Do We Need Libraries?
I rarely use a library and I haven’t borrowed a book in perhaps forty years. I’ve still actually got it as my mother-in-law’s dachsund chewed it and as I had to pay for it, they let me keep it.
I only use a library for reference. I was in Cambridge a few months ago and I needed to answer a question, so I looked it up in an old directory of the city. At home, I would have used the Internet and usually on the move, I’d find an Internet cafe.
So to me libraries only have one point and that is as a place to look up facts or perhaps get ideas.
To me books are something to buy and cherish. Perhaps, this is because my father was a printer, but also because most books I read regularly, are the sort of reference books or histories, you don’t find on the web or in libraries. I suppose now, I probably buy more books on the Internet than anywhere else too.
Books too, are a recyclable resource. When I move, a lot of my fully-read histories and references will go to Oxfam. but why can’t they go down the pub or the local cafe. The rules should be as they are in many hotels; you can take the book, if you add another one to the collection. Many pubs and cafes could and some already do, provide a quiet room, where customers could read, whilst they are having a coffee or a glass of something stronger.
So I very much feel that libraries as we know it are past their sell-by date. Perhaps, though, we do need quiet reading rooms in very much the old Victorian tradition, where knowledge can be passed on, books can be recycled etc.
The trouble is though the Middle Classes won’t like it. But in these times of austerity, they’d actually support more jobs, by buying the book they want to borrow in the first place and then recycling it creatively. They might even get more pleasure, if they then swapped it in the local cafe for something they would have never thought about reading in the first place.
So before you criticise me, just think when was the last time you borrowed a book from a library!
Remember too, that before public libraries were as common as they are now, companies like Boots used to run them.
Back to Square One
I had thought that I’d found a house to move to in Canonbury in North London. But it failed the survey yesterday, and so I won’t be buying it.
But at least there would seem to be lots of suitable places for sale in the area to the east of Highbury and Islington.
So I’m going to start looking again.
I would really love to live in de Beauvoir Town, as C and I nearly moved there years ago, but instead we went to the flat in the Barbican.
I remember that we looked at a house owned by the writer, Alun Owen. Strangely, I’d met him before when he was a guest at dinner in the Liverpool University hall of residence, where I lived in my last year at University. Owen is probably best known for his screenplay for the first Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night!
Empty-nester? Buy underwear…
This was the come-on for one of the inside articles in today’s East Anglian Daily Times. It was subtitled “Lynne Mortimer’s sage advice”
It wasn’t advising mothers, who just packed their last child off to University, to buy something sexy to get the old man or possibly a new one in their lives, to get the production line going again, but a plea for mothers to make sure that their sons had enough pants to take with them. Preferably the same colour as their towels; black.
Are Scammers Getting Better?
I received this e-mail this morning.
HM Revenue & Customs
Crownhill Court
Tailyour Road
Plymouth
PL6 5BZThis is to officially inform you that we have thoroughly completed an investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that your packaged ATM CARD that was received from the Headquarters 1 (HQ1) of the International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20431 was forwarded to the ATM Issuing Institution for proper verification on the authenticity and it has been confirmed that your ATM CARD is good and ready to be used.
You are advised to forward to our office or via email the following:
1. Identification
2. Electricity bill as proof of address
3. 65GBP for handling and delivery cost.
Joe Amond
For: HM Revenue & Customs
It’s obviously a scam, as it has all the usual elements of a free ATM card, that you really have no right to.
It was also addressed to undisclosed-recipients, which usually means it’s spam. Has anybody ever received an e-mail to undisclosed-recipients, that wasn’t crap?
But :-
- Where are the spelling mistakes?
- There is no expensive phone number.
- The address is genuine, but it’s the Customs Seizure Unit, where you make a claim if they’ve seized your goods.
- They have put a reasonable fee in to the e-mail. But that of course is only the start.
- The e-mail address it was sent for seems OK on a first look. I think it actually came from Russia.
So I believe this e-mail might be good enough to fool some vulnerable or gullible people. Perhaps the Russian education system is better than that of Nigeria?
I must say I’m very tempted to send a cheque for £65 payable to HM Revenue and Customs to Joe Amond in Plymouth and see what happens. THe trouble is I don’t have a cheque book, as I always transfer money directly.
Rabbits in the City
I saw these yesterday in Spitalfields.
Rabbits in Spitalfields
I really like to see jokey and frivolous street art! Especially sculpture, as my uncle was a good one!
Sarah Brown is an Optional Extra at £12,800
I do find it very tasteless when former useless Prime Ministers tote their services as speakers on the after-dinner circuit. Books are one thing, as you have the choice about buying them and they may contain some interesting nuggets, but who’d pay Prudence about £64,000 for a speech. Perhaps, an arse-licker of the first level might, but I prefer to kick arses rather than lick them.
What however got me about this story, was that Sarah Brown is an optional extra at £12,800 and she will present a prize for that! Most of the women, I know would consider this a supreme insult. C would be laughing like a drain at the ludicrous nature of it all!
Jim Swire’s Web Site
I’ve just found this site, which has been setup by Dr. Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph.
The material on the site forms the basis of the one man show Lockerbie:Unfinished Business, which I saw at The Gilded Balloon.
An important witness in the trial of Megrahi was Thomas Hayes. Read his Wikipedia entry. I know this can be suspect, but his involvement in other cases; Maguire Seven and Judith Ward, is a matter of public record.
My question about Hayes is why did he not give truthful evidence to the Court? Scientists are brought up to know that in research evrything must be true and able to be shown to be true. Somehow some seem to develop a theory and then prove it to be true. I prefer the different approach of we have a problem and let’s solve it.
The Selfish Who Ruin Our Wildlife
With the conviction of Jeffrey Lendrum yesterday, we locked up a dangerous enemy of peregrine falcons. If you think so what, look at this post, where I saw these wonderful birds on the cathedral in Brussels.
But the real criminals weren’t in the dock. These are the middle men and the sheikhs in the Middle East, who feel they need to have our wild falcons for their sport. But it is not all gloom, as breeding programs are starting in places like Qatar.
I am not against falconry by any means, as I have enjoyed demonstrations at country shows and have met men, who use birds of prey to frighten pigeons away from airfields, to increase air safety. Controlling a bird like that is a great skill and it is to be admired.
As a stud owner, you also have to take into account the part that birds of prey play in the control of rats, mice and rabbits. We have a couple of pairs of harriers on the stud and they are fascinating to watch. Sometimes, if you drive the lorry along the narrow lane, you’ll have one flying alongside, waiting for the vibrations to disturb a mouse in the verge. It is a magnificent sight and long may it be admired.
I did not see it, but one of the most amazing stories I heard of, concerned a golden eagle, that had been trained by a falconer. He had been given it, after it had I think been stolen as a chick or something like that. In any case, he had definitely acquired it legally and at the time, he was the only person licenced to fly a golden eagle. Everybody who saw the bird, said they had never seen anything so spectacular.
So the bird after a bad start in life was giving pleasure to many.
You have to add to the selfish in the Middle East, who prey on our falcons, those adherents to Chinese medicine, who feel that rhino horn is a must. It is! But only on the rhino!
I’ve seen rhino in the semi-wild in South Africa, and they are truly wonderful.
But even those in game-parks are now being poached for their horns.
That is disgraceful, as rhino should be here for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. The only solution is to convince the Chinese that some of their traditional medicine is just not acceptable to the rest of the world.
Annoying Americans
About ten minutes ago, I was sitting on the toilet reading and the phone rang. I didn’t run for it, as because my trousers were round my ankles, the quick movement might have meant I’d have had an accident. That would have been all I needed!
So when I got back to my desk I checked the phone and BT 1571 told me that there were two messages waiting for me. They were both identical and said.
Key 9 to speak to a representative.
As the voice had a very annoying American accent, it was some automated system trying to sell me something that I don’t need now and probably never will. So I hit 3 twice to delete them both.
I get very annoyed with these messages, which in the UK are against the rules of the Telephone Preference Service.
But then Americans don’t have to follow rules of decency, good taste and law laid down by other governments.
The Gilded Balloon
The Gilded Balloon is one of the main venues of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The GIlded Balloon, Edinburgh
I’m not sure, but I think it used to be the Student’s Union at Edinburgh University. It certainly has that feel and is a friendly place. I bought a coffee in the bar and the waitress offered to take it upstairs for me, as the stairs weren’t that easy. Only a small thing, but things like this can make your day when you have problems. I should say that since my return from the North, my arm is a lot better!
I saw two other shows at the Gilded Balloon in addition to Jarlath Regan; Stripped and Lockerbie:Unfinished Business.
As I have said in other posts Jarlath was funny and it cheered me to see someone, who I’d last seen at nine, perform.
Stripped was very much worth seeing and was a one-woman show describing the life of a stripper. It was sad, funny and touching!
Lockerbie was one of the most moving shows I’ve ever seen and it was about Dr. Jim Swire’s search for the truth about the death of his daughter in the Lockerbie Air Disaster. My heart goes out to people like Jim who’ve lost children to violence. I know that I’ve lost my wife and son to cancer, but in some way it’s not so bad for me, as both of them died bravely with the highest personal dignity.
I have always believed that the Pan Am Bombing was revenge for the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of the Iranian Airbus. But that is not to absolve Libya for any of the acts that they committed like the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher. In that case, we should never have lifted the siege on the embassy, without a full investigation into who fired the shot. It could also be argued that because we let diplomats and other foreign nationals act outside of the law, that others follow suit.
Whatever we do with rogue states like Iran and North Korea, we must never go outside of the law and behave such as to give them justification for what they did.
If you do get a chance go to see Lockerbie:Unfinished Business.
The Anonymous Widower 