WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Cathy]

Yes Stanley the windows are very dirty, there are remodeling works happening on that level, but I rarely go up there so I took the opportunity of a pic.

By the way, where is the bump-me button? I've been trying forever to bring up Childhood Memories topic thru the search engine, in all sorts of ways...

[Wendyf]

Don't know why you are struggling with finding Childhood Memories Cathy. I've brought it up for you.

My niece beat the Royals to it and gave birth to a fine 9lb 3oz boy on Sunday......no wonder she looked huge!

[Stanley]

Why wasn't it splashed across the papers?

[Wendyf]

Why wasn't it splashed across the papers?

No idea, but I think he's wonderful so I'll splash it across here .....welcome to the family Edward!!

59661140_10161740449190187_9176412779995725824_n.jpg

[PanBiker]

Excellent, congratulations Great Aunt Wendy.

[Big Kev]

Excellent news Wendy.

[Cathy]

Thanks Wendy and

. Welcome to the world Edward

[Stanley]

Looks in good nick, not wrinkled like a prune. Was it as Cesarewitch?

[Wendyf]

Looks in good nick, not wrinkled like a prune. Was it as Cesarewitch?

You've lost me there! I'm told it was an entirely natural birth, into hospital at 5am, born at 10am then home with Mum in the afternoon.

[Stanley]

Sorry, Arthur Morrison once told me about an old lady patient who referred to a Caesarian birth as a Cesarewitch!

[Wendyf]

A racing fan no doubt!

[PanBiker]

Larger babies tend not to be as shrivelled up as some of the little ones. All ours were a decent size at birth.

[Tizer]

If we carry on removing every bit of our heritage that has a link to something we no longer approve of we'll have nothing left! I wonder what they'll do with the bell...
`Cambridge University college bell removed over slavery link' LINK
If we'd known in advance we could have despatched Tripps to give it a clean!

[Tripps]

If we'd known in advance we could have despatched Tripps to give it a clean!

Depends how high up it was! I opened the boot today and found the plaque cleaning kit was still there, so I'd have been ready.

Plaque cleanng kit.JPG

[Whyperion]

A woman has given birth to a healthy child in Windsor.....

Now named Archie.

I trust he will get a good education

[Tripps]

From The Guardian - on the money as usual.

The TV historian Prof Kate Williams speculated that the choice of Archie may have been inspired by figures such as the South African intellectual and anthropologist Archie Mafeje.

[Stanley]

As an old pedant I must protest, he should have been named Archibald and the diminutive used in daily life. I approve of Harrison.... As for Mountbatten, Dicky had a very chequered history. Apart from that, who cares?
The daylight being blocked from my window at 14:30 yesterday when Kev arrived. He may have solved his problem.
I am not a football fan but even I have noted and admired the way that Liverpool and Tottenham have survived against the odds and ensured an all Premier League Championship final. Quite amazing and I can understand the joyful hysteria of the fans.

[Tizer]

...the joyful hysteria of the fans.

Ah, so that's what all that noise was!

[Stanley]

How hard you have to work to make sense of really complicated academic writing. Platt on Monastic Granges stretched my brain. Good anti-dementia therapy I reckon!
Much food for thought re. the Barlick Monastery.......
Baxter's chimpanzee tweet. How could he have been so stupid? A very good argument for not using social media to make any kind of point on a public matter.

[Tizer]

This is high on the news agenda at the moment but I haven't heard or seen any of the reports stating who is responsible for doing the work and is therefore going to draw in all that extra spend:
`Home Office failing on Emergency Services Network, says NAO: The delayed Emergency Services Network is slipping further behind schedule and is getting more expensive all the time – and the Home Office’s management of the project is to blame, says the National Audit Office'

After searching the web I eventually found a report in Computer Weekly LINK which tells us this:
`There are also a number of commercial risks – renegotiation of the main ESN contracts with key suppliers EE and Motorola are falling further behind schedule, and Motorola’s acquisition of Airwave [the present system] at the end of 2015 has complicated these talks, to the extent that there is now a clear risk that Motorola would financially benefit from further delays if they cause more extensions to the Airwave contract.'
..and this:
`Also, said the NAO, the overall delivery of the programme would ultimately depend on emergency services being satisfied that it was a suitable replacement for the Airwave network. However, many bodies have expressed serious concerns that the coverage and resilience of the EE ESN network will not match Airwave.'

[Stanley]

The version of the NAO report I heard Tiz said that the extra payments to Airwave during the period of the delay was a major part of the costs. I suspect this is another case of the suppliers having better contract lawyers than the government..... How many times have we seen this happen? I suspect this is only the tip of the iceberg, they don't tell us everything, and it's costing us billions of pounds a year. (Think of Grayling alone!)
I had a furtle and found this... " the government's total managed expenditure for 2018-19 is estimated at £812.8 billion" How much of that is waste? (Note the proviso 'managed'....)

[Tripps]

We've been privileged to be allowed to see an 'adorable' photo of Archie Harrison's feet, to mark Mother's Day in the USA. They seem to be trying very hard to make the conspiracy theorists' job easy. Perhaps they could sub-contract the entire job to Hello Magazine with all takings going back to the Nation to offset what we provide for them?.

[Stanley]

I saw it. I fear we have another personal branding exercise ongoing.....
Got mail from Gordon Prentice this morning ftom Canada. He reads all my BET articles and sent me press cuttings from the time..... (I had just sent him my latest Marton article that talks about the dairy closure)
Lovely sleep, a bit longer than usual but who cares....... I am retired and can do what I want!

[Stanley]

40 years ago Arthur Entwistle made me a miniature brass anvil. It was only when I rearranged the exhibits in the front room that I realised his was an almost perfect replica of the 28lb anvil I cleaned up recently.
The lovely weather.... everyone you meet on the street is smiling.....

[PanBiker]

A question Stanley, how was it made? Cast and then filed and polished up, or drilled, sawn, filed and polished from a solid lump of brass.?

The full sized version would be cast no doubt.