Zopa and America
In some ways, Zopa illustrates the United States’ problems.
Zopa is an innovative financial company and you’ve have thought it would have gone down well, given the country’s history with credit unions.
But no! The legislators made it impossible for the company to operate in the same way as in the UK. Read Zopa’s view on this. It may have been a bad way to launch in the United States, but another company called Prosper doing peer-to-peer lending also had troubles with the regulators.
You can read what you like into all that, but I can’t help feeling that the US still gives the banks too much power to squash possible threats.
The Elephant Man
This fascinating tale about the war in Burma has just been saved for posterity. It is now safe in the hands of Cambridge University.
They had the widow of one of the men he saved on the television last night, who filled in a few more details.
I can see a film being made of this tale. It’s the lure of the elephants! After all isn’t the most loved film made by Michael Winner, Hannibal Brooks?
And after all we haven’t had a film starring elephants for many years!
Waking Up When The Clocks Change
The Knife and Shepherdess Walk Police Station
When we lived in the Barbican, C used to help look after a house for female ex-prisoners in Hackney. I can’t remember what exactly happened, but I think I went over to the house one day and removed a rather large knife from one of the residents, who did have a reputation for violence.
Today, I was reminded of this story, when I took a 394 from the Geffrye Museum to the Angel at Islington and it passed up Shepherdess Walk.
The reason was that we were uncertain about what to do with the knife, so in the end I took it round to Shepherdess Walk Police Station and dumped it on the counter. The sergeant was uncertain what to do with it and asked me to take it away. However, when I told him where I’d got it from, he agreed to do something with it.
What he did I do not know, but I did know that there was no trouble at the house C ran!
I wonder what would happen today, if you walked into a police station and dumped a large knife on the counter!
Bury St. Edmunds Guildhall
The Trust that owns it is trying to raise money and decide what to do with building according to this report on the BBC web site.
They should at least use the building to house the Mary Beale pictures, which are hidden away in Moyses Hall Museum.
Made In Dagenham
I’ve not been to the cinema alone much, but as I had a day to fill, I went to see Made in Dagenham at the 11:30 showing in the Arts Picture House in Cambridge. I thought that it would be rather empty, but there were a total of sixteen in one of the smaller screens. I think the last time, I was in front of that screen, was when I saw the films of Mitchell and Kenyon with C, about six years ago.
It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. I remember the strike in 1968, that the film is all about and they catch the period well. Miranda Richardson gets Barbara Castle well and in some ways steals a lot of the film.
If you’ve seen the poster for the film, you’ll see Sally Hawkins in an iconic red Biba dress. C had one like that but her’s was shorter and came from Through the Looking Glass in Mount Pleasant in Liverpool. This was a boutique that had been started by a member of the Scaffold. I can’t find any references to the boutique on the Internet.
Mercury in the Oil, Gas and Chemical Industries
When I worked years ago at ICI, I had a lot to do with analysing the air in chlorine cell rooms for mercury. In those days when you electrolysed brine to get chlorine and hydrogen, you used a mercury cathode.
We understood the health problems in those days nearly 50 years ago and I would have thought that we had got mercury leaks under control. But I read an article in The Sunday Times, saying that mercury is a problem with oil and gas extraction.
So I searched the Internet and found this article, from a company who have solutions, or at least know about the problem.
It just shows how we much be very careful. After all, things like antique barometers which use mercury are under all sorts of regulations, but the worse problem of mercury in oil extraction is not controlled.
Remember too, that one person’s impurity is someone else’s feedstock. I remember an engineer at ICI, who gave a lecture on integrated chemical plants, who said that nothing except pure cold water should ever be discharged from a chemical plant. He said, that even hot water had a value in heating terms.
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!
The Tunnel Road Cinema in Liverpool
Despite always being an avid filmgoer, I never got to go to Liverpool’s most infamous cinema. But as they were talking about horror movies on the radio I remembered this story about the place.
On Sunday nights, they used to show bad horror films with little on no merit at all. The audience then generally had a good time and often made everybody laugh, by being much funnier than the film.
On one particular night, the following conversation ensued between a couple of blokes in the cinema, according to a friend of mine at the time.
Aggressive male voice: “Get em off”
Squeaky female voice: “No!”
AMV: “Come on! It won’t hurt!”
SFV: “No! I’m still a virgin!”
AMV: “Alright then!”
At which point, he ripped his handkerchief in two and the audience collapsed in laughter.
How To Give a Pill to a Basset Hound
Of all the dogs we’ve had, we’ve never had one quite so easy to give a pill to as Lizzie, the basset hound! She usually just lies on her back and you drop it over her tongue and then stroke it down.
This perhaps wasn’t the best clip, so I’ll probably try to get a better one at a later date.
The Anonymous Widower 