Return To Sender

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," is supposed to be the mail-man's (delivery persons if you prefer), motto, and creed around the globe.

Emptying Mailboxes Is Tiring Work .....

And in the main, especially in the first world, the mail does operate fairly effectively. There are differences, as anyone who posted a holiday card from Southern Italy, Spain or Greece in the 1980's, or before, will be able to attest.

Bare Gummy's

So the country that is the home of the Hollywood smile, and claims it sets a global standard in dental perfection ....

Income And Dental Visits USA

..... is also one, where millions worry about how to treat a toothache or an infection. Poorer Americans rely on free dental clinics and charities, which have a tendency to remove teeth, rather than trying to repair them, as its a cheaper basic treatment.

Celebrities In Justice?

Schadenfreude is a secret pleasure, usually best kept to ourselves, but guiltily felt by all of us now and then. My particular vice in this area, are the rewards that reality TV bestows upon the feckless, stupid, semi-literate, and most of all, totally talentless, individuals who seem to populate their shows.

Reality TV Throws Up "Talent" Like This ....

So when one of the talentless gets into financial trouble (usually based upon their assumption that the money will continue to pour in), I always secretly hug myself in glee, as they head down the toilet of life again, and end up stacking shelves, or unemployed on a council estate somewhere.

Labours Zionist Woes

In a brave attempt to do his bit to try and dispel the idea that the British Labour Party is a anti-Semitic party, its been reported that Muslim Khalid Mahmood MP, had an affair with his Jewish parliamentary assistant Elaina Cohen, which started after he split up from his wife in 2003.
 

Doing Their Bit For Labour Jewish Relations ... Well For While

But things went dramatically wrong after their affair had ended, when she accused another Labour MP, Naz Shah, of being an ‘anti-Zionist’ in a Tweet in 2016. Mr Mahmood suspended Ms Cohen from her £31k pa job, and (ironically given Labours reported backlog of anti-Semitism cases), began an internal disciplinary process against her. This continued despite the fact that Naz Shah MP was now suspended for his anti-Semitic Facebook posts.

Road Gits

In a moment of schadenfreude that most of us who have been doused by car or van driver, driving into the puddle next to you, will really enjoy, a van driver in the Canadian city of Ottawa has been sacked after he was filmed repeatedly dousing pedestrians.

T.W.A.T In A Van

A rear facing dash-cam recorded a 45 second clip of the van driver veering into the kerb on a rainy day, to drench pedestrians at least three times. The video of the anti-social behaviour went viral, and was viewed over 750,000 times.

The Wizards Pointy Hat

Wizards or male and female Witches wear pointy hats ....

Wizard With Pointy Hat

....... everyone knows that don't they?

Special Minority Cases

The BBC has apparently running a 'Big British Asian Summer' .... which of course would be racist if you substituted the word 'White' for one of the words, but isn't somehow when its Asians.

British Asians - Fastest Growing Ethnic group.

Oddly I also don't recall the same being thing run for the Chinese community, but perhaps that's because their self reliant, and integrate fairly easily. Similarly, the 'Big British Asian Summer' was run via its BBC Asian radio network. The BBC don't have a similar channel devoted specifically to any other ethnic group. 

Fringe Festival 2018

Well I'm Back. It went well, and we saw 10 shows in all, but couldn't entirely agree as to the best show, so split revue scores on a couple.

Edinburgh Bar

Quick score reviews of the shows seen, listed in no particular order:

Small Stories Travel Well

The is the second of the two shorts posts, as I am away this week.

Bearded Lady

Amy Rebello-McCarthy was arrested in Massachusetts after drunkenly hitting 6 mailboxes in her Mercedes.

It Takes All Sorts - A Happy Drink Driver

Police found a bearded dragon lizard stuffed inside her bra when they arrested her at the scene.

Good Luck, Bad Luck

As I am luckily back in the pink so to speak, I have resumed my annual August pilgrimage to the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Big Kenny and I are neither of us getting any younger, so these meet ups in Edinburgh may not go on too much longer, so we need to get them in while health persists.

Consequently I am away this week. However as I know there are a dozen or so regulars to this blog who read the posts every Friday, and I don't want to let them down, I am posting a few 'shorts' in two posts.

Fishermans Tails

An angler at Boscombe pier in Dorset UK, caught a 6 inch Dover Sole and jokingly pretended to kiss the tiddler in front of his mates. However the live fish suddenly darted out of his hand and down his throat .... his friends called an ambulance, which arrived almost immediately, but he had already gone into cardiac arrest.

A Fishy Tail But True .......

It took them six attempts to get the fish out of his airways because of the fishes barbs and gills, which were digging in when the fish was pulled backwards. He was revived in the ambulance, and remarkably was sent home after checks, none the worse for wear, but with a great story for the bar.

State Censorship In The West

First they came for the news websites, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not running a news website.

Then they came for the Newspapers, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not running a Newspaper.

Then they came for this blogging comment site—

and there was no one left to speak for me.

Donald Trumps 'fake news' and 'enemies of the people' jibes at the press reports he doesn't like (whether reports are accurate or not), has prompted over 300 news and blog sites to write editorials on the 16th of August, objecting to the attacks, and the risk to democracy that they represent.

Self Censorship Is A Dangerous Path ....

We should not think that this is purely a US matter.

Do It Yourself In Russia

If you want something doing, do it yourself. At least that's the motto of the fruit smugglers of Russia in 2016.

Smugglers Road Better Than Many Local Roads

The local roads weren't up to much, and in fact were described as not usable for the large vans the smugglers were using. In fact the local country roads running from Russia through the Belarus border areas had been only passable by horse and cart traffic or smaller before.

Parlez-Vous Français, Cochon?

When you bend over backwards to help a minority, it behoves them to meet you halfway or the system becomes open to abuse.
 

New Loophole For French Canadians?

Such appears to be the case in the French speaking regions of Canada, where a lawyer (yes it would be wouldn't it), has managed to avoid a speeding citation by claiming that it was illegally administered because the officer couldn't speak French.

Unlucky Lottery

What must it be like to win a fortune ..... and then lose it?

"Spend, Spend, Spend" ....
A Clarion Call That's Echoed Down The Decades

I know of someone at work, who allegedly lost such a fortune over twenty years ago. I don't know the circumstances of the loss, but bad investments seems to have been a factor in this rags to riches to rags scenario.

Amnesiac Histories

If you or I was to walk unguarded in either the Palestinian West bank, or in the Hamas run Gaza strip, we would almost certainly run the serious risk of being kidnapped (especially in Gaza), either as a terror hostage/execution, or for ransom/prisoner swap. Our crime? Being :

(a) A Westerner.
(b) A Non Muslim, or
 

Jeremy Corbyn Described Hamas and Hezbollah As Friends

(c) Stupid enough to believe the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli nonsense that comes out of the mouths of idiots like Jeremy Corbyn.

Alien Rancher

The 10-acre Stardust Ranch in Rainbow Valley near Phoenix Arizona was put up for sale in October 2017.

Stardust Ranch in Rainbow Valley ....

Its principal selling point according to its owner John Edmonds is that it is overrun by aliens.

When Urban Myth Meets Reality

I first stumbled across the 'Slender Man' urban legend round about 2010, when a version of this picture was circulating the Internet. I didn't think much about the image ....

One Of The Two Pictures That Started The Myth

.... A creepy enough image I guess, but explainable with shadows, background trees and foreshortening, photo editing etc.

Kiplincotes Derby

The Kiplingcotes Derby is believed to be the oldest horse race in England and to have taken place near Market Weighton, in East Yorkshire every March since 1519 AD. Although it has to be said that although the list of rules were constructed and dated 1519, the earliest written record of it taking place is in 1555 ....

Kiplincotes Derby ~ Rather Sedate Paced These Days For Many Participants

 ..... but assuming the rules signified its first running, then it was with Henry VIII on the throne and celebrating 10 years as King of England. It has survived harsh winters and foot-and-mouth outbreaks to be one of the worlds oldest continuous sporting events.

You Pays Your Money And ....

Notwithstanding the fact that at least one follower of this blog gets very agitated by the wealth of the super rich eight (the worlds richest 8 individuals), we are in fact, as a world, still all getting wealthier, but inequality still abounds everywhere.

Inequalities Still Abound ....

A study by the New York Times of 38 colleges, including Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth, showed that students from the top 1% income bracket, occupied more places than the students from the bottom 60%. Of this year's intake at Harvard, almost a third were the sons and daughters of alumni.