R.I.P.

I haven't watched Coronation Street for yonks - but I did used to watch it way back, when it was more a comedy-drama and before it decided it had to compete with the misery-approach of Eastenders.  Anyway I have fond memories from back then of Deirdre Barlow.  So farewell and thanks to Anne Kirkbride - another taken well before her time.

We all move on...

So that's it - Foyle's War has finished.  I have to say that for me it's not been quite the same since the stories went into the post-war phase, but it's still streets ahead of the competition, and I shall miss it. Hopefully one of the nostalgia channels will pick it up and show it again from the beginning.  I shall look forward to that. Farewell Foyle, farewell Sam - thanks for the memory.

The clock is ticking...

Every now and again you find out something which perhaps you would rather not have known.  As a result of the NHS's decision to run pilot trials in various parts of the country (unfortunately not round here it seems) I now know that - other than in these pilot areas - those who answer 999 calls have just one minute to decide whether the call warrants dispatching an ambulance.  Yes, that's right - sixty seconds!  I am appalled!  Touch wood, I will never have occasion to use the service, but if I had to I would hope and expect that my call would be properly assessed and I would have assumed that the operator would have taken whatever time was necessary to do that. In the pilot areas, by the way, the time limit is being increased to three minutes - better, but is this really an appropriate area for any kind of arbitrary limit?

How do you eat yours?

Remember the ad?  Cadbury's Creme Eggs of course. Well the present answer seems to be "with some sadness and nostalgia".  For Cadbury (who are now of course Kraft) have moved the goalposts. A pack of Creme Eggs no longer contains six of them. but only five (still the same price of course!) and the outer shell is no longer Dairy Milk chocolate but a cheaper cocoa mix.  Well, you were warned! There were those of us who feared that Cadbury being taken over by Kraft would result in the brand being dragged downmarket, with profit being seen as more important than quality and tradition.  And sadly, it seems we were right.

More words.

Tuesday's post and Sky Sports' early match last Sunday reminded me that medieval Venice gave us another of our words.  Venice's power came - like that of our own early empire - from their domination of the sea, and so their dockyard was of major importance to them.  It can be said that they predated Henry Ford by the best part of a thousand years in inventing assembly line technique - they had specialist teams constructing individual parts of a ship, which could then be quickly assembled together.  At the height of their production, it was said that they could produce a ship every day. Anyway they called the area where all this work was carried out by a word derived from two Arabic words meaning "place of manufacture".  And that word was Arsenale which of course gives us our word arsenal, and the Arsenal were playing last Sunday.

Nice one, Brum!

Some idiot on Fox News in the US went on record as saying that Birmingham is a no-go city to non-Muslims.  Perhaps nothing better demonstrates the basic difference of approach between Muslims and the rest of us than the way Brummies have reacted - not with anger and outrage and thoughts of revenge, but with laughter and humour. They have taken to the social network sites in their droves to take the piss - not out of Fox or Islam - but out of themselves.  The pop group Duran Duran becomes Quran Quran, the BT tower becomes the minaret of the City Mosque, and the city will change its name to Birming - dropping the "ham", and so on. That's the way to do it!

Where do we go from here?

The "Je suis Charlie" movement in this country seems to have reached a sort of impasse.  The UK press and media have studiously avoided showing any of the cartoons which caused the problem in the first place.  The magazine's latest edition - the first since the shooting - has had its front page described ad nauseam but you have to be pretty devious to get a glimpse of it.  Whether this is due to a desire not to offend Muslims, or whether (more likely) it is due to a desire not to give any loonies the excuse to attempt a Charlie-style massacre over here is far from clear, but I think this business cannot be put to bed until these drawings are out there for all to see.  At present we have a situation somewhat akin to the children's party game of "pin the tail on the donkey" - we're trying to solve a problem while blindfolded.  Perhaps the cartoons could be published in brown paper wrappers - like porn used to be. If you want to see, you can, but if you feel you will be outraged, you don't have to. Where's "Private Eye" when you need it?

Words

Do you know the origin of the word quarantine?  It comes from the Italian quaranta meaning forty, and refers back to the time of the Black Death when vessels seeking to enter Venice (then a state in its own right) had to moor outside the city for forty days before being allowed in. It has since taken on the meaning of a state of enforced isolation for whatever reason

Where are the candles, Mabel?

Scotland is being lashed by gales - this is hardly unusual.  The default weather pattern for these islands, particularly at this time of year, is for deep depressions to come in over the Atlantic and create gales in Scotland and the North,  So?? Well, given that this is the position, isn't it rather mad to put power lines up in the air, where it is almost inevitable they will be brought down by the high winds, or by trees and such blowing on to them?  Thousands of people are without power up there, and chances are that even if supply is resumed, they will be without power again come the next storm. I assume it is more expensive to put power cables underground, but has anybody actually done the maths and worked out how much it would save in the long run to do that, and not have to continually put repairmen's lives at risk - not to mention giving Joe Public the peace of mind of knowing his electricity supply is safe? A case of short term pain for long term gain?

Read the label !

Remember all the fuss about Cornish pasties and Melton Mobray pork pies, not to mention Stilton cheese that can't be made in Stilton?  It seems that all this nonsense may be consigned to the dustbin of history (and good riddance says I) as a result of a trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and the USA.  The suggestion is that the EU regulations which protect the names of certain brands would have no legal force in the US and that therefore there would be nothing to stop a firm in California, say, producing and marketing "Cumberland sausage", "Parma ham" and the like. Mind you, provided it is clearly marked with its place of origin, I see no problem with that.