Post by trubble on Jun 20, 2008 17:30:04 GMT
Every week I receive an e-round up of some of the stories from local papers around the North, via The Grauniad newspaper. Just quirky stuff, but there are occasional insights into the local angle behind story that might have hit the National headlines. Anyway, for your entertainment (both of you), here it is.
The Northerner: That baby buzz
Martin Wainwright
19 June 2008
Oh no, here comes trouble, especially for anyone who believes
(sometimes with justice) that the Northerner can get too flip.
Patrolling the cyber region early this morning, I chanced upon the
Lancashire Evening Post's queue called More Weird Stories. Reader, I
plucked the apple and ate thereof. Who could resist a headline like
'Bumble bee' woman gives birth after hen party'? Pardon?
But here's the full story from the LEP. Ally Ashwell, 30, was
returning contentedly to her hotel in Blackpool, dressed as a bumble
bee when, in her own words, "I realised that something was wrong."
The something was a tiny boy called Owen, whose existence was
previously unknown to Ally. He was what my grandparents used to call
"just an idea in the mind of God". Ally gave birth calmly, at only 26
weeks, in the hotel room and Owen was whisked off to intensive care.
A spokesman for Blackpool's Victoria hospital understatedly said: "It
is unusual for a baby to be born in this situation. I think Owen has
surprised us all by the progress he has made."
Apologies if you've already encountered this story, because naturally
it was picked up rapidly by grander media, but it gave me great joy
which I want to share. By the way, have you read my colleague Alison
Benjamin's new book called A World Without Bees? I keep emailing her
my own bee-sightings in the hope that she'll do a sequel. If so, Ally
Ashwell should be included to leaven all the serious data;
And meanwhile, I'd be grateful if any Northerner readers had time to
join my special survey of bee failure to understand aquilegias. This
was first discovered by an astute scientific observer called Abi from
Dorridge, near Birmingham, and I have taken up the cause. Basically,
bees land on top of flowers' 'granny's bonnets' and dimly fail to
realise that the gateway to the pollen lies below. I have
photographic proof from Birmingham and Leeds. But I need more
evidence, especially from hard-headed places such as Lancashire. Is
this why we face the prospect of A World Without Bees? PS on insects:
thank you for visiting my mothzone and please keep coming, and
commenting and entering the competitions.
____________________
Last week, I castigated the northern media for giving up on votes and
polls, which however dodgy and voodoo-ish, nonetheless give moments
of harmless fun. The North West Evening Mail hits back in fine style
this week, with an absolute emperor among interactive ballots (
www.nwemail.co.uk/home/models/1.1....dex=0#slideshow
). I regret to some extent, in these equal times, that it involves an
online version of the old-fashioned beauty contest. But still, let's
cast that aside and enjoy the sheer interest of taking part in a
24-candidate vote.
There's the pleasure of a slide gallery and then the moment of power
when you click on the favoured one - will it be interestingly named
Madalaine Viljoen, or Sam Brown, whom older readers will associate
inappropriately with a first world war-uniform belt. But no, my
serious point is that this sort of thing, like all the talent show
votes on TV, can genuinely interest people in the fun and interest of
democracy. Next year, though, I hope the Evening Mail runs the poll
by proportional representation, so that we have to number the
candidates by preference and have to spend even longer on the
website.
____________________
There's no pretence about the virtues that will win the Evening Mail
poll, with references to 'lovely ladies' et al, but then it is for
modeling. Good news, however, for another young Northern woman Becky
Alderson, who features in the Darlington Gazette, because she has won
university places at both UCL and Cambridge.
Not in itself miraculous but Becky Alderson is a great role model, as
she roundtrips every day to Darlington College from her home in
Alston, England's highest market town in the Cumbrian Pennines. She
also has a good message for any young readers of the Northerner, or
their families, who may quail at reports that Oxbridge dons are
'nasty' to ordinary, decent folk who apply from places such as Alston
and Darlington. Becky admits that she was 'quite scared' but then
that's the point. The interviewers aren't there to be horrid but
they've got to challenge candidates, and toughly because these are
the most sought-after universities in the country. The key phrase in
the Gazette report is that Becky is "fascinated by people and
cultures" and clearly she got that across.
____________________
I know whom I'm supporting in the Roses battle described by Suzanne
Rutter in the Halifax Courier - a trans-Pennine wine-tasting duel (
www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/Battle-lines-drawn-in-war.4195124.jp
) organised by Calderdale's bon viveurs. Actually, I didn't realise
they had wine in Lancashire, but Terry Hanson of the Halifax and
District Wine Circle is less cavalier. He's already warned his troops
- and the wider legions of the Courier's readers - that a kind of SAS
of the wine-tasting world has set up a base in Bolton.
"Bolton Wine Circle entered the Yorkshire Federation of Wine and Beer
Makers competition, held in Scarborough a couple of weeks ago, and
won first and second place," he says ominously. "They may stand out
from the rest." The tasting is going to involve rose wine only, a pun
on the Roses side of things, and maybe a bit of dampener. I like rose
only in extremely hot and preferably foreign conditions. But
Calderdale can sometimes fit that description.
____________________
Exuberantly Embrace the Digital Dawn! That is the title of a tiny
booklet that I am currently circulating round colleagues at the
Guardian. And I am digitally delighted by the Bradford Telegraph and
Argus ( www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ) - my old paper -
which has organised an online version of those silly seaside photo
stalls. You can digitally insert your face above the bikinied body of
what my wife's great-aunt used to describe as "a great barnce of a
girl", or on the bottom of a beach donkey. Hours of fun. I'm not
quite sure if you can insert other people's faces too, but I am
experimenting.
____________________
MARTIN WAINWRIGHT RECOMMENDS
Actually it was my colleague Lexy Topping who recommended this to me,
but I joyfully recommend it too: Chadwick's Black Pudding Stall in
Bury market is the setting on Saturday, 21 June, for a preview of Les
Pudding Noir, a new play on a subject which Manchester's Library
theatre informs me is about a "subject which until now has received
little theatrical attention: black puddings." Hooray! It features a
George Formby-sounding cast of "happy, sunny characters, at their
most content when they're up to their elbows in black pudding mix".
But remember the other, theatrical meaning given to the word 'noir'.
Be there at 2.30pm and contact the Library theatre (
www.librarytheatre.com ) for main performance details.
And finally: I'm aghast that Cumbria is losing 34 post offices,
including the Greenodd one which has fought a Star Wars campaign
rolled into D-Day and the siege of Minas Tirith, but at least we may
be able to save the Kersall phone box. It's famous as probably the
most comfortable in the country, with a carpet and often, fresh
flowers, but it's on the List of Potential Doom drawn up by a BT
consultation, according to the Nottingham Evening Post. The most
effective thing we can all do is go to Kersall and make a phone call,
signing the kiosk's special visitors' book at the same time. But I'm
not sentimental. As one of the bloggers on the NEP's story says: "No
need to talk on phone when you can talk on this site innit." What we
really need to do is think of new uses. Another blogger suggests
conversion into a public loo, which in my experience of phone kiosks
would at least be, erm, going with the flow.
All comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to
northerner@guardianunlimited.co.uk.
« Last Edit: 19 Jun, 2008, 11:38pm by Patrick »
The hen-party birth story was hilarious. ;D
an astute scientific observer called Abi
O Rly? A likely story, Patrick...