Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Compound2632]

6 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Don't you mean Burke and Hare?

 

Jim

 

Paine is remembered for his pioneering of human rights; Hare for his despoiling of human rites.

[Grizz]

8 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

Or anyone who lives near Lewes.

 

Yarp! That’ll be me then. Tom Paine. A Very fine brew. Normally available in time for the 4th July, for a month. Definitely one of my favourites. As the slogan says....Strong, well balanced, with hints of impending revolution! Love it. Sums up Lewes quite well as well. 
 

Now how does it go again, oh yes........”No taxation without representation!” 
 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

For the purposes of this thread, it’s worth remembering that he was born, and I think grew-up, in Norfolk.

 

The Lewes connection used to be played-down, rather than bigged-up, even forty years ago - I think the town burghers considered him too full of dangerous ideas even that recently. The statue of him in the town didn’t go up until a few years ago, paid for privately, not by the council.

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

38 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Yarp! That’ll be me then. Tom Paine. A Very fine brew. Normally available in time for the 4th July, for a month. Definitely one of my favourites. As the slogan says....Strong, well balanced, with hints of impending revolution! Love it. Sums up Lewes quite well as well. 
 

Now how does it go again, oh yes........”No taxation without representation!” 
 

 

 

 

Or, the modern, albeit undrunk, version ... 

 

 

 

[CKPR]

If it's for toasting the Dear Leader's victories, does that mean that it is a morality ale ? 

[Grizz]

32 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Or, the modern, albeit undrunk, version ... 

 

 

 

Hahahaha, I wonder how large the batch would have been...? A suitably pretentious little number, with a bitter aftertaste? 

[Northroader]

9 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Don't you mean Burke and Hare?

 

Jim

 

Cheers, Jim!

 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

For the purposes of this thread, it’s worth remembering that he was born, and I think grew-up, in Norfolk.

 

Thetford, or thereabouts, I believe.

hasn’t changed a great deal since his time, either.

Like many radicals, he was rather “pure” in his vision and not inclined to compromise, and was not particularly well-liked by his fellow revolutionaries, who viewed him as a prickly nuisance. Some of his suspicions about power being transferred from one elite (the British Crown) to another (American ruling class) were well founded, but most revolutions end thus: even in this “enlightened cradle of democracy”, civil wars have been either between factions of the same family, or the reluctant expansion of power to one step down in the hierarchy.

[Nearholmer]

I think there is a statue of him in the Thetford too, maybe a bust, but I couldn’t find it when I looked during a brief stop on a long drive.

 

I liked him a lot as soon as I read RoM, because his arguments are razor-sharp, but put across with a good strand of down-to-Earth humour. He was certainly incredibly intelligent, but his life-experiences must have shaped his communication-style so that it was never too ‘intellectual’, and he doesn’t weigh things down by citing so many examples that you loose the will to continue.

 

And, I share his surname, so he must have been a decent bloke.

[DonB]

A quick search found

 

Thomas Paine, the greatest thinker of his age, was born and educated in Thetford and was the first champion of the Rights of Man.

“History is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine” – John Adams 1819
“I consider Paine our greatest political thinker” – Thomas Alva Edison 1925

Thomas Paine had a key influence on the American and French Revolutions and a gold statue was erected outside King’s House in 1964 (Bonaparte said that a gold statue of Paine should be erected in every city in the universe).

Views of Paine have varied since his death. In 1964, some opposed the erection of his statue outside King’s House, a gift from the Thomas Paine Foundation in the USA. The controversy led to the foundation of a UK based Thomas Paine Society to promote a better understanding of the man and his work.

https://leapinghare.org/thomas-paine/

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by DonB

[webbcompound]

considering where we are I'm surprised there has been no discussion of railroading (to force something to happen or force someone to do something, especially quickly or unfairly)

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, webbcompound said:

considering where we are I'm surprised there has been no discussion of railroading (to force something to happen or force someone to do something, especially quickly or unfairly)

 

Presumably the term has its origin in the sharp business practices of some American railway companies? But how?

[Regularity]

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Presumably the term has its origin in the sharp business practices of some American railway companies? But how?

They were simply forced through places. As an example, see "Blazing Saddles".

[ian]

55 minutes ago, Regularity said:

As an example, see "Blazing Saddles".

 

"Nearly lost a $50 handcart."

 

Warning for those of a sensitive disposition - it isn't a film for you.

[Grizz]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Presumably the term has its origin in the sharp business practices of some American railway companies? But how?

Being forced to sell your land required for the building the railroad?

[Edwardian]

14 hours ago, Grizz said:

Being forced to sell your land required for the building the railroad?

 

Or sending Henry Fonda and his gang to kill you!

 

 

 

 

[KeithMacdonald]

On 08/01/2021 at 10:47, Regularity said:

Like many radicals, he was rather “pure” in his vision and not inclined to compromise, and was not particularly well-liked by his fellow revolutionaries, who viewed him as a prickly nuisance. Some of his suspicions about power being transferred from one elite (the British Crown) to another (American ruling class) were well founded

 

I'd love to known his views of the current situation. Has the American ruling class just had a counter-revolution to restore the ruling status quo?

[Regularity]

21 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Has the American ruling class just had a counter-revolution to restore the ruling status quo?

Debatable. Trump, despite playing the populist card, was really part of what is the ruling elite, with his money and ability to buy influence.

I wouldn’t class recent events as a revolution, not even a failed revolution, more the result of certain foreign governments taking advantage of a useful (to them) idiot being in control of the most economically and militarily powerful the world has ever seen, and a bunch of toadies pandering to his whim and confusing a few million very loud voices with the will of the people. Dial down the rhetoric which creates division, and decency and compassion becomes the norm.

It’s not so different here: a populist buffoon (I used to think it was an act, but no longer) has been manipulated to support an action he didn’t agree with (Brexit) by right-wing elements in the press, primarily to ensure London’s pre-eminence as the world centre for money laundering and terrorist financing, because the opposition had twice chosen leaders supported by a very left-wing union leader (an avowed Marxist) who wants nothing more than to foment discontent and disruption. Go back 15 years, and no one mentioned immigration as an issue because it wasn’t an issue, until David Cameron started saying that no one was talking about it, making it an issue and a divisive one at that, ultimately leading to his own downfall as he so seriously underestimated the effect he had had on creating unease about the EU.

[rocor]

Those old Spanish locomotives pretending to be American in spaghetti (

espaguetis) westerns.

 

The top one from "Once upon a time in the west".

The bottom one used in " For a Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad and The Ugly".

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, rocor said:

Those old Spanish locomotives pretending to be American in spaghetti (

espaguetis) westerns.

 

The top one from "Once upon a time in the west".

The bottom one used in " For a Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad and The Ugly".

 

Yes, though all tracks look wide to the OO modeller, are we not seeing Spanish gauge in the opening scene of OUATITW I posted?

 

[Nearholmer]

We once went on a bus ride across the entire Spanish ‘wild west’, and I mean a bus, not an air-conditioned coach with comfortable seats, because we booked a hotel at the edge of Almeria, thinking it was in the edge of the city, only to have a kindly cab driver point out that it was at the edge of the province, and that if he took us there on the meter it would cost over a thousand euros - he even helped us to find the bus office and book tickets. Anyway, we did see the spaghetti western sets in the distance, and the desert, and nine million poly tunnels, ‘cos that’s where all our salad veg comes from, and get very hot indeed, and dusty, and arrive about six hours later than we planned, in a place that turned out to be a centre of commercial fishing and agribusiness, entirely ill-attuned to tourists, except for a coach tour from Romania, which had just emerged from behind the iron curtain, so the tourists thought they were in paradise, rather than a fish-processing zone.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Nearholmer

[rocor]

9 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Yes, though all tracks look wide to the OO modeller, are we not seeing Spanish gauge in the opening scene of OUATITW I posted?

 

 

The opening sequence was filmed in Spain. Other railway scenes were shot in Granada on the Guadix–Hernán-Valle  line. Interiors were filmed in Rome. Some exterior filming took place in Utah. 

[Canal Digger]

it's been a while since I last watched OUATITW, must find it somewhere

[Northroader]

 

[webbcompound]

9 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Yes, though all tracks look wide to the OO modeller, are we not seeing Spanish gauge in the opening scene of OUATITW I posted?

 

Although lots of US railroads were broad gauge initially (6ft, and 5ft6inches were popular). Gauge standardisation wasn't finally completed in the South, (where most of the lines were 5ft gauge) till 1886  (just before the GWR finally converted).