The Anonymous Widower

Made 1960, Still Going Strong

My everyday cutlery is Sheba by Butler of Sheffield. It was time for a changeround of the pieces, so I took the chance of photographing most of it.

My Sheba Cutlery

There are a dozen or so other pieces, but they were in the dishwasher.  For probably the several hundredth time for some of the knives.

This cutlery is really a good example of what design can do for something quite humble, like cutlery. This cutlery wasn’t designed to be thrown away, but to last  a lifetime or perhaps as in my case outlast a marriage.

January 9, 2011 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Engineering Pornography

I needed a 17 mm. ratchet spanner to try to fix the stairs.  They may be more expensive, but they are so easy to use if you have gammy hands. Or just one good one like me!

So I bought this double-ended one made by TengTools  from Franchi in the Holloway Road.

A TengTools 17/19 mm. Ratchet Spanner

It looks, feels and works so good it’s almost pornographic.

Twenty years ago, this sort of hand-tool, might well have been made in the United States, but TengTools are a Swedish company. So perhaps the United States isn’t building on its traditional strengths to get itself sorted out.

January 9, 2011 Posted by | World | , , , | 1 Comment

Thoughts on Liverpool Football Club

I spent a enjoyable day in Liverpool on Thursday.  As I was wearing my Ipswich woolly hat, I did get the odd comment. I might have returned some quip about the state of Liverpool Football Club, but to a man and woman, they always replied that they were Evertonians.

So is Liverpool Football Club less important than its main rival in the Second City?

January 9, 2011 Posted by | Sport | , | Leave a comment

The Shootings in Arizona

The United States is the sick nation of the world, when it should set standards that everyone should look up to. We all looked on in horror, as Salman Taseer was murdered in Pakistan and now there is an almost more horrific shooting in Arizona. You have to be really sick to shoot a nine-year-old girl.

Like Pakistan, the United States needs to accept a new set of morals.

Guns should be controlled for a start and cruel punishments like the death penalty should be abolished, as this has no place in a civilised society.

So what do we have instead? Just Sarah Palin and her ilk pouring petrol on the fire. Mark Mardell of the BBC has some well-reasoned thoughts here.

Let’s hope the horror of it all, brings the United States to its senses.  But I doubt it will! Especially after the idiocy of Dubya and the dissappointment of Obama.

But violence is just one of America’s problems.  It has an unsustainable budget deficit, a virtual drugs war overspilling from Mexico, an enormous energy deficit, that it is trying to solve in the wrong way, without counting the problems of Iran, Korea and Afghanistan.

January 9, 2011 Posted by | News | , , , , , , , | 2 Comments