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The treacle pitch reminds me of The Putty Footballs, which are a very useful analogy for projects to be completed within a bureaucratic organisation, which I was taught be a wonderful ex-REME And ex-MOD Colonel, who sadly passed away from the dreaded last week.

 

His theory was that every job was a large putty football, and if you ran onto the pitch, full of vim and vigour, and gave it a really hard kick in the direction of goal, you would get a broken ankle, and the ball would roll forward about a foot. If, on the other hand, you kept about ten balls in play, sauntered on and gave each a light tap every day, you would come away relaxed, yet after about a fortnight would be seen to score goal after goal, apparently without effort.

 

RIP HT.

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13 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

The Achingverse and the Disc World appear to have collided, via Treacle Mining.

 

I blame myself entirely.

Treacle mining has a long and proud history in the world of model railways, the Sabden Treacle Mines first having been discovered by the Manchester MRS in the vicinity of Grandsmoor Castle in the 1950s (or even earlier).

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We've had largely unremarkable names in the family, the most of their times being my grandmothers, one a Florence, the other a Myrtle, while an aunt rejoiced in Zena...  My brother, on the other hand, broke free and gave his three girls some fanciful secondary names including Aurora, Azura, Celesta, Electra and Stella.  Thankfully their first names are perfectly usable!

 

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57 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

The Achingverse and the Disc World appear to have collided, via Treacle Mining.

 

I blame myself entirely.

 

Thewe's nothing to be ashamed of, they're both fantastical with a core of common sense!

 

Treacle mining is sensible, unlike the Jam Butty mines of Knotty Ash...

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13 minutes ago, wagonman said:

At the risk of allowing boring reality to creep in, I would point out that mining – digging holes in the ground in search of specific minerals – has a long history in Norfolk. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/grimes-graves-prehistoric-flint-mine/

 

Very good!

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3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Amateur sport in Edwardian Norfolk, No. 163: The Treacle Miners' Cricket Club, founded 1878. 

As a working men's side, this doubled up with the association football club, providing Saturday afternoon recreation for the mining community throughout the year. The football club never achieved any significant success - the closest it came to a moment of triumph was a 4-2 defeat to the Achingham Railway Works team in the semi-final of the 1889 West Norfolk Cup. The ground was adjacent to the mine's spoil heap, a notorious source of soil pollution to this day, with traces of unrefined viscous material leaching far and wide. Visiting teams came in fear of the notorious sticky wicket.

 

Probably closer to reality than you think.

There was a West Norfolk cricket league until recently.

I forget the name of the old King's Lynn and District or the North West Norfolk league cups but there was sometning similar to a West Norfolk cup in football.

Coal on the outfield. Seen that on Miners Welfare grounds in the West Riding. Ravensthorpe (now gone) and Calder Grove come to mind.

 

Ian T

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My wife's mother's maiden name was George. Her Uncle was Don George so all the family called him Joe including his mother. My father's second name was his mother's maiden name but few realised it as her family name was Guy. 

I feel sorry for those whose parents thought it funny to give a name that would casue problems.  A boy at school was called Richard Head so naturally everyone called him Dick

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My parents always said that they wanted to include my mother's maiden name into my Christian names.

As it started with R and they also chose I and A for the other names it gives some intesting combinations.

RIAT, IART OR IRAT. I suppose that they could have gone for ARIT or AIRT but they had given up by then.

 

Ian T

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24 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

A cheap trick that serves offspring well in later life, or causes them endless embarrassment, is to make their first name that of a status Lord, Lady, Sir, Doctor, Reverend, etc. Not a new idea, of course.

 

Or "Lawn", as in Tennyson

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47 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

A cheap trick that serves offspring well in later life, or causes them endless embarrassment, is to make their first name that of a status Lord, Lady, Sir, Doctor, Reverend, etc. Not a new idea, of course.

 

I never heard that Duke Ellington or Count Basie suffered any such embarrassment. I've not come across a jazzman called Viscount or The Honorable, though.

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56 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I never heard that Duke Ellington or Count Basie suffered any such embarrassment. I've not come across a jazzman called Viscount or The Honorable, though.

 

Somewhere on the Disc they'll be a Marquis Marsalis or a Chevalier Bechet

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2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

A cheap trick that serves offspring well in later life, or causes them endless embarrassment, is to make their first name that of a status Lord, Lady, Sir, Doctor, Reverend, etc. Not a new idea, of course.

King C Gillette did ok. And named his son king as well.

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10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:


My youngest ended-up being IRE by a similar process, and she does quite often display ire, especially when asked to go to bed at a sensible time, which she regards as a serious affront.

 

We may have Genes to share, as I have one of those.....   delightful as she is in so many other ways.

 

Julian

 

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5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

A cheap trick that serves offspring well in later life, or causes them endless embarrassment, is to make their first name that of a status Lord, Lady, Sir, Doctor, Reverend, etc. Not a new idea, of course.

 

My other half youtube follows a "plant based vegan and mama of 10" called   Taina Licciardo-Toivola who seems to do nothing but travel around with her spooky looking offspring and husband all dressed in cultish white and post videos about it . Their  childrens names are Leonardo, Cleopatra, Jerusalem, D'Artangnan, Shakespeare, Romeo, Nefertiti, King James, Aphrodite and Omega. (Omega is hopefully  the last one they are having otherwise  he runs the risk of severe identity isssues)

 

I work for a defence establishment and when bored go through the corporate name and  address book looking for people with surnames that are also ranks in order to find  Sergeant Sergeants, Corporal Majors and so on. 

 

A huge highlight was  back in the early '90's when I got to send an email to a Major Look.

 

 

Edited by monkeysarefun
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16 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I work for a defence establishment and when bored go through the corporate name and  address book looking for people with surnames


Should your fellow Australians be comforted by this, or worried that you took your attention off the radar screen?

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9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:


Should your fellow Australians be comforted by this, or worried that you took your attention off the radar screen?

 

No worries, Aus, NZ, have banned Covid imports, so no incoming a/c.  No wonder the attention wanders from a blank radar screen.

 

I spent 2 privileged years working with a Sgt Sergeant, who was so very good, that he very shortly after, became Flt Lt Sergeant.   {There are a couple of stories there, but they will have to wait.}

 

Julian

 

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9 hours ago, Hroth said:

Aurora, Azura, Celesta, Electra and Stella.  

 

These might be good new car names.  

Oldsmobile Aurora

Hundai Azura (There was a Hundai Azera; nearly bought one!)

Buick Electra

There was a GW 'Stella' loco class.  Close?

     Brian.

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When I started in the health service a lot of our patients had been born at or before the beginning of 20th century.  Their parents obviously had very limited imagination as we had numerous, Willian Williams/Williamson, Thomas Thomas/Thompson, David Davison, Richard Richardson, Jack Jackson, Robert Roberts/Robertson, Edward Edwards and John Johnson.  As time went on this type of name seemed to vanish.

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