Today this blog can reveal exclusively that the much-maligned Bristol Post has discovered time travel. This was shown by an item published today, 20th March, entitled “Seven things to do in Bristol tomorrow, March 17“.
I’m now waiting for the follow-up article from the Post detailing how I can travel back in time to do those aforementioned seven things. 🙂
Hat tip: Redvee.
Is there a certain similarity between the Little Britain character Vicky Pollard and the UKIP MEP and candidate for the Folkestone and Hythe constituency in the forthcoming general election, Janice Atkinson, who has now been suspended by the party over allegations of a “serious financial nature“?
“No, but, but, not, yeah, but, no, yeah, no, but…” 😉
The Bristol Post is not immune to the odd error every five minutes or so and today is no exception, as is amply demonstrated by the screenshot below of an item from today’s online edition.
Even the image tag’s alt attributes include the wording “A day on the beach at Weston-super-Mare”.
If Weston beach has been covered in tarmac and is now reserved for use by motor vehicles, I do hope the highway engineers built it well above the high water mark for spring tides, which have a range sometimes in excess of 13 metres.
On the other hand, the Bristol Post does have form when it comes to writing the wrong captions for images on its website (posts passim).
Thanks to skimping on proof-reading, La Despensa Del Gourmet, a new Spanish delicatessen that’s recently opened in Prince Street, Bristol has a rather unusual offer at present, which sounds a bargain at £3.50!
Speculation has it that the proprietors are actually trying to offer a carbonated soft drink originally from America… However, that could be phallusy! 😉
Hat tip: Bristol Bites.
Spotted on the pavement opposite House of Fraser, Cabot Circus, Bristol – one red bra.
Whose could it be?
There’s one person in Bristol who is well known for wearing red – the city’s elected Mayor, George Ferguson.
It is suspected that George has shed his clothing in public before, notably in Easton (posts passim).
Could the Mayor’s secret penchant for transvestism or covert gender reassignment finally have been revealed? If so, when will George tell the citizens of Bristol?
That’s a matter for George’s conscience and our speculation.
However, turning to serious matters, shedding clothing on the highway is technically littering. Bristolians can report litter, fly-tipping, graffiti, dog fouling and the like online via the links on the city council’s street care and cleaning page.
I’ve been in London for the weekend and one of the joys of visiting is a chance to see my niece Katherine.
She’s currently in the middle of a project and is building a coracle in her flat in Bermondsey.
Like other vessels covered by a membrane stretched over a frame, coracles are an ancient form of water craft. The use of coracles in Britain was noted by Julius Caesar on the occasion of his invasion of Britain in 55 BCE.
The etymology of coracle is from the Welsh corwgl, which is in turn related to Irish curach, meaning a boat.
Although an ancient form of craft, coracles have still found working uses up to the present day. For instance, for many years until 1979, Shrewsbury coracle maker Fred Davies achieved some notability amongst football fans; he would sit in his coracle during Shrewsbury Town FC home matches at their old riverside ground of Gay Meadow and retrieve stray balls from the River Severn. His coracle was last heard of in the National Football Museum.
Coracles are difficult to manoeuvre as they are unstable due to their sitting “on” that water. In addition, coracles can easily be carried by currents and the wind. Nevertheless, let’s hope the maiden voyage is recorded for posterity.
There’s been a lot of interest in the media in recent days over the impending release of the film of E.L. James’ 2011 erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
Following hard on the heels of the media interest, comes the HTML colo(u)r* chart.
If you need to pick colours for web pages, fonts and the like, the W3C has a handy picker.
* In HTML American spellings – e.g. color, center – are used.
Following on from last weekend’s catkins (posts passim), another sign of spring has just emerged: the croci (or crocuses) have burst into flower in the pocket park in Chaplin Road, Easton. On a bright, sunny day the flowers shine like beacons.
Although not native to the British Isles, crocus sativus, the saffron crocus, has long been cultivated for the spice saffron.
Indeed, such cultivation has given rise to some place names. For starters, there’s Saffron Walden in Essex, as well as Croydon in the sprawl of Greater London.
As regards the latter, the theory accepted by most philologists is that the name Croydon derives originally from the Anglo-Saxon croh, meaning “crocus”, and denu, “valley”, indicating that it was a centre for the cultivation of saffron. It has been argued that this cultivation is likely to have taken place in the Roman period, when the saffron crocus would have been grown to supply the London market, most probably for medicinal purposes, and particularly for the treatment of granulation of the eyelids.
The croci shown above are not saffron crocus, but are still a welcome sight. On a sunny day the air inside the flower cup of the crocus is said to be some degrees warmer than the surrounding air, making it a welcome place to visit for early pollinating insects.
Not being a regular reader of the sports pages, particularly not the football coverage, I’m indebted to Redvee once again for the screenshot below of an excerpt from yesterday’s Bristol Post report of the League One (that’s the Third Division in old money. Ed.) match between MK Dons and Bristol City FC.
Isn’t defecating on the pitch a red card offence? 😉 Besides this, his excrement might have hit spectators behind the goal…
The article has since been corrected.
