This morning I threw out pieces of stale bread for the birds. A short time later, one of the pair of magpies which have built a new nest high up in the tall trees flew down. It swaggered over to the bread like a corpulent ringmaster. Picking up a piece the bird carried it over to our birdbath, dunking the bread in the water before devouring it.
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Deliberately induced road collisions (‘crash for cash’) are on the increase, apparently. Criminals cause a crash typically by braking hard and unexpectedly in front of the victim’s vehicle, and profit from the resulting claim for damage and personal injury. This dangerous and illegal practice exploits the fact that the victim cannot stop in time to avoid hitting the vehicle in front. In other words, it can only succeed when the victim is driving in an unsafe manner. As Rule 126 of The Official Highway Code says:
If all motorists obeyed this rule perhaps there would be no incidents of ‘crash for cash’. The apocalyptic natural disaster in Japan has been compounded by the enormity of the sinister nuclear threat from the crippled power plant at Fukushima Daiichi. These appalling events, still unfolding, gave rise to an entirely trivial observation on my part about nomenclature. They measure radiation dose in sieverts, temperature in degrees, length in metres, power in watts, and so on. The seismic energy released by an earthquake, however, would be expressed for example: ‘magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale’. Well, you wouldn’t say ‘a distance of 1500 on the metre scale’ or ‘the temperature reached 22 degrees on the Celsius scale’. So when it comes to earthquakes, Why don’t they just say ’9.0 richters’? A sprinkling of silly gimmicks including a Domino’s pizza box, hand held desk fans and such like fail to lift the stodgy, leaden, inanimate production of Carmen now showing at the Lowry in Salford. If you want a modern take on Bizet’s 19th century tale of steamy sexuality, jealousy, and violence check out instead Carlos Saura’s 1983 film which (like Karel Reisz’ The French Leuitenant’s Woman) tells a story within a story. It’s 12 hours since I watched Animal Kingdom. A small whisky and a night’s sleep have helped restore my pulse rate but I don’t know if somewhere in my brain one or two of the dwindling stock of precious cells have turned a funny colour and permanently ceased to communicate with the others. Don’t misunderstand me – this film is
… more → Three facts I learned today: Q: Which town is not only the birthplace of Baroness Bakewell, but is also the home of Lottery Street and Hollywood Towers? A: Stockport! Its inclusion in Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK is therefore clearly a travesty. After recent heavy rain my local nine-hole golf course is suffering from partial flooding. Two holes are unplayable. Immaculately manicured grass is now under a sheet of water which shows no signs of subsiding. And there in the middle of this new pond, looking content and perfectly at home, glides a solitary snow-white swan. Have you noticed that supermarkets sell virtually everything at half price, or two-for-one these days? They still make a healthy profit – last year Tesco notched up a 10% increase in profits to make a record £3.4bn. for example, so something isn’t quite right here. Does the ‘full price’ include an exorbitant 50% profit margin
… more → It is exactly forty years since we converted from pounds, shillings and pence to decimal coinage. I was a keen coin collector in those days, and had already enthusiastically bought several sets of the new coins which were available at the Post Office as early as 1969. I also purchased Britain’s last complete set of pre-decimal coins – struck in 1953 and sealed at the Royal Mint. This comprised
… more → Our local cinema has survived on a shoestring for years. The films it shows are the usual mainstream Hollywood fare, the ambience is comfortable, the prices cheaper than the multiplex barn down the road. Yet it rarely manages to attract more than twenty or thirty customers per night. Imagine my surprise therefore when
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