Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Having just sat through the companies anti racsim course, I've just reported it for being racist..

Practically the first words are " these are the New Danes"..

 

And then spends the rest of the time using examples from  only America.. Not good for a multinational company .. 

 At least  they didn't use the last image from the previous course.. The Statue of Liberty or as I put it that symbol of world Domination..

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Most of the tea consumed in the UK comes from East Africa rather than India but pay rates for pickers is probably no better than for their Indian counterparts. The n word was not regarded as offensive in the UK as it was in the USA until quite recently, I recall a colour chart listing n*gg*r brown amongst the hues available. Not that I'm condoning the use of the word but the criteria should be was it deliberately intended to offend. Back to tea, Baz your missus is quite correct that milk should not make contact with any tea bag, it doesn't take long for them to start smelling, one thing I do disagree with though tea bags, being plastic should never be placed in the compost. I've done a quick check and Yorkshire tea is available in leaf form so there's no need to continue using tea bags. Glad to see that at least one other ER ChrisF also uses leaf tea but I would suggest using an infuser rather than a strainer, you will be surprised how easier it makes making tea.

PS the previous two posts re. the n word were posted as I was typing this so please excuse the repeat.

PPS the slash through option seems to have disappeared, I was going to slash through 'two' and write three.

Edited July 17, 2020 by PhilJ W

[tigerburnie]

I guess you all know that milk first was introduced to prevent the cheaper fake porcelain copied cups from cracking when boiling hot tea was poured into the cup. It was considered a status symbol if you had genuine porcelain cups and could pour the tea first and add the milk to taste afterwards.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

My mother was from a family that had a tea urn. Tea, milk water and sugar were all put in together. Tea until I left home was made by pouring boiling water over something like the CoOp 99 blend (probably the cheapest) and the tea pot then being allowed to simmer on the gas for a couple of minutes. I didn’t like tea then. 
When we used PG tips pyramid bags I noticed the plastic mesh in the compost. We now use Clipper tea and the teabags don’t leave a mesh. 
Have a good day.

Tony

[Barry O]

2 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

At the very least Gibson had to have known it was highly offensive.

at that time in the UK (early 1940s) I very much doubt it... no one complained about Robertsons Golly W!gs until the 1970s...

 

Baz

[Lochgorm]

This how to do it properly!

 

 

Charlie

[Barry O]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Most of the tea consumed in the UK comes from East Africa rather than India but pay rates for pickers is probably no better than for their Indian counterparts. The n word was not regarded as offensive in the UK as it was in the USA until quite recently, I recall a colour chart listing n*gg*r brown amongst the hues available. Not that I'm condoning the use of the word but the criteria should be was it deliberately intended to offend. Back to tea, Baz your missus is quite correct that milk should not make contact with any tea bag, it doesn't take long for them to start smelling, one thing I do disagree with though tea bags, being plastic should never be placed in the compost. I've done a quick check and Yorkshire tea is available in leaf form so there's no need to continue using tea bags. Glad to see that at least one other ER ChrisF also uses leaf tea but I would suggest using an infuser rather than a strainer, you will be surprised how easier it makes making tea.

PS the previous two posts re. the n word were posted as I was typing this so please excuse the repeat.

PPS the slash through option seems to have disappeared, I was going to slash through 'two' and write three.

Phil

 

from the Yorkshire Tea website

"The tea bags

 

75% of our tea bag material is natural-based fibres: a mix of wood pulp and either abaca (a kind of banana plant) or rayon (made from woodpulp). 25% is an oil-based plastic sealing material called polypropylene, but we're working on a switch to a renewable, plant-based, industrially compostable bioplastic called Polylactic Acid (PLA), which is made from cornstarch."

 

I believe they are further down the line with the change. And Yorkshire tea comes from Darjeeling, East Africa , Sri Lanka and Assam.

 

It is wonderful stuff but I generally only drink it in the morning.

 

baz

Edited July 17, 2020 by Barry O
To many darjeelings

[TheQ]

I should point out that the population of ethnic minorities in the UK Prior to the "Windrush Generation" was tiny.  They started arriving in 1948. There was practically one one to be offensive to.. 

Even today here in Norfolk those of Recent African (last 100 years) descent total just  0.8 % of the population. It's the same percentage for Lincolnshire where Scampton and the Dogs grave is.

 

I go weeks with outseeing someone of that grouping of people. 

 

The total population of non Euorpean descent in Norfolk is less than 5%

[polybear]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

The old post office in Scampton village has been converted into a rather nice pub called The Dambusters, good beer and food and lots of memorabilia from 617 Squadron. They have a black Labrador that interacts with customers. Guess what it's name is. It begins with n.

 

Jamie

 

I imagine the Landlord has to carry out a thorough recce prior to calling doggie.....

[Simon G]

Morning all, it Is the usual cold, wet and breezy here today.  As far as we are concerned, July has been a writeoff as far as the weather is concerned.  I did manage to get out just before the rain arrived and pick the rest of the blackcurrants.  Now that our soft fruit is all but finished, there will probably be a few angry blackbirds searching the garden for anything left.  Just now, they are attacking a bush with some dark berries on it.  The same bush had bright orange flowers in spring, and was a magnet for the bees, so it is a pretty wildlife friendly bush!

 

DPD have just emailed me to tell me that I have a delivery arriving between about 12 and 1.  For a while, I was puzzled, as I wasn’t expecting anything, but then remembered that I have had a new water butt on order for a few weeks, so it is probably that.

 

We tend to drink Yorkshire tea almost exclusively as it seems to produce a stronger brew than other brands.  We used to try to compost the used tea bags, but while the tea Composted OK, the bags didn’t, so now we empty the tea from the bags for composting.

[Ian Hargrave]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

At the very least Gibson had to have known it was highly offensive.

  
In 1943 ? Why would he ? Such terminology was common parlance and racism was a term unheard of and practiced by US and other armed forces to an  unpleasantly acceptable degree.Robertson’s sold preserves with a certain logo on the jar for decades after.

 This is a thorny one.Presumably,the film of The Dam Busters will now be withdrawn from circulation for dubbing or editing.Every kid brought up during and after the war knew the dog’s name and it had a kind of canine Vera Lynn celebrity status for a while .By contrast,Guy Gibson’s wartime London home in Maida Vale currently merits a Blue Plaque .Does this now mean its removal from the exterior of the building by association ? Reversing a popular homily.; this is now and that was then..It was wartime and we were in a different place. The Dam Busters Raid is part of our heritage.Much is open to discussion on the rewriting of history .We should all know our history and let each judge accordingly.
 

 

[Clearwater]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

At the very least Gibson had to have known it was highly offensive.

 

Let's not forget that Gibson was, charitably, a somewhat prickly character and by no means the universal hero that Richard Todd portrayed.  Whilst he was not above deliberately giving offensive, I think it's hard to blame him here.  There's a couple of good biographies of Gibson notably the one by Richard Morris.  The word was also used as the code word for the successful breach of the Mohne Dam.  Even in those days, if the word was considered offensive, you'd have expected someone to have filtered it out.

 

Another infamous example is in Awdy's story Henry's Sneeze.  As I'm sure we all no doubt remember, some boys throw stones on a bridge spoiling Henry's paint.  On the next trip, Henry's driver ejects ash over the boys leaving them, in pre 1972 copies, "as black as ...."  If the word was considered offensive in the 50s, it would surprise me if a man of the cloth would use it in a children's story.

 

David

 

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

The Dam Busters Raid is part of our heritage

Now busting dams would be a war crime. 

[PhilJ W]

Forgot to mention, I think I may have phlebitis. Late last year I noticed  swelling of my lower left leg when getting ready for bed. There was no pain and the swelling had gone by the morning. It happened a few times afterwards and when I attended the Warley exhibition I was expecting my leg to swell up like a balloon but unexpectedly there was little if any swelling despite my having walked what must be a couple of miles. Up until lockdown there was an occasional swelling but as there was no pain I hardly noticed. Now though the swelling has returned and the leg is sore and tender. I have done far less walking since lockdown and I understand that plenty of walking is advisable for those with phlebitis so thats what I intend to do. I haven't been able to get through to my GP's surgery for an appointment yet but as its only 400 metres away I will probably call in there on Monday to make an appointment.

[Gwiwer]

Method 1.  Tea-bag goes into mug followed by boiling water and after the toast is toasted the tea-bag is replaced with milk.  

Method 2.  SWMBO places loose leaves into one of her many teapots and adds boiling water.  After a suitable interval milk is placed in the bottom of a fancy-looking cup, the tea is stirred and then strained into the cup on top of the milk.  

Method 3.  If you don't like the way we do it then do it yerself!  

[iL Dottore]

20 hours ago, chrisf said:

It is most reassuring that Flavio knows how to make tea.  Sadly most of his countrypersons do not.  They seem to think that a cup of hot water which may have boiled once and into which is dunked a teabag will suffice.  Let me put it this way: I would sooner drink hot chocolate than tea in Switzerland. 

 

Chris 

It's not just the Swiss, but anywhere outside of the UK, Australia and New Zealand (I don't include China, Japan or India here as they have very ancient, traditional and venerable tea drinking cultures). It's bad enough on the Continent (but at least the Continent has fine coffee cultures), but the US? Canada? Let me explain very slowly: dunking   a   tea   bag   in   hot   water   is   NOT   "making   tea"!!!!!!!!!

 

TBH Chris, I would avoid "Hot Chocolate" here as well, instead of a teabag dunked in lukewarm water it is a packet of chemicals (one of which may or may not be cacao) dumped into lukewarm milk....

19 hours ago, AndyID said:

It's an inexpensive FolgerTech Prusa I3 https://folgertech.com/products/folger-tech-reprap-2020-prusa-i3-full-aluminum-3d-printer-kit

 

It's based on an open source design from Prusa in Prague. You can find many variants of it. I would not be surprised if someone is making them in Switzerland.

 

PLA is probably the best filament to use initially. That turnout was printed in PLA/PHA which is a bit stronger but still fairly easy to use.  PETG is a bit trickier and can "string" a bit if the nozzle temperature isn't spot on.

 

Those are the only filament types I've used. There are many many more available and there seem to more coming out all the time. Lots of information here:

 

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/c/3d-printer-filament

 

Very useful to know. I'm wondering, what with the various types of materials now available as filaments, if 3D printing will replace brass etching and resin casting (I've not done the former due to the difficulty of getting the right supplies here, but I've done the latter and whilst useful is both messy and chemically!)

18 hours ago, TheQ said:

Those sights from Walmart were frightening,  but I fear we are getting close to similar frightening sights in the UK,.

It's thing like this that make my alter ego Captain Cynical, to wonder whether or not there should be a "baby making test" in addition to the driving test. Presumably the sort of people featured in the Walmart blog would pass the practical but fail the theorectical...

17 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Iced tea is ubiquitous in US diners. Usually it is offered unsweetened and being cold and usually served in a glass full of ice, resists having sweeteners dissolved.

 

In the south, sweet tea (where the sweeteners, usually sugar, are added while the tea is hot) is preferred. It's quite delicious in hot weather but a diabetic's nightmare.

And let's not forget the famous (or is infamous) Long Island Iced Tea*, which is - or so I am led to understand - a little bit alcoholic.

6 hours ago, chrisf said:

For me the milk goes in before the boiling water.  This is because I use leaf tea infused in a ceramic teapot and decanted into the mug, cup or bucket via a strainer.  ...

Sorry, am I reading you correctly? You put the tea in the pot, then add milk to the pot, then pour on the boiling water???

Seems a rather unusual way of making tea to me (I was always told it was: warm teapot, add tea to warmed tea pot, add boiling water to tea pot, let infuse for desired time, pour into cup or mug, add milk, sweeten)

1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

In 1943 ? Why would he ? Such terminology was common parlance and racism was a term unheard of and practiced by US and other armed forces to an  unpleasantly acceptable degree.

 

Indeed. In reading histories about Black US servicemen in the European theatre of war in WWII, I read two things that stuck in my mind: the first was that Black GIs often said that they were better regarded (and treated) by the British than by their countrymen; and second, that one Black GI - captured by the SS (in, I think, Normandy) said that the SS treated him better than the GIs from the Southern states! Make of that what you will.

 

One thing is a truism is that The Past Is A Foreign Country: They Do Things Differently There. In many things, such as in medicine and science, we have fortunately moved on, in others perhaps we should have retained things - even if as only a reminder of what went before (can you imagine how much richer Britain's patrimony would have been had the contents of the monasteries not been looted or destroyed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries?) It's useful to consider that whilst many things that our ancestors did appall us now (crucifixion for petty crime, casual anti-semitism, etc., etc.), there's a lot of what we do today that would have appalled our ancestors (not executing murderers, letting women flaunt their bodies in close fitting trousers [gasp, shock, horror], letting vast swathes of the populace actually vote and so on). We can't delete our past but we can use it to build a better today and tomorrow.

 

As for me, I am getting a bit schizophrenic as I want to be virtuous, but it's tearing me apart.... Given that the Romans built their empire on slavery (and I am  a Roman by birth and Father's side of the family) and given that the Belgae, Atrebates, Iceni Magni, Brigantes, Ordovices and Silures (Celts - so my mother's side of the family) were enslaved by the Romans, what do I do??? Does one part of me demand reparations from the other part of me????

 

Cheers

 

iD

* If you have to know: Long Island Ice Tea is vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, gin, and a splash of cola

Edited July 17, 2020 by iL Dottore

[The Stationmaster]

S*d it - entire post just vanished for no apparent reason!!

[Coombe Barton]

... nine months today

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/07/17/spirits-on-the-shore/

[roundhouse]

I now have to give way to get to the loo in this pub in Reigate. Will have to allow more time between pints.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

  The Dam Busters Raid is part of our heritage.Much is open to discussion on the rewriting of history .We should all know our history and let each judge accordingly.
 

 

 

Sir Edward Leigh, the MP for Gainsborough, which is the constituency where RAF Scampton is based, said he was concerned by what had happened.  He has written the following in a letter to the Station Commander of RAF Scampton:

"I am, however, very fearful of our ability today to erase or re-write history."

- and:

"The past needs to be explained, taught about, and learned from – not re-written," he wrote.

 

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Method 1.  Tea-bag goes into mug followed by boiling water and after the toast is toasted the tea-bag is replaced with milk.  

Method 2.  SWMBO places loose leaves into one of her many teapots and adds boiling water.  After a suitable interval milk is placed in the bottom of a fancy-looking cup, the tea is stirred and then strained into the cup on top of the milk.  

Method 3.  If you don't like the way we do it then do it yerself!  

 

Method 1 just happens to be the Bear way, conveniently.  Your offer of toast thrown in swung it......

[Florence Locomotive Works]

5 hours ago, TheQ said:

Since when do you give an offensive name to a prized posession. The N word for a type of Black colour was a common expression and NOT thought to be offensive at the time. 

 

 Even today there are those to which is may have applied use the N word amongst themselves. 

Just before the BLM demonstrations it was " offensive" to call someone " Black" they had to be called "people of another  colour" Now they are using "Black" all over the place..

Up until the late 70s here, it was quite common to have any black animal named that. Also the song “Eany meany miny mo” used to be something much different. I was told this by my grandmother, who grew up in a very “northern” politically house in the Deep South, circa 1941. At the time they knew no different, and maybe Guy Gibson did, but we will never know. 
 

I personally don’t agree with anything that happened above, but I could see the reason the RAF removed it. But however hard you try, the hunt for Social Purity will never end.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[J. S. Bach]

Good morning owl from the Piedmont. If you recall my lawnmower awaiting my date with it yesterday as operator of the day and my then jilting it; well, today the date was had and now the hayfield has been harvested er, lawn looks presentable. Probably on Monday I will take out the Weedeater and do some final trimming in places where the mower can not reach. I eventually want to trim a bunch of low-hanging branches to make the mowing easier (and safer); if I can walk under the branch then it will clear my head with me seated on the mower; a very easy loading gauge!

Edited July 17, 2020 by J. S. Bach
I forgot to complete the post before I hit the save button!!

[chrisf]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Sorry, am I reading you correctly? You put the tea in the pot, then add milk to the pot, then pour on the boiling water???

Seems a rather unusual way of making tea to me (I was always told it was: warm teapot, add tea to warmed tea pot, add boiling water to tea pot, let infuse for desired time, pour into cup or mug, add milk, sweeten)

 

 

No, you're not.  What I do resembles closely the method set out in brackets.  More often than not, though, I put the milk into the cup first.

 

Chris 

[New Haven Neil]

Raining.

[Happy Hippo]

Sunny here, which means it's probably coming down in stair rods at Market Drayton