Prompted by a tweet by @mlv:

‘Daughter gave me a challenge. Write a story using only these verbs in this order (verbs like “will be” are okay).’

Abused
Bargain
Cease
Decapitate
Elaborating
Fabricate
Gnashing
Honeymooning
Ignite
Jam
Knitting
Loved
Minced
Notified
Object
Petrify
Querying
Resist
Savvy
Tax
Unfrozen
Verbified
Waxed
X-irradiate
Yelped
Zeroed

“Verbified”‽ Wow.

Challenge accepted:

The Cleveland Browns fans, abused by all and sundry and one particular owner, bargain for their lives in 1995 (cease operation, decapitate the fan base.) Elaborating, the owner fabricates the narrative leading to gnashing of teeth throughout football.

Fast-forward to 1999, a honeymooning of sorts, a phoenix team with desire to ignite a new dynasty; but with an unprecedentedly short time to jam a knitting team, a loved fanbase minced by the previous owner, one who notified his intentions, into the established order.

Object back in ‘95 though, it’s useless. Petrify one’s desires until the return. Querying why brings no joy, resist and a savvy owner, with tax unfrozen, verbified The Move.

Thr press waxed lyrical. Who X-irradiated their brains?

The fans yelped “the league zeroed our chances!”

Jamie Gillan from Inverness made the Browns 2019 roster cut; we have a starter. I’m buzzing about the season now for the first time!

I asked the guy a totally trivial question earlier. Given the magnitude of what’s just happened for him I’m not expecting a reply. (If I allowed myself to post them in the blog I’d put a smiley face here.)

My wife mentioned the gift she’d left for me in the top of the kitchen cupboard. Due to the length of time I’ve been on the Internet, I quite naturally parsed what she said incorrectly.

(There was a picture here once, but I migrated blogs from there to here, and it was lost).

Earlier this afternoon we arrived home from our week away in a farm cottage between Bridgnorth and Ironbridge, within an area promoted as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

I bought a cheap souvenir anvil which is, though predating the Industrial Revolution by thousands of years, indicative of industry, of engineering. What’s it’s not indicative of though is the massive social upheaval brought about by the increasingly rapid change starting in the early 18th century.

It’s 3-1/2″ long and awesome.

We visited a range of museums throughout the week:

• Blists Hill Victorian town (a wide range of buildings moved from elsewhere and reconstructed.) (Here we purchased annual passes for most of the biggest attractions in the area.)
• The Broseley clay tobacco pipe works (at which pipes are still made in limited numbers, most notably for films such as The Lord of the Rings),
• Abraham Darby’s home, incongruously opulent for a Quaker,
• The Jackfield ceramic tile museum,
• We travelled from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway, and had an excellent meal at the King and Castle pub (which has a wide range of local beers),
• The Acton Scott historic working farm,
• Enginuity, a series of interactive exhibits targeted at children of all ages.
• The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway (a magnificent 1-1/4 minutes of travel on a 64% incline),
• The world famous Ironbridge Iron Bridge.
• The Museum of the Gorge,
• The Coalport China Museum,
• To top all this off we had a last night meal and drinks at the Old Castle pub in Bridgnorth, known for its hanging baskets.

I might add links to the list at some point, and check if I’ve missed anything out (apart from a few visits to the Bridgnorth Sainsbury store.) Here are some map screenshots.

Aside from the Southern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster, the longest drive to a starred point on this map is just about 35 minutes (from the cottage to Acton Scott farm.)

* Incidentally, the Ironbridge Gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s entirely justifiable!

Headline:

McDonald’s paper straws cannot be recycled

The BBC is currently reporting on a story ‘broken’ by The Sun, that McDonalds straws cannot be recycled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49234054

Buried deep within the article, the revelation that the materials are recyclable, but McDonalds statement reads:

“As a result of customer feedback, we have strengthened our paper straws, so while the materials are recyclable, their current thickness makes it difficult for them to be processed by our waste solution providers, who also help us recycle our paper cups,”

We’re in the ridiculous situation that McDonalds and the BBC are misleading the public. From the article:

“Last year, it axed plastic straws, even though they were recyclable, in all its UK branches as part of a green drive.”

Meh.

Ok, the paper straws are indeed recyclable but, it seems, only by everyone outside the McDonalds company. Officially. The bad thing here, how irresponsible is this reporting repeated across a wide range of clickbait headline news sources‽

People simply won’t recycle them because of this crap excuse for journalism.

I’m curious now; what cardboard thickness would you consider unsuitable to put in your recycling bin? Egg box? Washing machine soap powder box?

Dear:

• Prime Minister,
• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
• Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,
• Secretary of State for Transport.

What progress is being made in developing the United Kingdom’s electric vehicle charging station infrastructure, and are we on schedule to meet the Government’s current all-electric vehicle target?

Cheers,

Baz.

Someone told Dominic Raab that Russia is developing secret missiles that can strike European capitals including LONDON.[efn_note]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7315003/Russia-developing-powerful-secret-missile-strike-LONDON-says-Dominic-Raab.html?ito=rss-flipboard[/efn_note] Unprecedented, naah. Raab, he’s no Gavin Williamson.[efn_note]https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-defence-secretary-wants-put-13125030[/efn_note]

In past news, someone told Dominic Raab that Great Britain is surrounded by sea. Details, details.[efn_note]https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/08/dominic-raab-dover-calais-brexit-uk-france[/efn_note]

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This morning I experienced a revelatory moment, a realisation a thing we will all take for granted was foreseen.

My boss is collecting green plastic milk bottle tops for a hospital charity drive, the caps from white plastic bottles of skimmed milk. You know, the ones that always leak in the fridge when stored on their side after opening.

The moment?

They all have words emblazoned around the top face:

STORE UPRIGHT AFTER OPENING

Ah.

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Here’s an appropriate video.

Action on UK child poverty? Don’t make me laugh.

There isn’t any focus on it in the UK; poor people are irrelevant to each iteration of the nasty party government since… I was going to say since 2010, but I’m old enough to know better.

In more recent times, we had nationwide SureStart Centres introduced before Bliar examiner his conscience and consequently took the world to the brink of war. Funding cuts and a lack of protection for future funding meant hundreds of centres had to close; they’re not in ‘nice’ areas so irrelevant, right?

Today’s article is worth reading:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49131685

Now, assuming a period of 7 years’ EU funding, and it’s not exactly an eye-wateringly huge sum of money is it, but it could have made a huge difference to some of the intended recipients, if used responsibly.

But no, that’s not how the government managed things; they delayed to the point of forfeiting the rights to use the cash. £580,000 has already been returned.

The 2010 reference is quite apt, marking the span to the present day during which civil service pay has been frozen, an effective cut of 20%-25% as the official inflation numbers and other costs bit.

Bearing in mind we’ve not yet hit the end of the funding term and a team of just 3 paid £30,000 a year (low grade civil service pay is low and I haven’t a clue how many people worked on it) that’s £630,000. Honestly though, it’s likely to be fewer than that, surely we’re not that inept. Surely.

So 7 years of attempting to once (yes once!) use the funding on a project forbidden by the terms of the EU’s donation, with the pitiful excuse that the UK has no-one in government of sufficient calibre to formulate a plan to distribute aid to those who most need it because of those onerous EU terms… pitiful.

And what’s Al’s very first funding announcement after assuming office? Is it NHS (am I being too controversial there?) or homelessness or child poverty or to close the food banks (benignly!)?

No, no it’s not. We’re funding police recruitment.

Police numbers will rise by 20,000 over the next 3 years. Disregarding the ability of each force to recruit and receive funding to do so at rates compatible with the government’s vision, it’s actually more than the 22,000 jobs lost due to government funding cuts.

Honestly, I’m predicting most nasty party members and supporters, and not forgetting gammons will have assumed it’ll be bobbies on the streets combating knife crime and Islamic extremism, and in 3 years time will have forgotten about the early pronouncement, despite law and order being their highest priority after leaving the EU.

Why? Well, they’ve forgotten about poor people.

Yanis Varoufakis recently used a word I prayed I’d never hear in the UK. We’ve been brainwashed, undergone conditioning to just accept things are as they are. Sure it’s been insidious but, in the main, it’s worked. It’s nothing new of course but the assault has been ramped up in the last few years.

I’d be remiss in not mentioning 1984.

So, 1984.

Or is it Animal Farm?

It’s Animal Farm, but with real authoritarians.

Or is it a pretty grim future?

Pretty grim.

We need a diversion. Are at war with Iran yet?