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Thanks for your votes ...
Posted May 25, 2005
Okay 
I didn't win the fortnight's writing holiday in France, but I noticed a few names on the Voting List which I recognise from h2g2, thanks for your thoughts
- even if you voted for someone else after reading what the competition had to offer, I still got a fair percentage of the total votes cast
Anyone who'd like to read my current range of pieces on
www.greatwriting.co.uk
is still welcome to have a browse - any comments will be gratefully received and (hopefully) help to make me a better writer ....
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: May 25, 2005
Battery Update
Posted Apr 21, 2004
Just in case anyone thought I'd gone away for ever, I haven't had the time to develop this topic which still concerns me as much as it ever did 
However, I've had a number of people contact ME recently (rather than me going to them with begging bowl in hand) 
The situation in the UK is as grim as ever - as predicted over 800 MILLION batteries finished up in landfill in 2002, and if we don't do something positive about our waste disposal policies AS A WHOLE before 2007 this country faces being bankrupted by the size of the fines the EC is threatening to impose ..... 
I have contacted a number of people who are interested in establishing a chain to 'export the problem' rather than bury it. The batteries we use and throw away can in fact be partially recycled, and the elements which cannot be re-used can (through a special process requiring specialised equipment) be disposed of in a manner which does NOT affect the environment. In time, the whole process can become self-financing, due to savings made by alternative disposal methods which do NOT depend on landfilling toxic waste materials.
In fact, once I can persuade someone or other to finance the startup phase of the operation 
This is where I have run into a blank wall every time over the last two years or more ...
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Apr 21, 2004
Youth Theatre Project
Posted Jul 31, 2003
I've been asked by the 'Team' running a Youth Theatre in Liverpool England to ask if there's anyone involved in any similar undertaking in our Twin City of New York?
Planning ahead to Liverpool becoming the Capital of Culture in 2008 [one year after Liverpool's 800th Anniversary in 2007] the thinking is to arrange an exchange of IDEAS in the first instance, ideally leading to an exchange of tutors and even possibly students if the plans reach full fruition.
Anyone who has any ideas or interest in this project can send their ideas on the back of a [clean] £50 note to the following address .......... oops, sorry, force of habit!!!
Contact me either through the HooToo site or by e-mail at:-
[email protected]
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 31, 2003
So what's PC??
Posted Sep 18, 2002
How should we define what may be deemed acceptable in the name of 'Political Correctness'?
Put another way, in an age where the Personal Computer is much more common than the Police Constable who at one time used to actually walk the streets each day, have we reached a point at which PC has also come to mean: Pointless & Counterproductive?
My wife had an experience on a [non-BBC] website recently which upset her somewhat.
When she explained it to me I immediately thought "I've noticed that before ..... "
but I have to admit that since it didn't affect me PERSONALLY I hadn't given it a lot of thought.
One of the 'Compulsory' fields necessary to leave a message on the site was the TITLE field.
Available were: Dr. Mr. Ms. One to be chosen: leaving field blank not an option.
As she pointed out to me, having been happily married for over 20 years she felt demeaned and offended that she was being denied the CHOICE of being able to describe herself as "Mrs." if she wished to do so.
I felt that she had made a fair point, actually so:
Please Comment
Politically Correct
Provocative Crap
Probably Counterproductive Any other 'PC' descriptions of this 'copout'??
To me it seems clearly a case of: "For God's sake let's make sure we don't offend [ X ] .... "
[X] is usually a minority group -at least, [X] considers him/herself to BE a minority group
Does this mean that if I want to state a case for the rights of happily married people to HAVE THE OPTION to indicate the fact if they so wish, I should make my claim on the basis of believing that such people represent a MINORITY GROUP?
Has our society reached a point where this would actually be POSSIBLE??
If that's the case, perhaps the joke which finished with the punchline:
"Last man out, turn off the lights ...."
isn't really funny any more
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Latest reply: Sep 18, 2002
What's in a Name???
Posted Jun 6, 2002
... As Billy himself might have said (although I think NOT.... !!)
Listening to the news this morning over breakfast, it suddenly occurred to me: we 'hear and accept' certain combinations of names without question, whereas others would 'sound' somehow strange or even totally inappropriate.
This morning's example [boo! boo! or maybe not, depending on your personal view of the man] was TONY BLAIR.
I can't ever think of him being discussed, mentioned or addressed in any other way (although I believe that at election time it is required to read out the candidate's full name as it appears on his/her birth certificate).
Ssomehow, I could never imagine ANTONY BLAIR leading this Government. Similarly I couldn't imagine a TONY EDEN-led administration, or one under the control of WILLIAM CLINTON, or GEORGIE BUSH.
And while we're at it, who'd buy a script written by BILLY SHAKESPEARE ('sorright, honest,guv, I gorrit from a bloke down Camden Market.....) Would ANTONY & DECLAN grab the microscopic attention span of their target teenage audience? And how about the probable 'Hillbilly' image of GED HOULLIER?
I don't think it's the influence of media PR alone which is at work here. There seem to be certain 'U' and 'non-U' usages of variants on a name which are in circulation, while others are almost inevitably avoided. KENNY EVERETT, for all that he was a brilliant mimic and creator of identities was NEVER known as KENNETH. Love him or loath him, the same can be said of HARRY ENFIELD (personally I am most definitely in the latter category, but that's beside the point). In this case, HAROLD or even HAL would sound patently false, but I am unable to put a finger on exactly why.
What other combinations come to mind? I list a few of my own to round off this Conversation Topic, and invite anyone who's got this far into my thoughts and ramblings to add any of their own....
Without disrespect to the memory: could RICHARD ADAMS ever be thought of as RICHIE, or even DICK?
Could the talents of MICHAEL CAINE be hidden behind the name MICKY?
(Pardon, Ma'am - but it's topical!) Isn't it a good job a certain young lady managed to get the pronunciation of her own name corrected from LILIBET to ELIZABETH before she began a working life which has now spanned 50 years?
Would ANDREW WARHOL ever graduate from Art College? Or that lazy Italian layabout LENNY DAVINCI who spent most of his working life lying down on the job?
I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on contemporary and historical names where one variant of a name is generally accepted as the 'only' variation in common use for that particular person. Of particular interest would be any thoughts on possible REASONS for the acceptance of whichever variant is generally accepted even in fiction [ROBIN HOOD, but ROB ROY, for example!]
I haven't even TOUCHED upon the related subject of NICKNAMES, partly because I feel these are more open to abusive and hurtful or insulting intent. They can also be regional, and thus of limited circulation: the nickname YOZZER appears to be in use exclusively in the Liverpool/Merseyside area for anyone with the family name HUGHES (at least, I've never heard it used elsewhere around the UK). Granted that the world will never see his like again, but where on earth did the nickname DIXIE DEAN (footballer) come from?
Other unlikely/improbable combinations:
LOL Olivier instead of Laurence?
PEGGY Thatcher (variation on MARGARET)?
CHARLOTTE Dimmock in the garden?
JIMMY Oliver in the kitchen?
Have fun adding to this (not-TOO-serious!) list .....
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: Jun 6, 2002
Bagheera: Spellchecker, Grammarian Pedant, Semiquavering Secretary and member of the Punctuation Police
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