America Has a Drug Problem
We all know that, but this story from Agence France Presse is rather different, as it concerns a shortage of a drug needed for capital punishment by lethal injection.
In the midst of a drug shortage that has already forced postponement of lethal injection executions across the United States, some states say they now have the drug in hand but are refusing to disclose its origin.
The unprecedented situation has been compounded by an inmate scheduled to die Tuesday but who is suing to stop his own execution, arguing that the drug which the state of Arizona intends to use may be counterfeit or unsafe.
Only one pharmaceutical company in the United States, Hospira, currently manufactures the drug, the anesthetic sodium thiopental.
But it is out of stock and will not be able to resume production until the first quarter of 2011, and Hospira’s most recent batch is nearing its 2011 expiration date.
Some states like Texas and Ohio have enough thiopental to carry on with their execution schedules, but others like Kentucky have been forced to put capital punishment on hold.
Can’t they get the message, that someone is trying to tell them that the death penalty is totally wrong. The story would be funny, if it wasn’t so serious.
Pamela Survives Another Week
She has now been in the top three of the judges voting on Strictly Come Dancing for the first four weeks.
And she’s still there, which makes my four pounds safe for another week!
If you think she can’t dance, then look at this video, where she takes off Kate Bush.
My so also remembered that we saw her in Pirates of Penzance with others including George Cole, Peter Noone, Paul Nicholas and Tim Curry.
Doves Farm Tricolour Pasta
I cooked a pack of this for supper with my son and a friend. They both liked it.
Doves Farm Tricolour Pasta
So thev sauce was a bit runny, but it was just created with two onions, some garlic, some tinned chopped tomatoes, some chopped salami and possibly too much stock.
But it tasted good and everything was eaten up!
Nick Clegg on Smoking
I’m not in favour of smoking, but when Nick Clegg discloses that he does on Desert Island Discs, it’s not good. Is it another case of politicians saying do as I say and not as I do?
Airdrie to Bathgate
Modern Railways also has an article about the opening of a new electric railway between Airdrie and Bathgate, which effectively creates a fourth link across Scotland’s central belt between the two main cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I’ve read the article in detail and it states that a new station is being built at Drumgelloch to serve just 3,700 local inhabitants. This really shows how different rules starve East Anglian stations of money. Bury St. Edmunds for example has a population of 35,000 and the best thing that could be said about the station is that it compliments the Abbey Ruins. Haverhill has a population of 22,000 and no train station at all.
I think East Anglia could take a leaf out of Scotland’s book and reinstate the line between Sudbury and Cambridge. But that will never get done in my lifetime, despite the fact it could probably be done for a lot less than Airdrie to Bathgate.
The only thing we get is other areas’ hand-me-downs and a virtual busway.
Edinburgh Tram Stalls
That is the headline in Modern Railways this month.
They reckon that there might be enough money left to complete the Edinburgh Tram from Edinburgh Airport to Haymarket, but say some politicians want to kill the whole project off. Wikipedia describes the whole sorry mess.
Apparently, Starbucks or was it Costa, has made a proposal to convert the tram marooned in Princes Street into a coffee shop.
Felixstowe Sets a Record
In the week of the 26th September this year, the Port of Felixstowe handled a record number of 10,764 containers or about 1,500 a day. A quick calculation says that moving those boxes by road would create a queue of trucks nearly 40 miles long every day.
So that may be contributing to a perceived reduction in trucks on the A14. There are now upwards of twenty container trains a day to places like Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham.
When the Felixstowe to Nuneaton freight upgrade is completed in a couple of years time, we should see even more.
Nottingham to Newmarket
This is one of those journeys that works, but because od the limited services in East Anglia, it takes a lot longer than it should. I got a direct train to Ely, but then it was another train to Cambridge and then another to Newmarket. But everything was on time and I met the booked taxi, which got me home about four hours after I left Nottingham.
At least though the train wasn’t very crowded after Grantham and I just sat there reading.
I did have to wait for perhaps twenty minutes at Ely and forty at Cambridge but it wasn’t cold and I had an excellent cappuccino from AMT at Cambridge.
So how could this jouney have been better?
East Anglia to the Midlands and the North needs more and bigger trains. At present we have Stansted/Cambridge-Birmingham (hourly) and Liverpool/Manchester-Norwich (3-hourly) , all of which pass through Ely and Peterborough. In addition, there is an hourly service from Ipswich to Peterborough. But even so, it is just not enough!
The trains that connect to these long distance services are not big enough either. At least today, I got a two-coach, Class 156, to and from Cambridge, but sometimes it is just a decrepit single coach, Class 153.
I ope this all gets sorted out in the next few years. But whatever happens, we need some bigger and better trains. But then as long as I can remember, East Anglia has always had evrybody else’s hand-me-downs.
Memories of Victor Chandler?
Nottingham Forest are sponsored by Victor Chandler, the well-known bookmaker.
Years ago before I was married, I used to work in a pub called The Merryhils at Oakwood in North London during University holidays. The pub is stll there, but it has been renamed.
The pub was owned by a man called Chandler, who was related to the family that owned Walthamstow stadium with its greyhound racing track. They were very good to me and C always thought that the deal we got for our wedding reception there in 1968 was a very good one. Especially, as her parents weren’t in the least bit well-off!
I don’t quite know the pub owner’s relationship to Victor, but it was fairly close and I can remember being introduced to an embarrassed young kid of about six, all dressed up in a fancylittle suit with a bow tie, who I’m fairly sure was called Victor. It was only a chance meeting, but I suspect Victor would not have preferred to have worn something different. You’d certainly not dress a little boy, that way today!
But he has gone on to do well!
Checking with his personal Wikipedia entry, it would appear it wasn’t Victor, as the age was wrong, but some of the complimentary quotes about Victor there could equally apply to the landlord of The Merryhills. They were very good people to work for and in perhaps the three years I did, I enjoyed it immensely and there was never any cross words. And of course there was the excellent wedding reception at an affordable price!
Not a Good Match
Ipswich lost two-nil and they really didn’t deserve more than that! They got a few good chances, but somehow they squandered them and they seemed to have the stuffing knocked out of them by Forest’s second goal on the stroke of half-time.
One of the biggest pieces of excitement in the second half, was some idiot who wanted to get on the pitch. He was duly arrested and quite rightly got slung out of the ground.
I have been watching Ipswich away for many years and this season they seem to be attracting a few mindless fans. I don’t know whether this is happening with other clubs, who used to have good records, but I don’t like it!
The Anonymous Widower 