Symptoms

So, were all these old shafts just boarded over? If they were was it just filling them up would have cost more?

Ling Tong, the father of the famous one-legged runner Onesan Shoo. Blame it on Smudge .... he started it.

Let me clear this up once and for all. The current gang of non-doms are the 'ethical decendants' of those sugar plantation and slave owners from a couple of hundred years ago. The original Mr Darcyesque guys, living in their huge estates in Blighty, needed to be insulated from having to hand-over the plantation profits to King George's merry tax collectors so they cooked-up this wheeze to hang-on to the blood money. Fast forward to 2015 and the scheme's still operating for the benefit of similar gangsters. That's it in a nutshell.

So they've wagered the tarmac to cover one of their spread bets on the big Liverpool dobbin match tomorrow. Typical bookies!

Top Jocko is Nicola ... I look forward to Milleeeeeband being prodded leftwards by her sharp stick.

And here in The Guardian's G2 Section today: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/07/nicola-sturgeon-right-about-retirement Frankie's the Big Daddy ... I say bring him back to the Beeb!

GGG, you know fine well what 'the Jewish question' means; peel back the various layers of camouflage and what we find is pure anti-semitism - nothing more, nothing less. It usually means the myth that International Jewish Money is creating some sort of New World Order, whist at the same time attempting to insulate itself from scrutiny by using shabbas goyims as prophylatics or introducing 'Manchurian Candidate' dopplegangers to do it's bidding. We don't have to look too far to see where this bollocks can lead. Oh, the Left is just as much to blame as the Right.

I did wonder just how long it would take for 'the Jewish question' to be raised in the campaign!

I posted on here a while ago a link to maps of the geological survey of our local seams ... these sectional plans showed the various strata and their depths (in fathoms, I think). I'll do a search later to find them. Here it is: "Have a look here for the 1871 British Geological Survey of our local pits ... all the details of the different strata and where the coal seams are and the depth of everything. There's also data on how the pits relate to each other ... same seams, etc. You can zoom in and navigate across the chart to read the details." www.largeimages.bgs.ac.uk/iip/historicmaps.html?id=1003563 " It was posted in this thread: http://www.bedlington.co.uk/community/topic/4494-coal-mining/page-3?hl=%2Bgeological+%2Bsurvey#entry50243

I always enjoyed Clarkson on the telly, especially his take on the Frogs/Jockos/Barbarbotherers. However, there is no place for bullying and/or assault, especially in the workplace ... he had to go. Nothing to do with political correctness at the Beeb.

I too am saddened by Keith's passing. We shared an interest in astronomy and when he got his telescope I urged him, on here, to get across to Keilder to enjoy the local 'dark sky'; I hope he did. Ditto Vic's remarks about Joe Rooney.

GGG, I'm with you on the Evan Davis question ... hopeless!

The World 'aint big enough for folks to live long lives; we need sizable numbers to regularly croke to help keep the numbers in check. In the so-called developing world they have all sorts of 'natural' plagues to do the thinning-out, all the developed world has to offer is 'self-induced' death ... snouts, various STDs, sugar, pies and cakes, etc. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, 'let them all get the flu'.

They're going to get free flu jabs now!!!!!!!!!! More wasted NHS resources.

GGG wrote: "Curiously not one article I've seen even mentions the old twelve-sided thrupenny bit, ..." That's what happens when you don't take the Guardian ... full thrupenny bit reference in their report. Go on GGG, take read the Guardian, you know deep down it'll do you good.

I've posted elsewhere on the Forum about my maternal granny but this snout thread stirred a memory of seeing round metal tins (maybe a couple of inches in dia and about 3" high) packed with tabs in her house ... this would be early to mid 1950s. These were sent to her by her eldest son who was a Commander in the Royal Navy ... I'm guessing here, but they were probably part of his 'free' fag ration sent home to her. I remember them being plain (no paper label) but maybe with a pressed logo on the lid; they probably held 20 to 30 snouts. The tin concept probably made good sense for waterproof packaging on the 'high seas'.

Pacific Islands .. ... they worship Phil the Greek as a God. Just about sums it all up!

"... the Queen because many Labour supporters (including Sym) want her deposed?" Remember the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg?

Maggs, just as well you had hot and cold running water to hose down those ankle-biters once you got home. A couple of generations ago it would have been a cold tap in a communal yard bounded by hovels owned by Tory slum landlords. A decent result to that challenge, me thinks!

The hospital quacks routinely prescribed Mackeson to their anemic patients; I don't know when this stopped ... maybe the 1980s. Pete is correct about the bottle size as I remember my Dad being given the stuff after an operation in the General in the early 70s.

Cor blimey! pil. Sounds a bit like life in a grand old manse in the gentile Cotswolds.

There's no excuse for sloppy writing, poor grammar and dodgy spelling ... unless, unless, unless, what's been produced has been created on a piddly little phone; the small keys/fat finger combo.

Maggs - I always had you figured as a snuff snorter or even a chewing baccy muncher ... a bit like those good 'ol boys gals often seen of Yankee films of the Deep South. Picture the scene: Maggs, with elbow on the bar in the Red Lion, booted foot on the brass rail, clearing the baccy juice into the spittoon via a deep houk'n-up & hocklin' oot, then downing a stiff shot of sourmash. Yeehaw!

Seven years old ... cousin and me nicked our Grandad's baccy tin from the hearth beside his chair and went into Grandma's bathroom. Lit up one of his roll up we found in the tin with his petrol lighter (which he made during WW1 whilst in the trenches ... made from an .303 cartridge case). Coughing and spluttering we were heard by Grandma who made us open the door ... "have you been smoking in here" she asked, "no" we said emerging from the fog. Captured good and proper, wacks from Grandma but a smile (which Grandma didn't see) from Grandad. Grandad used to flake his old dog-ends into the tin to re-use and to save lighter fuel/matches had a box of spills on the hearth. Frog snouts were my tabs of choice when older ... I loved the taste/smell but I haven't smoked in years. The Frogs have changed the recipe of Gitanges so they are now just like most other tabs ... I recently bought a pack in Paris to remind myself of the 'old days' but was so, so disappointed that the distinctive flavour has been removed. Probably the EU's fault (Maggs politics alert).

I reckon all these computer rendered characters in these modern takes on the old classics look very, very creepy.