Aurlog

Merry Christmas

As I am on leave tomorrow, I don't work Fridays, and college is closed until a.d. iii non. Ian. mmvi, I'll say merry Christmas and a happy new year now. I do most of my blogging at work (though not in work time, of course). To keep you all going till next year:

What's ET short for?
Because he's only got little legs.

Source: Top 10 Christmas cracker jokes. BBC, 2002.

A.D. XII KAL. IAN. MMV

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Flat in the King's Cross area

Fancy a flat in a high-rise building above a railway station in the King's Cross area of London? Yes please! (via Lynne).

A.D. XIII KAL. IAN. MMV

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More Open Dictionary

I keep finding more reasons why this has received no publicity:

The first one, however, is genious.

A.D. XIV KAL. IAN. MMV

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dadaddadadadadadadadadadadadadundunnnununununnunn (noun)

I had a quick look at Merriam Webster's Open Dictionary (via Library Stuff who complained that it was getting no publicity compared with Wikipedia. I have looked previously too at Wiktionary which is doing much the same thing and wasn't too impressed, although it has probably grown since then). Anyway, among the Open Dictionary's recent entries was:

dadaddadadadadadadadadadadadadundunnnununununnunn (noun) : theme song to star wars
dadaddadadadadadadadadadadadadundunnnununununnunn -gorge lucas, fretetereter, wrewrewrwe
Submitted by: Anonymous Dec. 18, 2005 22:30

I doubt that entry will last long, if only because I doubt it is a noun. It will probably count as an interjection or something like moo or something.

A.D. XIV KAL. IAN. MMV

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Friend writes another book

Sil has written another book. I don't know how he finds the time. This one was written with Tony Steidler-Dennison and is called Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache. Not something I'm planning to do soon, but if you are, you know what to do.

A.D. XIV KAL. IAN. MMV

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Why public transport rules

Public transport rules because in the summmer my wife inadvertently entered a competition with the train company WAGN who last week sent her a letter saying she had won the following vouchers:

Woohoo! I feel more inclined now to enter competitions. I might enter the lottery. I'm thinking about the following numbers: 4 8 15 16 23 42?

A.D. VIII ID. DEC. MMV

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Aurlog back

Aurlog has undergone a move to a new server, hence the sparser than normal posts over the last few weeks, the momentary disappearance of comments, and the random selection of old posts sent to rss readers last week. Normal sparkling service is now resumed!

A.D. VIII ID. DEC. MMV

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Back from York

We got back from York last weekend after a really good two weeks. I could write reams about York as I like the place so much. It doesn't sound like a very exciting place to go for a fortnight, but if I say that we didn't go to the Jorvik Viking Centre, York Minster, anything to do with the Brontës, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the Keighley & Woth Valley Railway, any pubs, or Whitby, and still had lots to do, then you get the idea. The things we did do mainly involved eating and railways: we could have left our son watching the Voyager train go round the York Model Railway and he probably wouldn't have noticed. Ditto for the Bullet train at the National Railway Museum.

When we spent a week in Cornwall over the summer, every shop and café advertised Cornish cream tea. In York they all advertise Tea rooms. Never a single tea room in York. I think we did most of them, including Bettys three times (once in Harrogate; go and have their cheesecake). I'm quite happy to go back and find more.

We visited some other places by train, including Scarborough, which was nice except we wandered over to the North Bay too early and it took the rest of the day to get back. They've moved the information centre away from the its old position next to the station so that it is now buried on the lower ground floor of a shopping centre. As all we wanted was a map, so this was less than helpful as we needed a map to find our way to the information centre. We were unimpressed by Harrogate: there were some very nice shops, especially Farrah's sweet shop and the little book shop where we found seven of the nine Agatha Christie novels we had left to collect, but it wasn't nearly as beautiful or elegant as we thought it would be. Knaresborough, about which we knew nothing, was lovely. Hundreds of charity shops, and the view of the viaduct from the castle is breathtaking. The Lavender Tea Rooms are simple but serve the most amazing paté and banoffee pie (not together).

A.D. X KAL. DEC. MMV

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Short silence to follow

There will be a short silence on Aurlog as I am away on holiday in (not New) York for two weeks. We hope to compare the Betty's in Harrogate and York as well as sample the fish and chips in Scarborough, which have been highly recommended to me. As this is the flood season, however, it's probably best not to get too hopeful. This is the first holiday we've ever taken out holiday insurance for.

A.D. III NON. NOV. MMV

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CILIP recruitment

CILIP are offering £20 Amazon vouchers to those who recruit new members. It doesn't strike me as the best of reasons to join:

ME: Why should I join?
CILIP MEMBER: I get 20 quid

I appreciate they have to market themselves, but they should surely stand on their own merits without this kind of gimmick. I also like the way the CILIP marketing manager attempts to argue herself out of a job:

"All our research shows that existing CILIP members are by far the best recruiters," says CILIP's Marketing Manager Louisa Myatt.

A.D. IV NON. NOV. MMV

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Sniffin' brandy

Whenever I've ordered a brandy from a bar, I've always been disappointed, after a long wait while the barperson looks for the long-lost bottle and dusts it off, to have it served in a tumbler or even a half-pint glass.

Last weekend, I was in a posh hotel and asked for an armagnac. Not only did it come back in a brandy balloon, but it had been warmed too. I want to go there again.

A.D. IV NON. NOV. MMV

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Swedish cow guts power train

The crazy Swedes have introduced a train powered by methane produced from cow guts, or biogas as it appears to be known. Apparently, one cow would get you about 2.5 miles on the train. As Sandy is 60 miles from London, it would require 60/2.5 = 24 dead cows to get me from Sandy to London each day. This doesn't include return journeys.

A.D. VIII KAL. NOV. MMV

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Quick response from HearFromYourMP

On Thursday, I signed up to HearFromYourMP who will add you to a queue of other people in your constituency. When enough have signed up, your MP will get sent an email. It'll say '20 of your constituents would like to hear what you're up to-- hit reply to let them know.' On Friday, Alistair Burt walks into the Father's Group in Sandy where I go with my son. Scary.

Of course, I didn't ask him any of the questions I would have wanted to (will he be supporting the government's new paternity leave plans, does he support the East-West rail link while opposing the Willington rowing lake, &c., &c.). He seemed quite nice as well, which is a really annoying trait in a politician, although being liked is his job. That said, two babies and four toddlers were present, none of whom he kissed. Scandalous.

A.D. IX KAL. NOV. MMV

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Lisjobnet revamp

CILIP recently revamped Lisjobnet, its job advertisement site. You can now search by keyword, location, or secor, which is welcome if overdue.

It would be nice to have definitions of their geographical areas. I live in Bedfordshire, for which it is always hard determine the correct region. I think I would come under East of England. Something few job search sites do is let you combine areas: I would like to look at Hertfordshire (South East), Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire without checking two times or more times. There are other related problems, such as not being able to combine sector and location.

Most importantly, there is no RSS feed, although it wouldn't be much use if you couldn't refine a little more than All Jobs. There is at least an email alert now, but that does just give you All Jobs.

A.D. XIV KAL. NOV. MMV

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CURL RSS feed

CURL has introduced an RSS feed for its news.

A.D. XIV KAL. NOV. MMV

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Ireland out

Ireland are out of the World Cup. And thank the Lord. Don't get me wrong:

  1. I have absolutely nothing against Ireland
  2. I welcome European and Irish political, cultural, and economic cooperation
  3. My family is of Irish descent (isn't everyone's?) and my surname is Irish

But at least we won't now have to put up with the embarrassing spectacle of large amounts of English people regarding Ireland as a home team. It's not, and they fought long and hard so that it isn't. A similar and only slightly less forgivable thing happens with Scotland: if England go out, the English start supporting other British teams, like Scotland or Ryan Giggs. I doubt if the pubs of Glasgow will be filled with England fans next summer, nor can I see many Dubliners cheering on England, the 'home' team, in lieu of the Republic's finest.

Then again, with Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ryan Giggs, and the Republic of Ireland out, maybe they'll have to.

A.D. III ID. OCT. MMV

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Library standards

This is something I've been to write about for ages, but someone else has provoked me into at least a brief version of it: Priscilla Caplan, writing in Library Journal, has proposed a single standards body for libraries (via Catalogablog). An excerpt:

As a community we're investing heavily in library systems, information systems, and repository systems that require appropriate and robust standards. At the same time, our standards development processes have become increasingly ad hoc, sponsorship is scattered, and mechanisms for ongoing maintenance are often informal and unfunded.

I've thought about this mostly in terms of cataloguing where for instance the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) is maintained by IFLA; the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, which are based on the ISBDs (at least for now) are maintained by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of Anglo American Cataloguing Rules; and MARC21, which is used to encode AACR2 for computer catalogues is maintained by the Library of Congress. This leads to all kinds of fun and games, as changes to one are now extremely difficult without changing the others, which can't really happen because the governing bodies are all different.

These differences obviously exist for historical reasons. E.g. MARC21 used to be USMARC and was the US counterpart to many MARCs, such as UKMARC, although most UK (at least academic) libraries now use MARC21. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are now very widely used, although still, understandably, under LC's control as they were primarily intended for internal use. The corresponding LC authority files have in fact been opened to wider control, under the NACO scheme (the SACO scheme does something similar for subjects, but LC still has control, as I understand it). The LC does handle a lot because it started a lot and it has the money to keep it going (unlike the British Library, for instance, who once had their own version of MARC and several attempts at subject description schemes). However, one wonders what should happen when this gets past a certain point and international use becomes more prevalent than local use. This is a situation analogous to the present situation with governance of the Internet.

What worries me more are the large amount of organisations who seem to be adding to standards a la Microsoft and version 4 browsers. LC has long had Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRIs) which deal with policies and ambiguities with AACR2. And these are understable as many ambiguities and room for interpretation exist. However, what seems wrong is that many libraries treat these as the 'rules' too when they are only really one library's policies. Similar versions exist elsewhere, notably Canada. Cataloguers on mailing lists not infrequently refer to OCLC MARC as though it were the MARC21 standard itself. Both RLG and OCLC have their own input standards, many of which are not compatible with 'standard' practice. An example that I like to bang on about is ebook cataloguing, where netLibrary, a subsidiary of OCLC, lobbied LC to introduce an LCRI to significant change the 'rules' so that ebooks are not catalogued as electronic resources as stipulated by AACR2, but as books, with a note added to explain that the book in is fact an ebook.

One thing I find distinctly odd is Priscilla Caplan's seeming assumption that the problem is not necessarily international. She does define the situation as international at the beginning and asks whether a standards body should be international at the end but the bulk of her discussion is concerned with the shortcomings of the (U.S.) National Information Standards Organization and library membership thereof. With the web and the way computer catalogues work now, standards have to be international: one country cannot make all the changes and arrogantly assume others will follow suit; similarly one country cannot go it alone. I don't know enough about the W3C, but its stewardship of a range of Web standards seems a good model to follow. On a related note, I find it incredible that AARC3, or RDA as it is now called, is still being approached an as anglophone rather than international enterprise.

So, yes, an international (not US or UK, or anglophone) standards body for description, subject description (even if we break off from LCSH), and MARC (or something better) that involved libraries, system vendors, and others involved in the book and information trade.

A.D. III ID. OCT. MMV

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Bedford-Cambridge rail link resurfaces

Although not a new idea, the BBC reports on the renewed efforts of the Bedfordshire Railway & Transport Association (BRTA) to get some action on the Bedford-Sandy-Cambridge railway ultimately linking Oxford, Bedford, Cambridge, and the east coast via Sandy. The BRTA seem a lot more keen on making the route go through Potton through which the old railway used to pass, rather than following the East Coast Main Line down to Hitchin which seemed to be the preferred route of East West Rail, although as they haven't updated their website since February 2004 I'm not sure if this is still the case. An interesting fight seems to be on the horizon about the local councils' enthusiasm for an Olympic boating lake near Willington which would muck things up for the railway. I think we can do without an Olympic boating lake, although I am a little concerned about the cycle route to Willington which I assume would be destroyed as it faithfully follows the old railway for large stretches.

A.D. IV NON. OCT. MMV

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Gilby's, Pete's, and Diversity

It seems that Gilby's on Sandy High Street is to close and turn into a restaurant (via planning notice on a lampost opposite Gilby's). This is a shame. Although a bizarre and mildly rubbish shop, I will sadly miss it. For those of us without a car it is the only accessible place in Sandy to get common things like hammers, screws, primer without an epic trek to Homebase in Biggleswade, an inconvenient hike to B&Q in Hitchin, or a lunchtime trip to that excellent place down Goodge Street in London. This is all especially sad since the aptly-named Really Useful Shop closed down.

There seem to be certain shops that follow abstract rules that determine what they have in stock. For Gilby's, if you expected them to stock something, they wouldn't; if you thought there was no chance, they would have it. Another interesting example is Pete's, the off-licence at the end of our road: if you keep looking, you will find it, unless you ask at the counter, in which case they will not have it in. I have looked for hours for obscure things in there and been rewarded; I've asked at the counter for something like beer and been told they don't stock it.

The other dimension is that they are going to open a new restaurant, which is brave to say the least, especially after the demise of the the Indian that wasn't the Gandhi Sandy. Although this is not nearly as brave as the sad lamented Diversity, which opened last year as a trendy/chav menswear shop opposite the Gandhi. You could tell the writing was on the wall by the speed they did indeed diversify into womenswear (of which there are already two shops in Sandy, although none of them sell gypsy skirts (as I believe they're called)). Needless to say, Diversity left town a few weeks ago without me ever having the chance to go in. Maybe they knew about this.

A.D. V KAL. OCT. MMV

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Hatfield and blame

Following on from what JediMoose says about blame culture, I was a little concerned recently about the corporate conviction of Network Rail for the Hatfield disaster. It's good in many ways that someone is being held responsible for these crashes when something is obviously at fault, but I worry what the effect will be when an enormous fine is slapped onto Network Rail (not Railtrack, which no longer exists). Either less money will be available to run the railways, or the public will pay through higher fares or increased government subsidy.

I have a similar worry about hospital cases where hospitals are penalised financially, which can only further reduce the effectiveness of the hospital, thus making corner-cutting and bad practice more likely.

I must say, however, that I have never been in a position where I or a loved one has been hurt in either of these ways. Given the choice though, I would prefer criminal conviction of individual negligence, which should be legally provable, rather than suing and draining a public organisation of its money, which came from the public in the first place anyway.

There's a similar rant that could be made about trade unions and strikes, which mostly seem to occur in public organisations (fire fighters, teachers, university staff) so don't hurt managers or shareholders like strikes are meant to, but members of the public, children, and students. Probably best to stop there.

A.D. XI KAL. OCT. MMV

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Pie petition

Fans of pie might want to sign Scaryduck's Bring Back the Breville Pie Magic petition. The Breville Pie Magic is apparently now only available in Australia, which prompted Scaryduck to comment: This is important*, dammit. We've got The Ashes. The Aussies get the Pie Magic. That's just wrong in my book. I haven't signed up, but what's the point of a weblog if not to promote causes one is not prepared to actually do anything about? (see also Judean People's Front).

A.D. XI KAL. OCT. MMV

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Would libraries exist?

Library Stuff has some interesting thoughts on whether libraries could be allowed to exist now if they didn't already considering all of the current legal issues surrounding copyright and IP. I would doubt it, especially for public libraries. However, there are some types of publication that seemed to be aimed at communal use and that arguably need libraries to exist themselves, e.g. the Encyclopedia Britannica, scholarly journals. Whereas the effect on undergraduates might have been to lower the price of textbooks but raise the amount of money needed to actually be a student, no one researcher could afford the journals and varied resources to undertake detailed research effectively unless they share resources with someone else. As soon as you share books, you technically have a library. Perhaps these monolithic tomes would never have existed or flourished. In the case of scholarly journals, the need to more accurately target an audience might have led to a more healthy situation than now, where libraries are bound to purchase highly priced journals laden with research done by academics who have to publish in jounals in order to be funded.

A.D. XII KAL. OCT. MMV

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004

Although it is more of a glorified tweak, mostly to make the site more amenable to smaller screens, to finally get the Anglo-Saxon rune poem and its translation visible, and include both Google and Wikipedia search boxes, at least for my own benefit. You may also notice that old and new entries are in a different fonts, which is to do with the different way I am now coding individual posts. New entries should appear properly in a nice serif font.

Incidentally, the Anglo-Saxon rune poem is the funny writing in the top right hand corner, which should look like this, except all on one line:

Ur byþ anmod and oferhyrned,
felafrecne deor feohteþ mid hornum,
mære morstapa þæt is modig wuht

Clicking on the text should bring up the following translation:

Aurochs is a courageous beast, having huge horns,
A savage beast, it fights with its horns,
A noble stalker of the moors, it is a fierce beast!

The original text and the translation were taken, with permission, from Tom Wulf's text and translation. See also.

A.D. XIII KAL. OCT. MMV

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Personal collection managers

I wish had more time and effort to look at personal collection managers, as discussed on Library Stuff. These allow anyone to make a personal catalogue of their book collection. I can think of some (non-librarian) people I know who might find this interesting (if they weren't too busy writing books) considering they have already attempted to classify all the books they own.

Given the success of Wikipedia with its complex organisation of data and treatment of complicated subjects (e.g.) but with a degree of authority and accuracy that few could have foretold, one wonders whether there can ever be a similar movement for book cataloguing. Given the poor quality of even professional vendor-supplied records, and the difficulties that the intracacies of cataloguing cause for even competent cataloguers, I doubt it, unless a very clever format and framework of rules is devised.

A.D. XIII KAL. OCT. MMV

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Side4

I've had a little play with a new web-based similiar-to-Bloglines RSS aggregator, Side4 (via Library Stuff). One thing I didn't think a Bloglines rival would do is add another frame; if they got rid of a frame I might be impressed. It does look fairly neat though, if only the text of the posts didn't spill over the side of the page. There are a couple of other irksome features that have put me off for now: the add feed feature doesn't intelligently find available feeds like Bloglines does; it seems insistent that I want to subscribe to a shortlist of popular feeds (slashdot, boing boing, etc.) which I have no wish to subscribe to: maybe they are trying to kick start usage; there seems no easy way to mark items as read/unread; there are icons with no text attached, such as this which I think means Home. Really, am I bothered?

ID. SEPT. MMV

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Chard

We recently signed up to an organic vegbox scheme. Partly, this was so we could get regular fresh vegetables which you just cannot get from Sandy, despite it being famous for market gardening. Supermarket vegetables (and a lot of their food in general, viz especially chicken) are often tastless. We also liked the idea of trying organic food and supporting the idea. Another benefit of the vegbox idea is that you get a selection chosen by the firm that runs the scheme so that, as well as getting staples like potatoes and gloriously misshapen carrots still covered in mud, you get things you've never tried before, wouldn't think of buying (e.g. cabbage), or, as in the case of chard, never heard of before.

More than anything, chard is a wonderful word, similar to one of my favourites, snood. You don't see snoods much any more. Anyway...

Chard is a bonkers plant a bit like spinach but you can also use the stems of a chard. I sauted it, not very well, and it was very tasty. We had ruby chard if that makes any difference: it certainly looked striking with bright red stems.

I'm worried about the impression this post gives of me, speaking as someone who works for the public sector in education, has been described as a rabid public transport fan and car-hater, and is now advocating organic vegetables. I should point out in my defence that I don't read the Guardian (not much) and never wear sandals, which I detest.

PRID. ID. SEPT. MMV

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001 again.

PRID. ID. SEPT. MMV

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Guestmaps

MyGuestMap is a service, based on Google Maps, which lets your blog readers place a pin on a map to show you where they are (via Simon Brunning).

Please let me know where you are on mine. You can zoom into where you are, then just click on the map.

PRID. ID. AUG. MMV

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Dui Decimal Clasification [sic]

I was aware that Melvil Dewey, serial nutcase and occasional librarian, had dipped into spelling reform (he even changed his name to Melvil Dui) but last week I had the opportunity to catalogue a 1922 edition of the Dewey classification printed entirely using reformed spelling. The title page, for example, reads:

Decimal Clasification
and
Relativ Index
for libraries and personal use
in arranjing for immediate reference
books, pamflets, clippings, pictures, manuscript notes
and other material
by
Melvil Dewey M A LL D

Edition 11, revized and enlarjd

A note on page 2 explains that the book uses the spelling recommended by the Simplified Spelling Board as well as many other simpler forms. Most S S B rules and our aditions merely drop useless or misleading silent letters, with needed substitutes in a few cases, e.g. f for ph and gh in phlegm and rough, where we drop g and o and substitute f, speling flem and ruf. A better sample is given in the following notice on Modifying D C numbers which although forward looking in its attitude to copyright is backward-looking in its contribution to standardization and international bibliographic control:

Confuzion and annoyance to thousands of uzers cauzd by printing unauthorized variations force the publishers to insist strictly on ful copyryt protection. Every library and individual uzer has, however, entire freedom to make such variations as he thinks he needs, under the simpl restrictions found necesary to protect the ryts of others. See p. 32-249, Letter or simbol notations for chanjes or aditions.

I want to offer this up as an interesting curiosity rather than get too involved in discussion of reformed spelling, but several things occur to me. The system seems very unsystematic and, if anything, coy and rather ad hoc: why are double letters allowed in annoyance and clippings but not in necesary; why in the latter word is one sound represented two different ways: by a letter c then by a letter s; why in the word copyryt does the y represent two different sounds? Strange things like -tion endings remain: shurely should be -shun. Anyway, the modern movement for such things seems to revolve around the Simplified Spelling Society. Ask them.

Looking at Dewey's entry in Wikipedia, I learnt that one of his apparent improvements was the American spelling of the word catalog, as opposed to the correct catalogue. I never knew this. Not the greatest contribution to standards when we think of the convolutions and wildcards necessary to search effectively on modern catalogues (catalog*s) and databases.

A.D. III ID. AUG. MMV

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001

001. Again.

A.D. III ID. AUG. MMV

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Armed police

Apparently, the police are on precautionary high alert today. That would explain the sniffer dog and four armed police on Platform 8 at Kings Cross this morning.

On a related note, Juan Cole reports that the War on Terror is over:

The Bush administration is giving up the phrase "global war on terror."

I take it this is because they have finally realized that if they are fighting a war on terror, the enemy is four guys in a gymn [sic] in Leeds. It isn't going to take very long for people to realize that a) you don't actually need to pay the Pentagon $400 billion a year if that is the problem and b) whoever is in charge of such a war isn't actually doing a very good job at stopping the bombs from going off.

Do read the rest of the excellent article.

On a possibly related note, Cool beans.

A.D. V KAL. AUG. MMV

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Book baton

Following the musical baton in May, sil has passed me a book baton. This is apparently a meme.

Books owned: Roughly 1000, shared with my wife but not including our two year old son's.

Last book purchased: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard and Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser, both from a charity shop in Biggleswade. Almost all book purchases come from charity shops.

Book reading right now: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. I loved the film for this book and I've been wanting to read a J.G. Ballard book for ages.

Books that mean a lot to me:

Five people to whom I'm passing the baton: With the same rationale as last time, the same list:

A.D. VI KAL. AUG. MMV

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London bombs again

I thought there were rather a lot of people at the crossroads of Grafton Way and Tottenham Court Road while we were having lunch in nearby Ask Pizza. On leaving there was a large amount of people, empty buses lined up each side of the road, and a steady press of police vehicles and sirens towards Warren Street Tube Station, where we now know there to have been a bomb, or at least a detonator explosion. We didn't think too much of it as there is an obvious jumpiness at the moment, although it didn't help our servers all being down when we got back to worki so we couldn't find out what was going on. One colleague even went to Tottenham Court Road to buy a radio. Luckily, it doesn't seem too bad although there is some uncertain excitement still at nearby University College Hospital (the HOSP next to the word GOWER on the above linked-to Streetmap map). I believe the trains are still going from Kings Cross so I hope getting home will be a lot easier than a fortnight ago.

A.D. XII KAL. AUG. MMV

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Tavistock Square open

They've finally opened Tavistock Square, at least to pedestrian traffic. It looks completely normal, although I'm sure there used to be some plaques on the front of the BMA building. It was only after my previous post that I found out that it was Tavistock Square rather than Tavistock Place where the bus exploded: the former is right on my walk to work from Kings Cross and is only a few hundred yards from where I work. Yesterday, I couldn't get through, although the police blockade was looking quite relaxed. I've been on holiday for a week in Cornwall, and I will admit to being glad to escape the feeling of claustrophobia in London, although I still followed the pompous updates on BBC news. The other strange thing is, further to what I wrote the other week, there is still the feeling that there is a tube strike. There are far more people walking around the Euston Road area than normal because half the underground lines are still out in the north of Central London: you never get that many people in suits walking down Gordon Street in the morning, this being a university area if anything.

A.D. XIV KAL. AUG. MMV

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Terror prevention

And it's worth making the point that 4 years of the War on Terror don't make me feel any safer on the way home today. I shall probably have to get to Finsbury Park to catch a train home to Bedfordshire and must admit to not fancying the idea of a bus.

NON. IUL. MMV

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Bombs in London

As everyone probably knows by now, London has just been bombed, although Seb Coe's jubilant face still lights up BBC News. I heard the explosion at 9.50ish which must have been the bus down Tavistock Place being hit. A colleague had just pointed out the unusual sirens which must have been for the tube explosions. It still seems too early to say who did it and why although the G8 Summit is an obvious reason for the timing. Although, as far as I am aware, no-one I know has been hurt, I did get a horrible feeling when I heard the explosion coming from the direction of Kings Cross where my wife should have been arriving at 9.50ish. She is fine and stuck in north London. The main worry now is how to get home.

And, of course, what really needs to be said at this early stage is that please can we please have no knee-jerk reactions to invade Iran, introduce internment, or think that global warming and poverty suddenly don't matter anymore.

See Wikipedia for further details.

NON. IUL. MMV

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James and the bootlace

In Rev. W. Awdry's story, James and the Bootlace (the second story in James the Red Engine, book 3 of the Railway Series), James is rough with the coaches and snaps a brake pipe, stopping a train. The crew ask the passengers for a leather bootlace, eventually get one, and mend the train. Yesterday, The driver of a broken-down train appealed to his passengers for sticky tape to help him carry out repairs because an exterior air pipe came loose. This happened on a Midland Mainline train to Nottingham. Unlike the Sodor incident, the passengers couldn't help and a fitter had to be called out.

A.D. III KAL. IUL. MMV

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RSS feeds for local newspapers

Library Stuff reports that British local newspapers published by Johnson Press all now have RSS feeds. There are in fact several for each title. For instance, the Biggleswade Today has 13 feeds including general feeds for news around Bedford, Sport in Luton, nostalgia, and news around the county. The content will often direct you to the full print version, in this case to the Biggleswade Chronicle, but it does the advantages of a local paper without the advertising and the thick wad of paper straining to get in the recycling bin.

A.D. V KAL. IUL. MMV

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Bin Laden has Bounty on his head

The BBC reports that Bin Laden has a $25m bounty on his head. As I noted in the comments to a story concerning Saddam Hussein, I must express concern about the amount of coconut needed for such a confection, and the fact that it must melt in the heat of Pakistan. Presumably that is why he has taken to living in caves.

While I'm getting this out of my system, I read that Heinz buys HP sauce in £470m deal. Really, it only costs 94p a bottle at Tesco's, although admittedly a squeezy bottle does cost about double that! It's evil stuff, anyway, so 94p is 94p too much. I'd much rather have a bounty (34p or $25 depending on where you shop).

A.D. XII KAL. IUL. MMV

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Leaving ALA

It seems a number of people are making a point of leaving the ALA (via and including Dorothea Salo). I have compiled a summary of the reasons why below. Apologies for any unintentional misrepresentation:

A number of these also explain why I don't join CILIP. Obviously Michael Gorman's impressions of Prince Philip are not relevant here, but the price, lack of value, lack of advocacy of pay (especially with regard to the professional qualification), the unrepresentativeness of CILIP amongst my colleages (of 5 cataloguers in our department, one of whom has just left, only one is a member, although she makes up for all of us with her enthusiasm and she is finding it very difficult to raise funds to enable her to go to the forthcoming IFLA conference), and the thing about the squid, certainly put me off.

A.D. XII KAL. IUL. MMV

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DHTML Menus

This is probably nothing particularly wonderful any more, if it ever was, but I am quite chuffed by it and, if nothing else, I would be interested to hear of additional ways it may be broken. Anyway, since days of yore when I first read sil's Unobtrusive DHTML, and the power of unordered lists I've been intrigued by the idea of doing css/javascript menus that aren't uncompliant arse. I think I've finally done it. In addition, it leaves me free of the tyranny of the three column design and lets me have a wide area of text across the screen which is also near the top. The result you can see above this page and it should work on up to date versions of IE and Mozilla/Firefox. It has been sort of working for a while but I've had difficult issues with overlapping submenus and suchlike.

My philosophy was that:

It uses two files to which you need to link: newmenu.js and newmenu.css in something like the following manner:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="newmenu.css" type="text/css" />
<script src="newmenu.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

The css is as basic as needs to be to create working but tidy menus. Additional or changed styles need (or should have) a separate stylesheet. You also need to put in something to initiate the script. I have the following in the header:

<script type="text/javascript">
	 function init () {
	  	startmenus();
		whatTimeIsIt();
	 }
	 window.onload=init;
</script>

This is because I also have a clock script that needs initializing. There are no doubt better ways of doing it. Menu items with submenus are assigned the class "sub" so styles can be added appropriately.

A.D. VI ID. IUN. MMV

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Cure for constipation

Try singing the theme tune to The OC. Califooooooooornia. It's got to be worth a shot.

A.D. VII ID. IUN. MMV

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"Funny" subject headings

I've just made my first contribution to a wiki by adding some subject headings to the list of Wierd and wacky subject headings. I've always liked Virtual reality in management but today I found Boating with dogs (used for Boating with your dog) and Boating with cats. All three May Subd Geog.

A.D. VIII ID. IUN. MMV

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Cataloger's Desktop comments

The Library of Congress recently asked for feedback about Cataloger's Desktop, the Web version of which our library subscribes to. The following are slightly edited comments that I sent:

We did use the CD-ROM version and switched to the Web version, as much for local networking problems as anything, but I did hope the Web version would be useable like a Web page.

I would like to say that, notwithstanding the above comments, Cataloger's Desktop is a very useful resource and, especially now that is on the Web, one that has given me the confidence to begin shedding much of our department's paper documentation, including AACR2 on paper. Some of the usability problems are due to unfamiliarity and, while preparing a recent training session on CD, the practice I gained playing with it made me appreciate it more. However, I believe the future of these resources has to lie in more standard and simple delivery, even if it means splitting up the product into fewer resources or into different packages marketed at different markets (e.g. Quick reference, Rare Books, Periodicals). Before I heard of CD I always assumed the JSC of AACR2 would offer AARC2 as a separate website and still think that offering parts of CD separately might be the way to go to simplify the navigation if nothing else. Almost all of the navigation problems seem to stem from trying to offer lots of resources at once.

A.D. VIII ID. IUN. MMV

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I saw the following job advertised by Bedfordshire County Council:

Ref: EBCC940/EB/int
Vacancy: Resources Assistant (Cataloguing) - Library Resources, County Hall
Scale 1/2 £10,872 - £14,106 pa (provisional grade)

Job Description: Bedfordshire Libraries

Required to work 37 hours per week alongside the Cataloguing Team in the Library Resources section of Bedfordshire Libraries.

The post involves cataloguing fiction books, some audio-visual items, and assisting in the maintenance of the Local Clubs and Societies database. Some experience of using ICT and the ability to move and lift boxes of books is essential. Training will be given.

Note particularly the following:

I'm sure CILIP will be pleased with this state of affairs. The post works alongside a "Cataloguing Team" so I'm probably being unfair, but it does say cataloguing fiction books, some audio-visual items. We require a degree, a postgraduate qualification, and several years experience for a job like that, even for copy cataloguing.

A.D. IV NON. IUN. MMV

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CILIP RSS feed working

It seems the CILIP RSS feed is working, although it seems this has been said before.

A.D. IV NON. IUN. MMV

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Defence of the BBC

Scaryduck offers one of the best defences of the BBC's licence fee I've ever read.

I was recently challenged, in another place, to justify the BBC Licence fee, and why, should "anyone have to pay for it when there's nothing on the telly, and I can get ITV for nothing?"

To which I replied:

All that, and things like this.

KAL. IUN. MMV

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Friend writes book

Sil has written a book. No catalogue record that I can see for it yet so, based on the Sitepoint information:

Langridge, Stuart.
DHTML Utopia : modern web design using JavaScript & DOM / Stuart Langridge ; technical editor, Simon Willison. [Collingwood, Vic.] : SitePoint, 2005.
ISBN 0957921896
II. Willison, Simon.
1. DHTML (Document markup language)
2. JavaScript (Computer program language)

KAL. IUN. MMV

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Milk Panic

Following a request, I have added Milk Panic to my list of cow games. It is a Flash game in which you must milk the cows before they explode while also making sure the farmer's pale does not get too full. Does indeed induce some kind of panic.

A.D. X KAL. IUN. MMV

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CILIP RSS feed

CILIP has a new RSS feed (via Library Stuff). It seems to be for news, although it is hard to tell as i) it isn't working and ii) there is no link from the news pages. For an organisation whose mission is to set, maintain, monitor and promote standards of excellence in the creation, management, exploitation and sharing of information and knowledge resources, I think this is a little slow. Take, for example, their jobs pages which are mercifully free (another disincentive to join, or is it a recognition that there are too many potential candidates who are not members): they could have done with this treatment ages ago.

A.D. X KAL. IUN. MMV

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White tea again

The BBC reports:

And new "white tea" is expected to make its mark as a fashionable new health drink.

You heard it here first. However, don't buy the tea bags. Go here and buy some Mau Feng.

A.D. XV KAL. IUN. MMV

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Musical baton

The ongoing musical baton has reached me via sil.

Total volume of music files on my computer: about 3 albums. I don't know what that is in MB.

The last CD I bought: I, too, hardly ever buy CD's anymore. I think I bought Appetite for Destruction off eBay. Unless Radiohead released anything since then. Maintaining my Radiohead collection is about the only reason I would buy CD's now as I listen to them so rarely. Hang on, though, it might have been the Christmas ones we got from the garden centre. Oh dear, although it might technically have been the Rock Legends CD that came with the News of the World not long ago and had the Final Countdown and the Ace of Spades on it. I did kind of buy the paper to get the CD so perhaps it counts. Maybe I should stop there.

Song playing right now: Nothing, as I'm at work. I was listening to the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street at the time I first read sil's post at the weekend.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

I know the last isn't a song (or a Lied) as such but it does trump the others easily. Anyone who sneers at Brothers in arms should listen to it while driving through Glencoe..

Five people to whom I'm passing the baton: I don't know too many people online, so if you were foolish enough merely to subscribe...

A.D. XVI KAL. IUN. MMV

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Image object replacement in Javascript

I just did document.images[1]=myImageObject and it worked. I only tried it as a last resort as I thought it would be silly and the console would moan at me. Sometimes I hate Javascript; sometimes it's lovely.

A.D. V ID. MAI. MMV

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A man called Fun

I went to Sainbury's at lunchtime and was served by a man called Fun. Wow. No need to make lame mushroom jokes or anything. He was actually one of the most cheerful people in there.

A.D. VI ID. MAI. MMV

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Le Google Print

Language Log has an interesting series of articles on the European, French-led, initiative to form a rival to Google Print. The last article pours appropriate scorn on the idea that Google apparently plan to trample on European Culture:

Do these folks really think that the great works of European literature are systematically missing from The New York Public Library and the libraries of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Oxford University? And do they fear that Google's crack cultural commandos are even now infiltrating across the channel, preparing to burn libraries and destroy scanners from Brest to the Danube?

Last time I checked, Oxford was in Europe. I notice that the British Library are being coy about joining in the European venture too. Does it matter who does it as long as it gets done and gets done to one's satisfaction. I see nothing sinister as yet about Google Print. As Language Log notes, the more digitization projects the better.

A.D. III NON. MAI. MMV

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Under attack

By dinosaurs. Via Simon Brunning who is under attack by Martians. There's also a wasp option, which I can see disturbing some people.

A.D. III NON. MAI. MMV

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Trains are better than cars. They just are

Some wisdom from Simon Brunning: Oh, and trains are better than cars 'cos even if they are horribly delayed, you can entertain your children and let them go to the loo, cutting down on the strop count considerably. See also where I wrote the following comment:

Remember that you think travelling by car is more comfortable because you're a driver. Passengers don't generally get to choose air conditioning (I can on a (modern) train), music, and rear-seated passengers are often greeted with the view of the seat in front for hours at a time. Try going to the loo in a car, or, as a driver, going to sleep which I do twice a day on the way to and from work after reading my book for a bit. As a passenger, I don't like being in a car, as much for the smell and car-sickness as the inability to move round. I'm glad to have taken the little one by train as at least he can run up and down for 3 hours if he wants.

Not that we let him run round much anymore, but he can squirm with a certain degree of freedom, as can I.

A.D. IV NON. MAI. MMV

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Party leaders

The BBC reports party leaders in final poll push. Is it me, or has this election been focussed almost exclusively on party leaders? I'm sure it never used to be this bad. Gordon Brown popped up a few times, but he is heir to the throne anyway now that Tony Blair said he was going to stand down before the next next election. I suppose it's a lot simpler for the simple voter to understand, especially when a fair amount of people will vote on personalities. Given which, it makes sense for the Liberal Democrats, as no-one knows anyone else, and to a certain extent for the Conservatives, for the same reason, although Michael Howard is hardly the most beloved of party leaders. What does surprise me is the reliance of Labour on Toby Blair when he's supposed to be so much of a liability.

What does disappoint me is a perhaps understandable trend towards openly targetting marginals and not bothering to campaign elsewhere. This has always happened of course, but seems more pronounced this time round: my constituency is not likely to change hands and you can tell by the absolute paucity of election bumf that is coming through the door. I notice these things as I am a sucker for it normally. I've lived in safe Conservative seats before and you normally get more than this. Perhaps I notice it more this time because I've started watching United States presidential elections: it's harder to sneer at the electoral college system that means only Ohio and Florida count for anything when my journey to the local school on Thursday is like voting Democrat in Texas (unless I do vote "Republican" which I won't). The presidential feel of the campaign (see first paragraph) doesn't help.

A.D. V NON. MAI. MMV

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The Da Vinci Code anagrams

  1. O, the divine ACDC
  2. Not chav deicide
  3. Cheat divine cod
  4. Die in a cod chute
  5. Vote CID echidna

Not produced using Anagram Genius, although The candid voice was. A cod chute makes a change from a goat race. Dan Brown produces Drown Ban and Drawn Nob.

More please.

A.D. VI KAL. MAI. MMV

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Drown Ban, Not Chav deicide, or The Mongo code

Chapter 1

The eminent and very French Inspector Gordon Flache eyed the eminent Harvard popularculturologist suspiciously, "Do you know what it means?".

Chapter 2

Obertray Angdonlay, the eminent and needlessly American expert on popular culture, who had once written a book, looked grimly at the corpse on the floor. Inspector Flache had asked him, eminently, what it meant.

The eminent librarian, M.T. Merciless lay on the floor of the eminent library, the point of a spaceship through his heart. Dead. In the dust on the floor was a picture of an enormous phallus below which he had managed to write the two lines:

O, the Divine ACDC
R R R R R R R R R

"Hmm" said the eminent Mr Angdonlay, "a Drawn Nob, an apparent tribute to a heavy metal band and a bunch of R's. What can it mean?".

"If I may help", said a female, and eminent sounding voice behind them, "it looks like writing. I would say Roman script.The first inscription is almost certainly in English." Dale Arden was an eminent police linguistics expert and eminently eminent. She was 25, had six warts on her nose, an enormous chin, and a pronounced limp. "I need to talk to you" she said to Obertray. She winked and motioned her head towards the library's eminent convenience. Inspector Flache, being French, missed this subtle sign.

Chapter 3

"You are in eminent danger", said Dale when they were away from the eminent detective.

"You eminently are!" said a voice. It was Hans Zarkov, formerly of NASA, who appeared at the door pointing a pistol at Angdonlay. "I seek the Crock of Shite. Give it to me!"

"Look! The Goodyear Blimp!" exclaimed Arden, pointing out the frosted glass window. As Zarkov looked up, Angdonlay and Arden ran past the eminent former Royal Crockologist and made for the ladies' where Dale knew Dr Zarkov, a British gentleman, would not follow.

Chapter 4

Angdonlay and Arden ran into the ladies, where Dale knew Dr Zarkov, a British gentleman, would not follow.

"But what does it mean?" demanded Angdonlay.

"Nothing", said Dale, "you have to read 600 pages of the Book only to find out the Crock is a warm fluffy feeling."

"A bit like bunny rabbits?"

"Very much so."

A.D. VI KAL. MAI. MMV

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Mr Quiet

I've just read Mr Quiet by Roger Hargreaves. The plot goes as follows (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.):

Mr Quiet lives in Loudland, where everyone shouts and bangs and no-one can hear Mr Quiet's whispers. The unhappy Mr Quiet is invited to Happyland by Mr Happy who, upon hearing his predicament, manages to get an ideal job for Mr Quiet in a place where everyone is always quiet and no-one talks louder than a whisper. You know where Mr Quiet went to work, don't you? Yes, a library.

I knew what was coming before I turned the last page, but it still made me laugh out loud. I think CILIP should use Mr Quiet as some sort of mascot of a 21st century information professional.

A.D. VI KAL. MAI. MMV

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Da The Vinci Code

I have actually started reading the Vinci Code by Dan Brown. To celebrate this and my recent visit to the Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, I have set a new lies category. The book doesn't seem so bad so far after one chapter, notwithstanding some of the linguistic cricisms pointed out by Language Log.

A.D. XIV KAL. MAI. MMV

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The Royal Wedding

Scary Duck on the impending Royal Wedding:

Breaking News: "Prince Charles's wedding postponed until Saturday, Queen's 'washing my hair' excuse in disarray." I expect she'll be attending Ian Paisley's Papal Memorial Jumble Sale instead.

NON. APR. MMV

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Huntingdon: a strange place

The other week we went to Huntingdon. Huntingdon reminds me of Bedford in being a place that could be so pleasant, even beautiful, but which isn't. The central St Paul's Square in Bedford, for example, could be amazing rather than the derilict and depressing disgrace it is now. Huntingdon, once you go under the enormous fly-overs out of the station and across the constricting ring road (in a similar manner to Ashford in Kent), seems to be split in two with the church and the Cromwell Museum (formerly the grammar school) in the middle. The old part off to the West, where you will find Oliver Cromwell's birthplace is mostly filled with estate agents and recruitment agencies, again like the nice old bit of Ashford. There was a promising looking bakers, but they weren't selling hot food because it was the day after Easter Monday and they didn't have any bread in. Even if they were shy on baking their own bread (being a bakers), they could at least have sent someone down to the Tescos down the road. The eastern half is a mixture of depressing Chav heaven, a fantastic range of charity shops (a good thing!), and some frankly amazing craft shops, if you like that sort of thing, which my wife does. I would have been far happier to see said craft shops and even said charity shops occupying the nice old part of town.

This says much of the above rather more succinctly.

NON. APR. MMV

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How to make tea and how to buy tea

Sil rants about how to make a decent cup of tea, most of which I agree with. To complete the picture Scary Duck rants about how to get hold of a decent cup of tea outside the UK. Both of these refer to ordinary tea bag tea, the sort that goes well with a fried breakfast, first thing in the morning, coming home from work, visiting someone