Early Risers.

[simontaylor484]

Fit Finley was another wrestler that I can remember.

 

I once went to see the wrestling at Pontefract Town Hall  with my Mum and my Grandad it was brilliant 

[BoD]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Those were the days - Kendo Nagasaki, Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, The Deaf Guy (can't recall his name).  Who were the others?

Les Kellet and The Royal Brothers spring to mind.

Always good for a laugh.

[Northroader]

Jackie Pallo?

[BlackRat]

I had the pleasure of meeting with Haystacks when he was wrestling in the ‘Carlton Suite’ club in Liskeard…..

 

I was on foot patrol of the town at the time, when a large brown Merc pulled up, and it appeared to have no driver!

 

It was adapted so he could basically drive it from the back seat!

 

He asked me the best place to get pasties from, so using my local knowledge I duly directed him. 
 

We had a brief chat and he was a very pleasant bloke to talk to.

 

Now as a 6’2” ex Marine I thought I was big ……. I think he was about 7’ and mahooosive as we say!

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, BoD said:

Les Kellet and The Royal Brothers spring to mind.

Always good for a laugh.

 

Jacki Pallo, Catweazle, Pat Roach, Brian Glover

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, BlackRat said:

I had the pleasure of meeting with Haystacks when he was wrestling in the ‘Carlton Suite’ club in Liskeard…..

 

I was on foot patrol of the town at the time, when a large brown Merc pulled up, and it appeared to have no driver!

 

It was adapted so he could basically drive it from the back seat!

 

He asked me the best place to get pasties from, so using my local knowledge I duly directed him. 
 

We had a brief chat and he was a very pleasant bloke to talk to.

 

Now as a 6’2” ex Marine I thought I was big ……. I think he was about 7’ and mahooosive as we say!

 

Found this:

 

At 6 ft 11in and 685 lbs, Martin Ruane towered over his opponents and looms large over the wrestling scene of the '70s and '80s. His Giant Haystacks persona first teamed with Big Daddy when the latter was also a heel, then feuded with him for many years. Their matches always drew huge audiences on TV.

At odds with his thuggish image, Ruane is remembered by fellow wrestlers as a thoughtful and deeply religious man with a keen interest in philosophy and politics. He kept his family life private but liked to speak of his friendship with Paul McCartney, who often came to see him wrestle and cast him in the film Give My Regards to Broad Street.

After Big Daddy's retirement, Ruane wrestled for Stu Hart in Canada as the Loch Ness Monster before shortening the name to Loch Ness and entering the WCW. Here, he embarked on a feud with Hulk Hogan which could have seen a revival of his career if it hadn't been cut tragically short by his death from cancer in 1998.

 

Bear could never understand why a "little guy" would go in the ring against him - it was only a matter of time before they got "splashed" and it's a miracle none of them were ever killed by it.  Or were they.....? 

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Does this mean that Puppers failed on the "fetch" command? 

 

Possibly.     

 

I think I may have got away with it though!    Let off for good behaviour because I had, in addition, tried 4 other locations to get the desired comestibles without success.

[tigerburnie]

Billy Two Rivers and Kendo Nagasaki.......................................

G'night all

[Gwiwer]

7 hours ago, PupCam said:

Is it just me that objects to self-service tills?

No.  I resent being "forced" to use them, have flagged issues of disability discrimination, specifically for those on the Autism spectrum whose disability is not readily apparent to others, and will always make a nuisance of myself if they are the only payment option by doing (or failing to do) something which then requires staff intervention.  I don't care how many times the machine tells me there is an "Unexpected item in the bagging area" I will always bag items somewhere other than where the machine dictates and will deliberately place my loaded basket in the bagging area ..... and that's just two stunts I use to display my dissatisfaction at the abandonment of customer service and the job losses railroaded through by these places.  

 

Where there's an option to wait for a human (who might also be stocking shelves or other things) at a "real" checkout then that is what I will use.  Every time.  

 

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Those were the days - Kendo Nagasaki, Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, The Deaf Guy (can't recall his name).  Who were the others?

Masambula was one.  Zambian if I remember correctly. Always wrestled in a leopard-skin leotard.  Famed for climbing up and slamming off the posts.  Think he died quite young as well.  

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Similar day to yesterday, took Syd out, took flowers to SWMBO’s brothers grave,  bit of paperwork, helped  a few neighbours out and then shed time. unfortunately by then it was getting late and Syd needed another walk  so had to make do with a bit of reading/research.

I received my book, ‘CCCP Undergound, Metro Stations in the Soviet Era’.
A good looking book which I think will have to satisfy my desire to explore the Moscow metro system as I can’t see me getting to see it personally for a very long time. 
Last time I was in Holland, a couple of years,  ago there was a convenience store in Utrecht station that only had self service tills and didn’t accept cash. 
Anyway Goodnight,

Robert

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. All sorts of strange noises coming from outside tonight. Some I recognise such as muntjac deer but others I'm not sure about. Over the next few days I'll have to look for signs of other animals.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Whilst I was making the jam rhubarb and strawberry this morning, the house had a wonderful aroma that was very reminiscent of fairground candy floss stalls! As I mentioned earlier, Ava and I had some jam on our pancakes at dinner time and very nice they were, we also added a teaspoon of jam to our yogurt, that was very nice too! 

 

The afternoon was a very relaxed affair, Ava sat reading her latest book, I read a magazine and Sheila read her kindle, so it was all very quiet. 

 

This evening we watched the David Attenborough film about the last day of the dinosaurs, it was very interesting indeed. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Ozexpatriate]

Today's forecast was for showers and rain it did, for about five minutes. Otherwise, mostly sunny and a quiet day, except for the telephone ringing.

 

Nine times in the space of about three hours in the early to mid-afternoon, the same robo-call saying "This is Amazon ..." called. Given that every one showed up on caller ID as a different local number, it was clearly fraud. Only one of them (which I didn't answer/hang up) was actually flagged as a "Fraudulent call". I've not had so many spam calls lately, though today seems to have made up for it.

 

This evening sees the oddity of American football on broadcast television in the Spring. (This is not NFL but a new/reconstituted league - the USFL.) There have been multiple alternative leagues that come and go, the last one (the XFL) was ended by the pandemic in 2020.

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[BR60103]

Our gas just went up 10+ cents a litre. Part of it attributed to the change to "summer gas".

We went out to a museum near Stratford, Ont today. There was a display about the early years of the Stratford Shakespearian Festival. On the program from the second year I found the name of one of our neighbours. On the same page was a William Shatner.
They also had a display about the CNR shops there.

 

SWMBO uses the self-service tills because she gets better social distancing that way.

 

[pH]

24 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

Our gas just went up 10+ cents a litre. Part of it attributed to the change to "summer gas".

Just out of interest I googled the best gas prices in Guelph and the best prices here in the Tri-Cities (Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam/Port Moody).

 

Guelph - 169.0 to 176.9 per litre

Tri-Cities - 185.9 to 199.9 per litre

 

No further comment! ☹️

Edited April 17, 2022 by pH

[Ozexpatriate]

I saw a vomiting helicopter today!

 

At least that is what it looked like. Out walking this morning a smallish helicopter was operating at a very low altitude. At one point a spray of material ejected from the side of the helicopter.

 

My powers of deduction (such as they are) suggest that what I witnessed was an "Easter egg drop" at a local parochial high school (based on a sign I saw outside the school at some point, and the general location of the helicopter). My mind of course recollects the fictional Les Nessman's account of the WKRP Thanksgiving promotion. "Oh the humanity". 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, pH said:

Tri-Cities

I wonder how many "tri-cities" there are in North America.

 

Somewhat locally (in Washington) there is Kennewick, Pasco and Richland. In Illinois/Iowa there are the "quad cities" of Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois.

 

Wikipedia suggests one in Ontario as well: Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo.

[pH]

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I wonder how many "tri-cities" there are in North America.

I knew about the one in Washington.

 

I don’t know how it was decided to limit the area to just three cities. There are two other municipalities that share boundaries with at least one of the three, plus another city that shares a boundary with one of those. So it could have been the sex-cities. Hmm - I think I see a possible problem!

[chrisf]

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

here there's an option to wait for a human (who might also be stocking shelves or other things) at a "real" checkout then that is what I will use.  Every time. 

Absolutely!  Such humans are skilled in the use of a till, unlike some customers.

 

Something that bugs me is the increasing reluctance of some retail outlets to accept cash.  Insistence on payment by card is all very well but it strikes me as ridiculous where only a small item is procured - a cup of tea, for instance.  Another increasing reluctance which bugs me is that of retailers to issue receipts for card transactions.  How are card users supposed to keep track of their spending without evidence?  Maybe today's card user blithely accepts what the statement proclaims without bothering to check it.  The opportunity for fraud should be glaringly obvious!

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.   Teddy has been out and the hens are up and about. Breakfast is being consumed.  The grass has mostly been cut and I have continued with reloadi g mt lost images to this community.  Something like 1500 so far.  About another 800 to ho to get back to 1st June 2021.  I've got it into a routine of doing a few stva time in otherwise down moments.

 

The market will be visited today and we will see how Teddy gets on being left for a couple of hours.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

…My mind of course recollects the fictional Les Nessman's account of the WKRP Thanksgiving promotion. "Oh the humanity". 

That brings back memories!

I was studying in the US in the late 70s/very early 80s and there was some really great TV being put out: in comedy there was Mork & Mindy (an incredibly funny first season until “the suits” got hold of it and basically ruined it [once that happened the ratings nose-dived]), WKRP in Cincinnati and - of course - the must-see Saturday Night Live (the original and as influential on American comedy as Monty Python was on British comedy). In drama there was Hill St Blues (with the unforgettable catch-phrase “let’s be careful out there”) and St Elsewhere (like Holby City, but much, much better and much, much more realistic [the consensus of my colleagues of the time was that everything medical/nursing that appeared in a single episode had happened un our hospital - but over a period of several months]). I was also around for the birth of the original MTV in 1981 - just wall-to-wall music videos (and not the carp they’ve been pushing out from about 1986 onwards).

One programme that was incredibly popular, long running and critically acclaimed was M*A*S*H and yet I found it deeply unfunny - only the presence of the larf-trak reminded you that there was a “joke” or “amusing moment” happening!

 

However, like today, most of US TV’s output was basically dire - verging on the unwatchable (Dukes of Hazzard anyone?). And, like today in the UK and US, the good stuff doesn’t get rebroadcast uncensored because it has ***ists and ***isms and “attitudes that might offend” (I suppose John Belushi’s series of Samurai skits on SNL are now verboten, like this one: 

)

Edited April 17, 2022 by iL Dottore