Facebook, and told the seventh-graders that they were leaving right away. As they were making their way out of the museum, some students paused by the entrance to an African art exhibit. Lamy said a woman walked by and commented, "Never mind, there's f---ing black kids in the way." Lamy said she never planned to set foot in the museum again, and I don’t blame her. Museums are boring as hell anyway. Apart from the occasional special exhibition, it’s the same old shit each time you visit. I can’t tell you how many times I had been to either of the two in Dunedin during the mid-2010’s and looked at the same exhibits that were there last time just to kill 90 minutes. And Canterbury Museum won’t be much different on my next visit.

2006 was not a good year for Pluto

To those who meet her all the way

Lest America forget

Some whiskies you just don’t mix

Homophobes beware!

But he never made it as a writer

Remember the three R’s, people

Phones just got boring

It’s all about the screen

I would spirit that loser away right there and then

This, that, and the other - the streets of Canada

Grumpy Cat goes bye bye

Two icons in one pic

Four grand don't come for free

A group of diners at a UK restaurant were served a rare vintage bottle of wine valued at £4500 - by accident. The lucky table had no idea they'd been served the valuable drink with their meal, instead of the more modest choice they'd ordered. The table had originally ordered a bottle of 2001 Chateau Pichon Longueville Contesse de Lalande - a Bordeaux costing £260, But they must have enjoyed it as they tried to order a second. But a staff member picked up the wrong bottle, and they were presented with a 2001 bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol. The two bottles might look similar, but one is 17 times the price of the other. Only 500 cases of the 2001 Chateau le Pin Pomerol were made, according to the Cult Wines online tasting guide, while reviewers have referred to the drink as "mythical". But even so, you shouldn't mix up orders. If it had been the other way round (ordering the Pomerol but only getting the Contesse de Lalande), it could be a lawsuit waiting to happen. I have even heard horror stories like a diner ordering chicken parmigiana at an Italian restaurant but ending up with chicken piccata. Something like this is really not that hard to get right, and believe me, I know how to drive that point home.

Another poem in the app update

Reds to regroup

It will "take a long time" for Manchester United to challenge for the Premier League title again, says manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and I think he may well be right, for United ended their season with a dismal 2-0 home defeat against relegated Cardiff to finish sixth, 32 points behind champions Manchester City. The Red Devils won just one of their last seven league games. "The last couple of months have been extremely hard for the team, the club and for the players," said Solskjaer. United finished second under Jose Mourinho last season, but the Portuguese was sacked in December following a run of poor results. The Old Trafford club's legendary former striker Solskjaer was appointed on an interim basis, taking the club on a run of 12 games without defeat, but they collapsed in the final few months to finish five points off a Champions League place. They last won the title in 2012-13, in Sir Alex Ferguson's last season in charge, while it is now two seasons without a trophy after the Europa League and League Cup triumphs in 2016-17. I personally don't give a shit how long it takes, MAN UNITED WILL RISE FROM THE ASHES ONE DAY. IT WILL EVENTUALLY HAPPEN!

Brace from Mendez-Laing ruins final day of the season

And that’s the scoreline for the Man United-Cardiff City clash: 2-0. With that, the Reds finish the 2018-19 season in sixth place. This isn’t good enough. These numbers need to improve if they are to ever win another Premier League title.

All too true

You might have a mum, she might be da bomb, but ain't nobody got a mom like mine

Baby Godzilla

I see a little silhouetto of a hotel

The stats don’t lie

The truth about the week

Schrodinger’s Saviour

It takes two goals to draw

“You’re ----ing” s---” sang the Huddersfield Town supporters which, coming from a relegated team that has won but three Premier League games all season, really was an insult. It is unlikely there will be too many Manchester United supporters who disagree, though. Really, the state of this United team. It has been a season full of listless performances and this was the latest entrant, Huddersfield showing the spirit and heart United - among many other things - so obviously lack to earn a thoroughly deserved draw that consigned their opponents to Thursday nights in the Europa League next season. This was the last home match for Huddersfield’s departing owner Dean Hoyle and they delivered a display of which he could be proud. Their limitations are clear for all to see but they ran themselves into the ground here in search of a result while United flapped and flailed around. The re-build job facing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gets bigger by the week.

Now onto the game: the final score was 1-1, with McTominay scoring the United goal in the first half and Mbeza answering in the second half.

Take my hand, he said. We’ll make it, I swear, he said.

What about turning them over to the Dark Side?

The bird that nobody wants

No re-entry

The Pike River Recovery Agency has spoken to media this afternoon after plans to re-enter the mine drift tomorrow were abandoned. A three-man search team was due to enter the drift tomorrow, however, a “safety issue” means work to re-open the site has been halted and entry will have to be delayed. I don’t buy that one bit. Jacinda, if you’re reading this, JUST OPEN THE BLOODY MINE ALREADY. THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES DESERVE CLOSURE. IT’S ALREADY BEEN OVER EIGHT YEARS. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE?

Typical Bible Belt cinema