View Full Version : Letter to local rag.
Letter to local rag.
My response to bloke moaning about getting a parking ticket
outside a church.
I can't understand why Mr Richards got so uptight about
receiving a parking ticket on a Sunday (Mail 17 MAR 04).
Since when do the laws of the land only apply 6 days a week?
In 25 years of driving I have yet to receive a single
parking fine in this country, the simple reason being that I
never park illegally. I will find somewhere legal to park
and walk the extra distance, no great hardship.
(he then moans about pedestrianisation of city centre)
As for the time when Whitefriargate was open to two way
traffic, that was in the days when very few people owned a
car. Nowadays the streets are literally choked up with them
and people want to be able to walk around a city centre
without having to pick their way around hundreds of noisy
motor vehicles and they want to breathe in something
approximating fresh air.
If he pops over to Holland on the ferry and walks around any
of their towns he will see something that we should aspire
to, not to the USA model of drive through everythings and
being thought of as eccentric if you actually walk and cycle
around. He might note the average waistline of a Dutch
person versus an American as well and think about the folly
of pandering to the motor car.
--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net (http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/)
"Simon Mason" <simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:IIOdnaqbPtZnrsXdSa8jmw@karoo.co.uk...
> My response to bloke moaning about getting a parking
> ticket outside a church.
>
> I can't understand why Mr Richards got so uptight about
> receiving a
parking
> ticket on a Sunday (Mail 17 MAR 04). Since when do the
> laws of the land
only
> apply 6 days a week? In 25 years of driving I have yet to
> receive a single parking fine in this country, the simple
> reason being that I never park illegally. I will find
> somewhere legal to park and walk the extra
distance,
> no great hardship.
>
> (he then moans about pedestrianisation of city centre)
>
> As for the time when Whitefriargate was open to two way
> traffic, that was in the days when very few people owned
> a car. Nowadays the streets are literally choked up with
> them and people want to be able to walk around a city
> centre without having to pick their way around hundreds
> of noisy
motor
> vehicles and they want to breathe in something
> approximating fresh air.
>
> If he pops over to Holland on the ferry and walks around
> any of their
towns
> he will see something that we should aspire to, not to the
> USA model of drive through everythings and being thought
> of as eccentric if you
actually
> walk and cycle around. He might note the average waistline
> of a Dutch
person
> versus an American as well and think about the folly of
> pandering to the motor car.
>
> --
> Simon Mason
Nice one. All the salient points, but succinct as well, so
they should print it without editing.
"burt" <burtthebike@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:p2c6c.6921$F.2665@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
>
> Nice one. All the salient points, but succinct as well, so
> they should print it without editing.
You're joking :-) The oafs at our local rag always mess
about with my letters. For a start, when I write anti-
religion letters, I use the word "god" and they change it
to "God", which is annoying. I once wrote "10000 BCE" and
they changed it to "thousand of years before Jesus walked
the earth"!
They start paragraphs with "And," which I never do. I wrote
"none of these is likely to" and they put "none of these are
likely to", I wrote "the news media are" and they changed it
to "the media is". They've got degrees and I didn't even get
O level English! Idiots.
--
Simon Mason Anlaby East Yorkshire. 53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net (http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/)
Simon Mason wrote:
> You're joking :-) The oafs at our local rag always mess
> about with my letters. For a start, when I write anti-
> religion letters, I use the word "god" and they change it
> to "God", which is annoying. I once wrote "10000 BCE" and
> they changed it to "thousand of years before Jesus walked
> the earth"!
Hey, even letters have to conform to house style - God with
capital G is standard, and BCE is *never* used. They could
have changed BCE to BC, which would be house style, but the
change they made shows that they obviously had some
sensitivity to your point of view. I'm a sub by profession -
a very experienced one at that - so I think I know what I'm
talking about here. (And by the way, I wouldn't have called
your letter particularly succinct - it's about 70 words too
long. Always aim for 150 words max.)
> They start paragraphs with "And," which I never do. I
> wrote "none of these is likely to" and they put "none of
> these are likely to", I wrote "the
news
> media are" and they changed it to "the media is". They've
> got degrees and
I
> didn't even get O level English! Idiots.
Starting a paragraph with "And" may not be strictly
grammatical but it would have been done to make the copy
flow better, which is more important than grammatical
correctness. None is/are is largely a matter of preference -
and may also be a matter of house style - but I agree that
in this case it probably shouldn't have been changed.
Putting media in the singular is a schoolboy error and makes
my skin crawl.
Anyway, how do you know they have degrees? I certainly
wouldn't count on it. I've met many a local press sub who
went into the job as an apprentice school leaver.
d.
"david kenning" <david.nospam.kenning@which.nospam.net> wrote in message news:<c3h7o5$psg$1@sparta.btinternet.com>...
> Simon Mason wrote:
> > You're joking :-) The oafs at our local rag always mess
> > about with my letters. For a start, when I write anti-
> > religion letters, I use the word "god" and they change
> > it to "God", which is annoying. I once wrote "10000
> > BCE" and they changed it to "thousand of years before
> > Jesus walked the earth"!
>
> Hey, even letters have to conform to house style - God
> with capital G is standard, and BCE is *never* used.
> They could have changed BCE to BC, which would be house
> style, but the change they made shows that they
> obviously had some sensitivity to your point of view.
> I'm a sub by profession - a very experienced one at that
> - so I think I know what I'm talking about here. (And by
> the way, I wouldn't have called your letter particularly
> succinct - it's about 70 words too long. Always aim for
> 150 words max.)
>
> > They start paragraphs with "And," which I never do. I
> > wrote "none of these is likely to" and they put "none of
> > these are likely to", I wrote "the
> news
> > media are" and they changed it to "the media is".
> > They've got degrees and
> I
> > didn't even get O level English! Idiots.
>
> Starting a paragraph with "And" may not be strictly
> grammatical but it would have been done to make the copy
> flow better, which is more important than grammatical
> correctness. None is/are is largely a matter of preference
> - and may also be a matter of house style - but I agree
> that in this case it probably shouldn't have been changed.
> Putting media in the singular is a schoolboy error and
> makes my skin crawl.
>
> Anyway, how do you know they have degrees? I certainly
> wouldn't count on it. I've met many a local press sub who
> went into the job as an apprentice school leaver.
I take your points Dave and I suppose they've got to make
it readable, but capitalising God infers that I accept god
as a deity and the use of BC infers I believe in Christ.
This is a slight on my character as anyone reading it would
assume that I believe in this stuff. In fact, the only
atheistic letter I've ever managed to get in was this:
"Mrs Girling is "absolutely certain" God did not
create animals to be eaten. Then why did He make
carnivorous animals?
In addition, why would He create dinosaurs, knowing full
well that an asteroid was going to wipe them out soon after
He had finished?
As an atheist, I cannot believe people still believe in
these old superstitions."
See how they changed he/she (which I put)to He? People will
assume I did it :-)
Simon
Simon Mason wrote:
> I take your points Dave and I suppose they've got to make
> it readable, but capitalising God infers that I accept
> god as a deity and the use of BC infers I believe in
> Christ.
I disagree on both points.
Using capital G when you write God no more implies that he
exists than using capital S and H implies that you think
Sherlock Holmes is real.
BCE is just jargon.
> This is a slight on my character as anyone reading it
> would assume that I believe in this stuff.
Notwithstanding that the views you expressed in your letter
suggest rather the opposite?
d.
"david kenning" <david.nospam.kenning@which.nospam.net> wrote in message news:<c3hns4$17f$1@hercules.btinternet.com>...
> Simon Mason wrote:
> > I take your points Dave and I suppose they've got to
> > make it readable, but capitalising God infers that I
> > accept god as a deity and the use of BC infers I
> > believe in Christ.
>
> I disagree on both points.
>
> Using capital G when you write God no more implies that he
> exists than using capital S and H implies that you think
> Sherlock Holmes is real.
>
> BCE is just jargon.
>
> > This is a slight on my character as anyone reading it
> > would assume that I believe in this stuff.
>
> Notwithstanding that the views you expressed in your
> letter suggest rather the opposite?
Well that's the point. Why would an atheist put He instead
of he in such a letter? It make the whole letter
incongruous. When I was brought up a Roman Catholic, I was
taught that there were gods (small
g) in other religions, but only one real God, which you can
tell is the "real" one by the use of capital letters in
His name (see - you've got me at it now ;-)
The capital G suggest that I acknowledge this doctrine and
I objected to the letter editor changing my deliberate use
of the lower case to upper case which gives off the
impression that I accept the idea of only one true God.
The use of CE (common era) removes the reference to Christ
in the date in the same way as Coordinated Universal Time
removes the reference to Greenwich in GMT (sort of!)
Anyway, what's this got to do with bikes :-)
Simon M.
> Anyway, what's this got to do with bikes :-)
>
> Simon M.
Jesus was a famous cyclist - you've never heard the
expression "Christ on a bike"?
d.
"david kenning" <david.nospam.kenning@which.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:c3jrq7$2s1$1@titan.btinternet.com...
>
> Jesus was a famous cyclist
Not that famous. Made an undistinguished appearance in
the 2003 Tour and was thrown off the team at the end of
last year.
http://www.procycling.com/news_main.asp?newsId=5045
Tony
On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 10:46:31 +0000 (UTC), "david kenning"
<david.nospam.kenning@which.nospam.net> wrote in message
<c3jrq7$2s1$1@titan.btinternet.com>:
>Jesus was a famous cyclist
Whereas Moses was a fan of classic British motorbikes.
--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk (http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/)
88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University
On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 10:38:15 -0000, Simon Mason
<simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> I wrote "none of these is likely to" and they put "none of
> these are likely to",
'none is' vs 'none are' from the AUE FAQ:
"With mass nouns, you have to use the singular. ("None of
the wheat is...") With count nouns, you can use either the
singular or the plural. ("None of the books is..." or "None
of the books are...") Usually, the plural sounds more
natural, unless you're trying to emphasize the idea of "not
one", or if the words that follow work better in the
singular."
Yours is a count noun so the plural is acceptable. You may
have been aiming for the emphasis while they might have been
going for naturalness.
> I wrote "the news media are" and they changed it to "the
> media is".
You see both used quite commonly even within the same
document. Media like data is seen as both a singular and a
plural depending on context.
> They've got degrees
How do you know?
> and I didn't even get O level English! Idiots.
Colin
--
Simon Mason wrote:
>The use of CE (common era) removes the reference to Christ
in the date in the same way as Coordinated Universal Time
removes the reference to Greenwich in GMT (sort of!)
The term 'common era' only removes explicit reference to Jesus - it still necessarily refers to the supposed birthdate of Jesus by its definition. And in any case, 'common' era is only 'common' to those countries that use the Gregorian calendar, which may be the predominant standard throughout the world but is by no means universally accepted.
d.
Guy wrote:
>Whereas Moses was a fan of classic British motorbikes.
And Mohammed, of course, rides a Segway, while the Dalai Lama swears by his Street Machine.
d.
"Colin Blackburn" <colin.blackburn@durham.ac.uk> wrote in message news:<opr49b36ciyxrafp@nntphost.dur.ac.uk>...
> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 10:38:15 -0000, Simon Mason
> <simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >
> > I wrote "none of these is likely to" and they put "none
> > of these are likely to",
>
> 'none is' vs 'none are' from the AUE FAQ:
>
> "With mass nouns, you have to use the singular. ("None of
> the wheat is...") With count nouns, you can use either the
> singular or the plural. ("None of the books is..." or
> "None of the books are...") Usually, the plural sounds
> more natural, unless you're trying to emphasize the idea
> of "not one", or if the words that follow work better in
> the singular."
>
> Yours is a count noun so the plural is acceptable. You may
> have been aiming for the emphasis while they might have
> been going for naturalness.
>
> > I wrote "the news media are" and they changed it to "the
> > media is".
>
> You see both used quite commonly even within the same
> document. Media like data is seen as both a singular and a
> plural depending on context.
I often see so and so "peddled his bike", but it doesn't
make it right. I once heard someone on the BBC say "all
stratas of society" and they often say "one pence".
> They've got degrees
How do you know?
Because a columnist in the same paper was fuming that the
same editor had changed her copy so that it full of
inaccuracies that she hadn't made. I can see her point; I
don't mind them putting their *own name* to their writings,
but when they change yours, people assume you've written it
as it appears in the newspaper. I don't want people to go
around thinking I'm a born again Catholic or don't know
basic grammar and Latin plurals. :-)
Simon M.
On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 12:04:03 GMT, davek
<usenet-forum@cyclingforums.com> wrote in message
<TCA7c.95253$Oy1.79347@fe23.usenetserver.com>:
>>Whereas Moses was a fan of classic British motorbikes.
>And Mohammed, of course, rides a Segway, while the Dalai
>Lama swears by his Street Machine.
OK, not heard them ones. How you make that out?
--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk (http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/)
88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University
Guy:
>OK, not heard them ones. How you make that out?
Well, the Segway is clearly a modern, forward thinking person's choice of transport, yet somehow looks strangely medieval, while the recumbent is the preferred vehicle for those who occupy a position outside the mainstream of society and frankly don't care what other people think they look like, yet still want to get from A to B in the most effective manner possible.
Simple really.
d.
On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:18:17 -0000, "Simon Mason"
<simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk> wrote:
:)My response to bloke moaning about getting a parking
:ticket outside a )church. ) )(he then moans about
:pedestrianisation of city centre) ) ) As for the time when
:Whitefriargate was open to two way traffic, that was )in
:the days when very few people owned a car. Nowadays the
:streets are )literally choked up with them and people want
:to be able to walk around a )city centre without having to
:pick their way around hundreds of noisy motor )vehicles and
:they want to breathe in something approximating fresh air.
Birmingham City Centre is more or less motor vehicle free.
It's now got Bl**dy peds all over the place impeding my
progress ! Big vehicles kept the peds at bay !
--
Comm again, Mike.
On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:45:43 GMT, in
<40606320.13919344@news.swinternet.net>,
mike@pmailkeey.freeserve.co.yuk (pmailkeey) wrote:
>Birmingham City Centre is more or less motor vehicle free.
We are obviously running different versions of Birmingham!
Well actually the bit Bham that I walk around most is around
Steelhouse lane, Corporation St, and Dale End. Corporation
street seems to be busier with traffic since the closure of
High St and New St.
--
DISCLAIMER: My email box is private property.Email which
appears in my inbox is mine to do what I like with. Anything
which is sent to me (whether intended or not) may, if I so
desire, form a legal and binding contract.
On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:50:20 GMT, davek
<usenet-forum@cyclingforums.com> wrote in message
<M8Y7c.175691$CS4.67754@fe11.usenetserver.com>:
>Simple really.
Not as simple as Moses and the motorbike: "And Moses came
down the mountain on his Triumph"
Actually that's all made up, but it sounds plausible ;-)
--
Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk (http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/)
88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University
On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:51:18 +0000, Richard Bates
<mail.sent.here.gets.deleted@cuddle.clara.co.uk> wrote:
:)On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:45:43 GMT, in
:)<40606320.13919344@news.swinternet.net>,
:)mike@pmailkeey.freeserve.co.yuk (pmailkeey) wrote: )
:)>Birmingham City Centre is more or less motor vehicle
:free. ) )We are obviously running different versions of
:Birmingham!
Well spotted ! Complete bollocks what I said. I did of
course mean "Birmingham village" ! High St/New St.
Or dare I be sarcastic, and comment "well I've never seen
any cars in the Rotunda" !
Well
:)actually the bit Bham that I walk around most is around
:Steelhouse )lane, Corporation St, and Dale End. Corporation
:street seems to be )busier with traffic since the closure
:of High St and New St. )
None of those are exactly hiving with cars. Even Colmore Row
seems reasonaby quiet. Wait till we get the trams in !
--
Comm again, Mike.
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