Fat Rascals at Bettys
TUESDAY LETTER
News of the Day
June 13, 1995
A Favorite Site
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The beginning of our final last week in Yorkshire, and so we have spent a little time trying to organize our memories, and make sure that in the remaining days prior to leaving for Ireland we have enough of what we most wanted and not left out something discovered after arriving. The weather turns cold and colder, and normally that would be upsetting, but knowing that are returning to three months of Oregon summer, the cold wind actually adds to the ambiance of the adventure. Quickly becoming acclimated, we more or less ignore the weather forecast (it always says one of two things anyway) and carry on as if weather is not an important variable. Last weekend, for example, found us walking through sheep pastures to the top of the hill in weather so cold that our breaths could be seen, then returning to the dale for lunch in a crowded country pub. Three weeks prior, we probably would have spent the day sitting at home waiting for the weather to turn sunny and warm.
The impression that I have reiterated for years to my English friend, is the greater potential in England than in the US for knowing about the important things that are happening at any one time. It is similar in some ways to when I was a kid in Eugene, Oregon. All the information I needed was at my grasp. If had not heard about it yesterday, then all I need to do was listen to the news on KORE and they would bring me up to speed in minutes. Or, you could wait till the Register Guard came between 5 and 5:30 p.m. and read it for yourself in greater detail. I know that England is really not that way and it must have to do with what a foreigner does not know enough about what to track.
Nevertheless, it seems reasonably easy to stay on top what you might want to know about. For example, the BBC TV morning news reader regularly spreads out the five or six major newspapers and compares what they have to say about the days events and non-events. That, plus the BBC takes care of the national and world news. To obtain more detailed information, one needs to spend time in the pages of one or two of the major dailies. I like The Times, but a couple of the others also satisfy my interests. What I have not been able to find are local papers comparable (in coverage) to small city papers in the U.S., such as the Portland Oregonian, Salem Statesman, or Eugene Register Guard. Papers such as those attempt to carry world and national news, plus regional stories and happenings on Route F. In England, local papers such as those for Windsor and Yorkshire, seem to limit their focus to local concerns. So, I suppose, if you want both the big and small pictures, you must read a national paper and the Yorkshire Post. If you want the tiny picture, then you must also read the Harrogate Weekly. It depends on your taste and interest. Personally, I find there are 6 to 10 stories going on that I want to follow and I can do that with The Times, which also satisfies my interest in other national and worldly news. I suppose the locals would be pretty much in the dark regarding regional news without referring to regional rags.
Above and beyond news, the national papers are full of enlightening and entertaining stories. For example, there were several of these in The Sunday Times of last weekend. One told about the (boy) Scouts Association being poised to abandon its traditional pledges of duty and honour to God and the Monarchy. This was prompted by the Prince of Wales confession of adultery, which senior Scout officials believe has undermined his authority. There is less than absolute agreement with this position. Lord Archer, a former scout himself, noted that he would be sorry to lose concepts like honour and duty, but went on to say, "I have great respect for the scouting movement but if adultery by the monarch were a good reason not to pledge one's allegiance to the country then perhaps we would never have had an empire." Lord Baden-Powel, the founder of the grandson of the Association favors radical change, but wants to retain the monarchy pledge. "The whole organization needs to be redesigned from the bottom up," he said. The Lord is said to a student of US management theory.
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Daily Times reader Ripley here. I thoroughly enjoy reading the paper here. I have a sense of knowing things. I understand Jack's point of only having so many things to follow and being able to do that, but having said that (see I'm becoming acclimated), I revel in knowing more about Europe and those parts of the world than what the Sunday Portland Oregonian notes on page 14 . I usually come back inspired from a trip dedicated to "knowing more about the world", whatever that means. Following a former visit, we subscribed to the International Herald Tribune for three months. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same effect when I was not in a London hotel room lingering over coffee and impressed with the quality of the stories and editorials I was reading. No, after the three months it had worn off and I was back to feeding my mind with the local paper of where I was living at the time and watching the evening TV news.
Just how does one keep informed? Today I read that the English Defense minister said the English need to build something like a Star Wars defense because of what he labeled the Club Mad countries (specifically unnamed by him but implied to be Libya, Iran, and Iraq). He said within 10 years the threat was more than real, but the monies needed would probably not be forthcoming. I doubt if I would get that dire prediction from our U.S. papers.
Great deal on a do-it yourself project.
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Other than news, I continue to be charmed at every encounter that brings us in touch with locals. The highlights of the week are MANY in this category, but in the running for number one is the local Chapel Keeper, Mavis, who hangs around St. Michael's just one half block down the street from us. I went to the church coffee last Tuesday and since then have encountered her almost every day. As far as I can tell, the chapel keeper is a person who arranges for lunches for the elderly, has mother care sessions, dusts on Saturdays, arranges for local workmen to work on the bad case of dry rot, and is sincerely nice to a foreign visitor every day when she sees me out walking. She even gave me illustrated notes of the church that had a sign on them of £2 in the vestibule. I reached for my money and she said, "Oh no, take this to remember us by." I shall. Have a good Tuesday.
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Theresa is correct. It really is important to follow the pulse of the world. This mornings Times, for example, devotes nearly all of its front page to Lady Thatcher's "circus" (their term) in which she is selling the second volume of her memories. On a back page we learn that Bill and Newt got along smashingly in New Hampshire last week, and that the US is more or less demonstrating its inability to deal in reasonable perspective with the return of hero O'Grady, and that Leona Helmsley directed her servants to work off her community service probation sentence. And don't forget, according to the Court Circular section, that yesterday was the 74 anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh and "Mr. George Bush, former American president, 71." Remember also, that today Princess Alexandra will visit the College of St. Barnabas, Blackberry Lane, Surrey, at 2:30.
Preparing for Lunch
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It is also well to recall, as The Times reminds us, that on this date in 1900 the Boxer Rebellion began, the first flying bomb, the VI hit London in 1944, and that in 1951 Princess Elizabeth laid the foundation stone of the National Theater, South Bank. John Major is correct! A common European currency will never Work! God save the Queen! A £ saved is a £ earned, and this morning that amounts to just over $1.59. Enough! It is not raining and we are off to the north to tramp another hill and dale chase a few sheep.
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