Merry Christmas 2024

As usual on the last blogging day before Christmas, we usually post an old time British comic from the 1960's or early 1970's .....

 It falls to us at PC Towers to thank you for your visits over the past year and to hope you all .....

 

Council Estate Santa

In 2014 the card chain Clinton's had to withdraw a card, after someone complained (we live in that sort of world now).... 

Council Estate Santa

 ..... the card was entitled "10 Reasons Why Santa Claus Must Live In A Council Estate (housing scheme)". 

Seven Is The Magic Number

Apparently, seven presents are the ideal number to receive on Christmas Day.

Miracle on 34th Street -
The Two Most Popular Versions

Whilst cash is apparently the best present of all (really ... are we that mercenary??), fragrances, books and alcohol are also well received.

Dem Jamaicans (part three)

 Duppy's (or Duppies) are new one on me ......

Duppies Can Come In Many Forms

... they are a Jamaican / Caribbean phenomenon .... partly linked to the practice of Voodou and Obeah magic.

The Trump Supporters Plans

For reasons that I can't really explain, I get copied into a hard-line pro-Trump news group letter ....

 
.... I suspect that I must have posted a comment on something on their site, or in response to an email, as I can't imagine just finding their news letter by chance ... anyway however it happened they have this blogs email address, and so I get the regular mails from them.

All Change Syria

Well Syria has just ended the long phase 1 of the civil war. The rebels have captured Damascus and Bashar al-Assad has taken his family and fled to Moscow and claimed asylum.

Ahmed al-Sharaa - De-facto New Leader Of Syria?

The key to his fall, seems to be his ignoring Turkeys attempts to negotiate a peaceful power swap or arrangement with the rebels. They finally lost patience with his refusal to shed any power, and silently authorised the rebels offensive by not saying no. 

Florida Madness And Mayhem

Anyone who reads this blog regularly, knows that I have a particular soft spot for Florida and South Wales stories (particularly women). 

Dawn LaShawn Laprade

So no apologies for this tale from May 2022.

Honest Opinions Cost Jobs

Joanna Thomas was a social worker ....

Should Have Kept It Private .....

I say was, because she was been struck off the register after 24 years in 2019.

American (In)Justice

US Presidents ability to pardon peoples convictions were a perk of office .....

President Ford Pardons Richard Nixon

... a bit like Prime Ministers honours list in the UK.

Shady Shamans

Indonesia Is the largest Muslim populated country in the world, with approximately 229 million Muslims .....

Shady Shaman - Slamet Tohari

 .... but that doesn't stop many of its people believing in and practising magic.

Pocket Sized Giant

Being a Pacific pocket mouse means that you can easily be overlooked .....

Pat The Pacific Pocket Mouse

 .... but not if your named Pat, and you have reached the ripe old age of nine years and 209 days, on the 9th of February 2023.

Uninformed Comments

Nobel prize winner Malaia Yousaf-zai (the girl who was shot in the head by the Pakistan Muslim Taliban) .....

Malaia Yousaf-zai Variety Awards

 ....  has made one of those ridiculous calls for more 'Muslim representation' in Hollywood.

Another Florida Man Shaggy Dog Story

 Such is the madness that Florida heat seems to instil in the heads of inhabitants ...... 

Chad Albert Mason A Dog Lover?

.... that the term 'Florida Man' is now an Internet byword for strange behaviour.

Dem Jamaicans (part two)

 Mary Brown* a then 35 year old Jamaican woman living in the USA ......

Tia Dalma (Obeah Practitioner) - Pirates Of The Caribbean

.... told the Jamaican Weekly Gleaner, and the Jamaica Star in September 2020 that she had been cursed by an obeah spell.

The Hopeless State

 When a country becomes bankrupt, we have a tendency to think of this as being a technical thing ....  

Tuk Tuk- Look At Those Fuel Queues

 

.... that the country will continue much as before, until a rescue package from the International Monetary Fund can be organised or a new budget imposes taxes that get the country limping forward again.

The Pilgrims Progress .... Oops

The best intentions of men can often turn terribly awry .....

The Pilgrim Tree at Rushymeade Meadow

A truth that can be seen in most of our lives where we have tried our best to help and its all gone wrong.

Bloody Stupid Deaths

Sometimes (well a lot of times actually) ......

Hand Grenade Myth - It Takes Some Effort

..... you have to wonder at the stupidity of some of the human race.

The Blame Game

Well as you might guess, the Democrats in the US are blaming everyone for the historic beating they took in the US Presidential election ....

Democrats Are Finger Pointing ....

..... a defeat that could turn into a disaster from their point of view, if they lose both chambers of congress (as seems very possible) when the counts are completed.

Pirates Of The Seaside Town

Anyone who lives on the UK's coast will be well aware of the seagulls love of a free meal, or even a stolen meal .... 

Seagulls Stealing Food Is A Common Problem

..... its one of the perils in any coastal towns and villages.

The Only Fan

Tiago Rech has watched Brazilian football team Santa Cruz, since going to see them with his dad as a 10 year old .....

The Only Santa Cruz Fan 2012

.... eating a hot dog on the concrete steps of Estadio dos Platanos the club's 5,000-capacity stadium in Santa Cruz do Sul, was where his personal field of dreams started.

The Madness That Never Ends

I wouldn't have believed this, but apparently the conspiracy theorists who believe that terror attacks are staged or faked, have a strong foothold in the UK as well as the USA.

Richard D Hall - Conspiracy Theory Promoter

A BBC survey found that nearly one in five people in the UK think terror survivors are not telling the truth about what happened to them, while a survey of more than 4,000 people, weighted to be representative of the UK population, carried out by King's College London, suggests that 14 per cent of the population believe the 2017 Manchester Arena attack probably involved "crisis actors" who pretended to be injured.

The World Awaits

Well, the US is making the most important decision since, well, the last one.

Divisive Politics Now The US Norm?

Yes, it's US Presidential Election day.

Pigs Called Out

A sheriffs deputy in Yavapai County, Arizona will face some odd calls ..... from gunshots, to car thefts, and everything in between ..... 

'Gregory' the Peccary - Cheeto Lover

.... and this will include animals stuck inside a vehicle.

Dem Jamaicans (part one)

Safira Mono is a Jamaican dancehall artist (which is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s) .....

Safira Mono Snake Head Charm

In 2020 she claimed that a rival artist had put her under a spell or obeah curse.

The Most Wanted Man

The long arm of the law finally caught up with Leo Joseph Koury, the Richmond, Virginia fugitive who spent a dozen years on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. 

But it was only his death that brought the search to an end.

Religious Edicts

All religions like an edict ..... 

The Devil And Hot Cross Buns

 

..... that is to say, that although we are mostly all too familiar with the Muslim Fatwah, which usually bans or condemns something (everything), now and again the occasional Christian clergy like to pass a judgement.

Dumm-copf

Police the world over are sometimes characterised as being stupid (often with a farm animals name attached to the slur) ...

Pig With Grenade

Of course this is largely nonsense ... but just occasionally a police officer becomes the exception that proves the slur.

Life After Death

I read that Robert Bigelow the billionaire entrepreneur was so convinced that his dead wife Diane was 'still around' i.e. had survived as a personality after her death, that he founded the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies after her death.

We All Imagine DEATH In Our Own Way

The Institute organised an essay competition called 'The Contest' for writers, philosophers or scientists to give a proof that would stand a legal court test (i.e. beyond reasonable doubt), that life continued after death.

Crap Crooks

There are, as we have discussed some people who become crooks because they are simply too useless to be anything else ......

One Legged Bank Robber Arrested

..... They often are crap crooks as well, for exactly same reasons as they fail at every thing else.

Heaven Can Wait

 Some people are either lucky or have a guardian angel ....

The SUV Is Now Out Of Control

.... if your a Catholic priest, then its definitely the latter.

The Damage That Has Been Done

There are claims in some quarters in the US, that the damage that some transgender activists, are doing to teenage children is inexcusable ....

Teenage Years Are Confusing

..... they say that teenagers are far too young, and frankly mentally mixed up, to make life determining decisions that are as permanent as changing their sex. This teenage identity confusion has long been recognised without too much comment, as just part of 'growing up' until the recent rise of the transgender movement.

The Termiteator

 We had a family tortoise that one day went missing .....

Manuela O Manuel?

... we searched but couldn't find it.

Mad Monks

The 5G is evil conspiracy madness is far more easily spread than the toll out of 5G itself ......

Two Capuchin Monks Burning 5G Mobile Masts

 

..... I mean have you got a regular 5G service? I certainly haven't.

The Rise of the Right?

I was taken this week by the UK national security update given by Ken McCallum, the Director General of MI5 .....

Ken McCallum, the Director General of MI5

.... Apparently, he gives these annually, although I don't recall much publicity being given to them in the past.

Covid Relief

Some people suffered during Covid infections .....

Nightmares Come In Many Forms

..... and some other people really suffered.

Pie Pranks

 I've never really understood some peoples belief that anything that they do is harmless fun ...

Andre Eugene Moore-Gerald - Grinning Fool

.... even if it means physically assaulting their victims. This is particularly true of so called YouTubers who then post their pranks on the Internet.

Lizard Lickers

The Indian subcontinent has developed an unenviable reputation for the rape of women and girls .....

Indian Rape - Dalit Women Often The Victims

... a reputation that has to also inevitably tarnish the image of the men in that region with respect to controlling their baser urges.

Snake Tosser

In May 2022, Dawn LaShawn Laprade, a 54 year old, of Vero Beach, South Florida drove up to 100 miles per hour as she intentionally tried to run down a police deputy ... 

Dawn LaShawn Laprade
Left Chaos In Her Wake

 

.... the events had started in May 2022, after a five-mile car chase began at around 10:15 am. She had suddenly sped off as the police were actually trying to pull over a different vehicle in Martin County.

Sacrificing Shaman

 Self described 'Doctor,' Emilio Otero was a resident of New Jersey USA ......

Raid On New Jersey Property Where Animals Sacrificed.

.... he was also apparently a follower of the Santeria religion (Way of the Saints), so beloved of the Drug Cartels of South America (and increasingly of the USA).

Goat Killers Of Georgia

There's a public health danger and mystery on the Chattahoochee river in the US state of Georgia .....

Chattahoochee River Goat Killings

 .... with some group of people, dumping hundreds of headless goats in to the river from bridges.

In The Sh*t

Peoples attachment to their smart phones is well known .... 

Oh Shit!

 .... its a feature of the modern worlds telecommunication revolution, that smart phones have become the gateway to the world, friends, jobs, banking and for many, its the only gateway they own (the third world has largely by-passed home PC's and Laptops which are more expensive or weighty, and uses smart-phones and or tablets).

Higher Or Lower Education?

Dr Anthony Butcher of Portsmouth University was lecturing a third year group of palaeontology students ......

You Can See Why It Was Named 'Scrotum Humanum'

on the importance of the worlds first dinosaur fossil using a drawing of the Megalosaurus femur leg bone, named 'Scrotum Humanum' in 1763, after being discovered in Oxfordshire, England in 1676 ....... because of what it looked like.

Shake That Booty

Its not all pom-poms and razzmatazz, in the world of the US cheerleaders ......

Cheerleaders Dancing

..... life can be hard and unfair for these athletic, and often pneumatic girls.

Run Robbie Run!

 I have never tried one of those robot vacuum cleaners ....

Robot Cleaner Ran Away

... I can't really see how that would get round my overcrowded living room ... to say nothing about the stairs!!

Desperate Measures Usually Fail

As a man who has been caught speeding once myself (by a mobile speed camera ... curses!!) ......

Not Worth Hiding?

I have some (not much, but some), sympathy with Joseph Talbot of Wayne County New York.

Crimes Against Sanity

Is Canada being infected by the Florida bug?

Self Styled "Queen of Canada."

I ask this because a country that I always thought of as being the USA's, calm, and thoughtful northern cousin, has increasingly come to my attention for its wacky nutcases .... 

There's A Canuck In My Trunk

 During the history of this blog, we have come across some very odd stories and even odder people ....

Ms Bethany Coker - Diesal Mechanic And Good Egg.

.... from naked ramblers and naked wood workers, through crimes involving crocodiles and alligators, and even naked Jehovah's witnesses in Canada.

Staged Death Matches

 When I was a lad and TV always seemed to be in Black and White .....

When Wrestling Was King

...... in other words pre 1969, which is when regular colour TV programmes started broadcasting in the UK (but only if you had a colour TV .... everyone still rented TV's back then, so colour came as rentals became only colour) .... so many people didn't get colour TV until the early 1970s. 

No Sympathy For The Devils

In the 17 years since the SNP took power in Scotland, it has often been accused of making some poor choices in policies .....

SNP Makes Great (But Expensive) Claims

... this is particularly so with financial matters, where there have been accusations of profligacy, and poor decisions making e.g. implementing a national council tax freeze, which simply put more pressure on local councils (who then asked for more help from the SNP Government .. DUH) ... all while apparently sitting on a mountain of unspent European structural and investment funding totally £450m, that the Scottish Government is now set to hand back to the EU sometime this year.