At Least They Were From A Northern Culture

And still the argument rolls on... and I'm lovin' it!

After missing Tony Parsons's earlier letter on the subject, I'm glad to see that he has submitted another so we can enjoy his well-thought out arguments.

THESE ACTS ARE NOT THE NORM

Not only are some Echo readers supporting homosexuals but they are running down the Bible. To be homosexual is one thing but to bring it out into the open and broadcast the fact is creating in the minds of our children that these relationships are the norm.

Are we a religious country or merely a shower of heathens?

Tony Parsons

(by post)

This letter manages to tick a number of boxes that should be found in any letter based religious argument:
- Use of the word Heathens: Check. (Even better, a "Shower of heathens". A new one on me.)
- delusion that the UK is supposed to be some kind of Christian theocracy: Check.
- A "Won't somebody think of the children?!?!" cry: Check.

A second excerpt from Mr M Lewis of Tiverton, who elsewhere also claims the minds of our children are being warped by all of these gays parading themselves around and shouting "OOoh, ducky", or whatever these people have in their mind about how a homosexual acts.

This abominable practice can lead to diseases such as ... inflammation of the rectum.

*Snigger* Now there is a line I never thought I'd see on the pages of the E&E.

Best Named Lib Dem Peer of the Week

This week my favorite Liberal Democrat peer's name is... Lord Razzell.

Points of View

Why oh why oh why were channel 4 and ITV both showing the same freaking programme yesterday afternoon? Paul O'Grady repeats on one, a new show on the other. Surely this is a new low for British TV.

And another thing: how do Matalan get away with copying other people's adverts? Last year they did the Tesco idea of having red price discs on the screen that the models covered up, threw into swimming pools or stuffed into the mouth of Lenin (advert highlight of last year). Identical. Now they have copied the M&S idea of having four models having an inordinately good time in clothes they would not wear to do the gardening in (although I doubt they garden). It's such blatant plagiarism that it would make an a-level student blush.

That is all.

At Least They Were From A Northern Culture

So there I was, proclaiming the letters of the anti-homosexual pro-Christian E&E correspondent to be dead, when three of them spring at me unexpected on yesterday's letter page. It was like a scene from a 90s thriller where you think the bad guy's dead, what with the two axes, three shotgun wounds and steam-iron applied to his face and all, before he jumps out at you from the bath water. Boo.

Anywho, to be honest, two of the letters are less attacks on the "homosexual lifestyle", but rather defending the bible against the amusing bashing that it's been given by numerous letter writers. As Pam Cousins sayz:

Quoting lifted verses to make points only displays to me ignorance and misuse of the text.

Or, don't quote the bad bits of the Bible, they're not meant to be taken literally, just quote the nice stuff.

Likewise, D Hayes, jumps to the Good Book's defence, with some beautiful lines, such as:

God can look after Himself and does not need me to defend Him or the Bible.

Yep, with all those locusts and frog storms at his finger tips, the big guy should have little problem sorting out a few heathens in Exeter. However, Hayes has to stick his oar in, if just a little bit...

I will merely say that an atheist cannot properly understand the truth and power of God's word because it is spiritually discerned.

The Bible is not an academic textbook and no amount of analysis or intellectual scrutiny will provide entrance to its eternal truths.

Other things that I have noticed that are best discerned spiritually are live TV poker, late night Hammer horrors and Arena nightclub, although the latter needs maybe too much spirit than is technically healthy (cue bad flashbacks...).

I can see what started as a bit of good ol' fashion homosexual discrimination could turn into a theological battle on the pages of the E&E - should be good.

Finally, and best of all, is a letter that starts by stating its support for Tweedy's anti-gay original. It then moves into quoting directly from an encyclopedia some "facts" about the history and "science" behind homosexuality (excuse the overt usage of quotation marks). This rambles on for 6 paragraphs, with no clear idea whether they're meant to support the author's sympathy for Claude or what.

If you make it through these, you are rewarded with two fine paragraphs:

We should all have compassion for homosexuals and other sexual deviants and society should help them, if possible, to behave normally.

But why are some people obsessed with sex? The world and life in general hold such a wealth of interesting and health-giving activities that we can, if we have the strength of character and will, break free from sexual bondage.

No point in commenting on helping sexual deviants behave normally - words escape. But what a great finishing line - is the author talking literally or what? Is it a cry for help from someone embroiled in Exeter's dark sexual underbelly? Who could come up with such a teasing closer to a letter that manages to bury its point under a column of unrelated drivel?

That's right - LT Sargent! Yay! After settling the argument on Cornish names or whatever, he's brought his irrelevant style to the anti-homosexual party. That has got to be a good thing.

Gimmicks

If there are two things I like, then they are 1) music and 2) lists. Therefore, I have added a nice little list that tracks what I've been listening to on my computer over the past week or so. Last week was pretty slow, and if anything dodgy appears it is because Helen was playing it at home.

If like me you have some strange and unnecessary desire to list, arrange and grade aspects of your life, then you could do worst than visiting last.fm.

****____UPDATE____****
Mrs P would like to say that she has never knowingly played anything dodgy, and that it is me who has the growing collection of Eagles and Country cds. Apologies for any confusion caused.

At Least They Were From A Northern Culture

Well the homosexuality pen wars look like they are coming to an end on the pages of the Express and Echo. Eventually the sheer weight of indignant and well-thought out letters crushed the odd anti-gay correspondence into the ground. Hoorah! Perhaps the most interesting of the last "outraged Christian" letters was from a Tony Parsons (surely not him???), who wrote an amusingly ridiculous letter. Sadly it only appeared in the print edition and not on the web, which is a shame. However, it looks like the issue has been laid to rest, with the smoking ban now taking over.

I do have one letter to present, taken from the non-more-local Crediton Courier. Margaret Tucker writes, (and I paraphrase as accurately as my memory allows):

On a recent trip to Spain I purchased a lovely pair of sandals. However, I was dismayed on returning home to find that one was a European size 39, whilst the other was a size 37. Obviously I have no hope of returning them, so I was wondering if there is anyone who they might fit. If you are interested, please call...

In UK terms, that means Margaret is looking for someone who has one foot at size 6, with the other at size 4. Now I know physical oddities are not unknown in the villages and parishes of the Crediton district, but surely this is a bit of a long shot.

Food Play

'Tis rare for me to post links to photo collections, but I thought these were P.D.C., so would put them up.

What's in the Box?

"The measure of a man is not in what he does, but in what is on his iPod". Well I haven't got an iPod, but I do have a PC that has a load of music on it. I have no idea what there is, or indeed how some of it got there. However, following on from other blogs (here and here), I shall open the Pandora's box that is it's music folder and present the first ten songs it plays. No tracks shall be skipped or emitted for the saving of face, and if I know how they got there I won't try to blame it on "I was copying it for my mum".

Here goes...

* Tiny Dancer - Elton John

Oh dear, what a start. I actually borrowed this off of my mum. Damn my honesty. Fact is, I like early Elton John. There I said it. Um, this is my favorite of his early stuff, mainly due to the great singalong by the band in "Almost Famous". Brilliant.

* Killing An Arab - The Cure

Well here's a topical song written 25-odd years ago. I'm a big fan of the Cure, without actually owning much more than a Best-Of - I like the mixture of their deep and dark stuff with the ad-friendly tunes. Great.

* We Live NE of Compton - Liars

Well this is about as rock and noisy as I get. Enjoyable, but it's not an area of music I feel necessary to explore further. However, saying that, I might check out their new album.

* Motown Junk - Manic Street Preachers

This is a suprise. Hearing this now reminds me of a particularly brutal discussion I had about them with a friend as an undergrad. I must have mellowed against them since then, cos this ain't so bad.

* Naked Eye - The Who

A bonus track from their superb 70s rock album "Whos Next". As an off-cut, this is actually pretty damn good. I used to wish that I grew up in the 70s, until I realised that I would have been too old for Transformers.

* I've Grown Accustomed to his Face - Doris Day

Ahem. Um, this is from an album of movie songs that forms a soundtrack to romantic meals that Mrs P. and I sometimes enjoy together. Please don't throw up. I might give up this honesty thing - it's killing me.

* Gouge Away - The Pixies

I think that to fully appreciate the Pixies, everyone should play them after a pre 50's show tune. It's a great way to enjoy them.

* After Hours - The Bluetones

I was the perfect age to be a Britpop fan (defined as anyone born in October 1979) and I did indeed indulge in it for a while, This song - I think - comes from one of the albums that the 'Tones had to sell themselves from a suitcase. Pretty poor, if truth be told.

* Felicity - James Kirk

James Kirk was in the Scottish group Orange Juice with Edwyn Collins. When they split, he became a chiropdist for 18 years, before recording his first solo album a couple of years ago. I really like it - yes, it's inoffensive, not particularly ground-breaking and maybe even a bit Ken Bruce, but that's a good thing in my books.

* Corrina, Corrina - Bob Dylan

Well I guess it was inevitable that old Bob would show up on this list - my computer is full of him. The great thing is that the more you get into him, the more you find that you can first tolerate and then come to adore the stuff that puts other people off (his voice, his dodgy harp playing, his long songs, his dubious Christian period. OK, I'm not far yet). A nice way to finish this little exercise.

At Least They Were From A Northern Culture

Welcome to the Express and Echo Letters Page review, as this blog is becoming.

Letter writing in the Echo is much like a slightly damped swinging pendulum, to use a boring engineering analogy. The initial force is a dumbass, misinformed letter, such as Claude's homophobic example. We then see a deluge of letters comdemning Claude as the idiot he is. This is followed by the backlash backlash of letters supporting the original, which in turn are backlashed against. This continues until the friction of general boredom with the subject means the letters dry up and the pendulum rests till it is once again swung a few months later.

Now with Claude's letter, I was afraid that he would be on his own. However, thankfully another fundamentalist has crawled out of the probverbial woodwork to post this letter of support for Claude. Hoorah!


GAY WARNING A CHRISTIAN DUTY

I thought Claude Treeby's letter, Homosexuality is condemned, Points of view, March 14, would set him up for a storm of abuse, and so it has proved. It is a very strange thing that while smokers, drinkers and the overweight can be subject to the sharpest of criticism, it appears that no one is to be permitted to utter any critical word concerning the homosexual lifestyle.

I speak as one who had a very dear cousin who died from an Aids-related disease at the age of 48.

Christians need to remember that homosexuality is not the only sin in the world, nor is it the worst sin; but nevertheless, the Bible describes it as a sin. It is therefore the duty of those who think of themselves as Christians not only to abstain from homosexuality but to warn others of its consequences.

So good for you, Mr Treeby, you have more support than you think. To warn people against a destructive lifestyle is not an act of hatred but an act of love.

Stephen Owen

Broadmead, Woodbury

(by email)

Of course, the problem with the analogy to smokers, drinkers and overweight people is that there is no equivilant of patches, Kestrel lager or weight-watchers to help the homosexual to give up. Damn, if members of the same sex weren't so flipping addictive - listen to Steve and Claude, kids, just say no.


Now anyone who made it all the way through LT Sargent's epic ramble last week, may have been concerned at a blaring mistake that the letter contained. But fear not, because LT returns to clear up any misunderstanding.


CONFUSION OVER NAME'S SPELLING

12:00 - 20 March 2006
In my letter about the Maddern surname, Points of view March 15, Mardon was printed as a variant form. This was either my error or a misprint. It should have been Madron, as in G Pawley White's A Handbook of Cornish Surnames. Madron, or St Madron, is a parish and village, one and a half miles north-west from Penzance.

L T Sargent

Cowick Hill, Exeter

(by post)


LT, I love your style and total lack of appreciation for what is worth writing to a local newspaper about. Sir, I salute you.

At Least They Were From A Northern Culture II

So there I was, all ready with my screwdriver and hammer waiting for my kitchen when I get a phone call telling me it won't be here until tomorrow. Ho hum. Anyhow, it does mean that I do have a little time to compose another blog posting.

You wait for ages for a really good (i.e. bad) letter to come onto the pages of the E&E, and then 2 come along at once. I just love this bad boy from L T Sargent. If you're going to write a boring letter to the Echo, you might as well do it properly. Here it is in its entirity. Warning, try not to read it all in one go, save you may fall into a coma of boredom. I have done it, but I am trained in the reading of rambling letters.


A NAME FROM ACROSS TAMAR

12:00 - 15 March 2006
Names have always interested me and therefore Kerra Maddern's report, Echo March 6, of headmaster Steve Maddern's temporary move from West Exe Technology College to St James School got my attention. I remembered that a Thomas Maddern from St Just, a village in the toe of Cornwall, was a compositor on The Cornish Times newspaper at Liskeard when I was a junior reporter on that paper before I joined the Royal Navy in the Second World War.

Tommy, as we called him, was a neat, quiet man of average size, who was always intent on his work. yet polite and friendly. I can still see him in the mind's eye as he selected types (letters and other characters) from the type cases (sloping racks) and placed them in line in his hand-held composing stick, which was about the size of a mobile telephone. We never dreamed of such things!

The Cornish Times was mainly set on three linotype machines, but the display advertisements and jobbing work were hand-set by about 10 compositors.

But to return to the Madderns, I quote from G Pawley White's A Handbook of Cornish Surnames (1972): "Maddern, Mardon. From parish name Madron. Mostly found within 10 miles of that parish today."

By strange coincidence, I met a lady on March 7 during a paper and book foray and she said her aunt who lived in St Just was named Maddern. I turned to speak to another person and forgot to ask the lady if my compositor friend of nearly 70 years ago may have been one of their St Just ancestors. Anyone surnamed Maddern must have a Cornish ancestor, I think.

Are Kerra Maddern and Steve Maddern Cornish or of Cornish descent and are they related to each other?

Like my late father and several previous generations of our family, I was born in Looe.

We were all proud of our native Cornwall, which the English invaded and plundered. But like many thousands of our fellow Cornishmen and women we have had to find work and build homes across the Tamar and the oceans. The Cornish and the English generally get on well together and the latter seem to love Cornwall.

L T Sargent

Cowick Hill, Exeter


A beautiful exponent of the absolutely irrelevent, of-no-interest-to-anyone-ever, what's-the-point-oh-there-isn't-one letter. It just reminds me of Abe Simpson going on one of his rambles in the Simpsons. Superb.

At Least They Were From A Northern Culture I

Crikey, the Exeter Express & Echo's letters page has been dull over the past few weeks. Two topics have been holding sway, both of which are hard to get excited about: building of houses on a rugby pitch and the closure of libraries. Oh, and £10 parking permits, which apparently will result in the end of Exeter.

However, a couple of chinks of light have emerged in the last couple of days. Firstly, our MP Mr Ben Bradshaw, has decided to join in civil partnership with his long-term boyfriend. Cue some letters from outraged Christians quoting passages from the bible that decree Ben should be stoned etc. Actually there has only been one so far, but I'm hoping we might get some more. The sole correspondent so far states:

HOMOSEXUALITY IS CONDEMNED

14 March 2006

As a committed Christian, I was amazed to read once again how a person in a prominent position will be getting married to a person of the same sex in what is known as a 'civil partnership'. Now it is Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw who is going to marry senior BBC producer Neal Dalgleish, Echo, March 8.

Dr Adrian Rogers quite rightly described homosexuality as "sterile, disease-ridden and God forsaken".

My own concern stems from what the Holy Bible says about homosexuality and lesbian activities.

In the epistle to the Romans, it says: "God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, in the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lusts for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion".

The Bible also says in Leviticus: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."

These are just two examples of God's condemnation of homosexuality and its consequences.

Claude Treeby
Burnthouse Lane
Exeter

I love letters from Christians who take the Bible as a literal representation of God's word, because you can only assume they agree with passages such as my favorite from Deuteronomy 25:

11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: 12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.

Which means if two blokes are having a fight and the girlfriend of the one that is losing grabs the other guy by the short and curlies, then you must chop off her hand. Amen. Actually Deutronomy has a lot to say about men's tackle - such as if you don't have any, or have general bruising, then you ain't allowed to worship t'Lord. But hey, I ain't gonna go bible bashing. Suffice to say that homophobia supported by ancient fables is still alive and well on the pages of the E&E.

Dagnammit, not another personal post

First let me apologise that a lot of my recent posts have taken on a personal journal kind of tinge. I'm hoping that this will be temporary until I stop having so much other stuff to think about. My head is basically spinning at the moment, what with getting a new job (the consequences of which are just about beginning to sink in, but I am genuinely excited about becoming a 9-5 drone. I'm expecting that this will last for about 4 hours and then I will wonder why on earth I ever left the comfort of academia), fitting a new kitchen (again, which I am enjoying, although my hands are suffering what with the general irritant compounds found in a lot of the DIY products. However, rumours that Helen has made me use moisturiser on them are totally unfounded and you can't prove anything), and the finishing of my PhD, which I'm not enjoying very much. Wow, that was a long sentence.

Thankfully, I've got a few things that are keeping me sane(-ish) at the moment. Firstly I'm reading "Money" by Martin Amis, which I am really enjoying. Not everyone's cup of tea, no doubt, but it reminds me of one of my favorite books and seems really fresh considering that it is rooted in the early '80s.

Secondly, I've had a really good run of movie rentals recently, from City of God through the Royal Tenenbaums and Amelie, to Rushmore. Sadly, my free dvd rental has run out, so it maybe a return to not watching films for long periods of time.

However, bestest of all is the Mystic Mustang discovery I have made! And there's more on the way! Although I was going to save this until I'd transferred the 8-track original to MP3, I'm going to let you know that the next track is called "(Why do I fall for) Dysfunctional Androids". It's a beauty. Or not, depending on your opinion on badly sung songs about robot love, and the problems thereof.

Freshly Discovered Old Stuff

The other day I mentioned that I had made an exciting discovery whilst sorting through some old boxes. Within one box, marked "Mystic Mustang Stuff", I found a plethora of music memrobilia relating to a little known late 70s band called "The Mystic Mustangs". I have no idea how this box came into my possession, but I feel it is my duty as a lover of music to share its content with you.

Contained within a shoebox was a load of 8-track cartridges, which I have taken the liberty of transferring to MP3 so that I can host them here. The first is called "Cryptic Zoom Tomb (Demo 5a)" and is dated 1978. Listen to it here or maybe here. The quality is reasonable, although the vocal does seem to drown at some points, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

In a separate folder is a lyric sheet for the song, which I'll post soon, and a brief synopsis of the track in a notebook labelled "Liner Notes for Greatest Hits", which seems to have been a bit premature, as there is no evidence that the song, nor the group, ever made it to an album release.

Please let me know if you can get it to play, even if you can't bear to sit through the whole track.

So tired, tired of waiting

OK, so I heard about my job... and they want me back for another interview. Hmmm, I think it'd be easier to get a place on the Supreme Court.

A Triplet of Excuses

With every sporadic post, there comes a triplet of excuses as to why I've been gone so long. And this post ain't going to be no different.

1) Friday I had a job interview. It went OK, if not quite long at 1hr 45 minutes. Phew. And I got to discuss Exeter City's plight in some length. Oh, I find out later today if I got the job. I keep forgetting that that was why I did the interview...not sure why.

2) I have gone DIY crazy. Fires - fitted. Cement - mixed. Kitchen - destroyed. My weekends have become dominated by power tools, large hammers and paint rollers. Eek, job interviews and DIY. Anyone would think I was getting older.

3) This is the bit I am really excited about. I recently discovered a dusty box full of the early demos by a little known act and have been transferring them to MP3 so that I can share them with you. I was going to get the first one up today, but technicalities have dictated otherwise. Later this week, and that's a promise.