Bristol

  • Braking bad

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities

    The Bristol Post, no stranger to the pages of this blog, has a sister paper, the Western Daily Press.

    Both used to be produced in Bristol and were printed at the – now vanished – print hall of the Temple Way Ministry of Truth.

    There used to be an old Bristol joke about the local press. It ran as follows: there are 2 newspapers in Bristol; there’s the Western Daily Press, which carries stories about far-flung corners of the West Country such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh (or any other 3 major UK cities of your choice. Ed.), and the Bristol Evening Post (as it was then called. Ed.), which carries stories about far-flung corners of the West Country such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh and 50 pages of classified advertising.

    However, both the Post and the Press have more in common than their heritage and ownership. They are both badly written.

    Thursday’s Press carried a piece which puts it firmly in homophone corner with a dunce’s hat on its head, as shown by the following screenshot.

    text reads Motorists reported the lorry broke hard as it approached a roundabout

    For the benefit of passing Press “journalists”, here’s where your anonymous colleague went wrong.

    You confused the heterographic verbs to break and to brake.

    The former, which you used, is a strong verb, also called an irregular verb; these verbs form the past tense or the past participle (or both) in various ways but most often by changing the vowel of the present tense form. In this instance, break (present tense), broke (past tense), broken (past participle).

    The latter, which you should have used in this case, is a weak verb. These (also called regular verbs) form the past tense by adding -ed, -d, or -t to the base form (or present tense form) of the verb (e.g. call, called).

    Got it now?

    Good! 🙂

  • A chance meeting

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    Walking down Stapleton Road this morning, I stopped to take the picture below in readiness for reporting the fly-tipping to Bristol City Council.

    fly-tipping outside 96 Stapleton Road

    The gentleman passing on the right of the picture and half caught by the camera saw what I was doing, thanked me effusively and shook my hand when I told him I was reporting it to the council.

    We then had a brief conversation about how such anti-social behaviour detracted from the pleasantness of Bristol, which he described as a “beautiful city”, the health implications of fly-tipping and the way they encouraged the spread of vermin such as rats (posts passim).

    As we parted with waves, he asked me whether I was a member of the Green Party. Unfortunately I have no affiliation, but that’s no barrier to being an active and caring citizen.

  • Sexism in cafĂ© society

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Social Media

    An unnamed café in Bristol is apparently serving his and hers breakfasts.

    café menu board featuring his and hers breakfasts

    Yes, that’s right! Men get to scoff tortilla, bacon, sausages, 2 token items of fruit/vegetables (tomato and mushroom), Cheddar cheese, ham roll and butter, whilst women are supposed to pick their way daintily through muffin, poached egg, smoked salmon, salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onion, blueberries, yoghurt and pumpkin seeds.

    Men can obviously let their figures go to pot (and blood cholesterol levels too. Ed.), whilst women are automatically assumed to be on a diet; women have “gotta stay slim for our men obvz” in the scathing words of one on social media.

    This isn’t the first time that sexism has emerged at breakfast time (posts passim).

    Update 30/04/15: The his and hers labels are being removed from the menu according to the Western Daily Press, which also revealed the name of the establishment as Caffe Be On. In addition, this post was quoted in yesterday’s Daily Mirror.

    Hat tip: MarinaS.

  • Post exclusive: Bristol Rovers change kit

    Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Oddities

    There’s a hidden exclusive in today’s online edition of the Bristol Post. Unknown to the fans and probably the club itself, the Post reveals that Bristol Rovers now play in “blue and white stripes“, as shown by the following screenshot.

    screenshot featuring text But it turned out to be Sabadell fans, who were decked out in their home kit, which looks similar to the Rovers's blue and white stripes

    For the benefit of passing Post journalists, here are the three strips currently used by Bristol Rovers. Please note the only stripes are on the alternative away colours and have one thin blue stripe. The pattern used on the regular strip is commonly known as “quarters“.

    image of three current Bristol Rovers strips
    Image courtesy of Wikipedia

    The Post also mentions in the article that Catalonia’s CE Sabadell FC (who are in the Spanish Segunda DivisiĂłn. Ed.) play in a strip “similar” to that of Rovers. FC Sabadell’s current strips are shown below and yes, the home strips do look very similar, even if the teams’ respective league positions do not; Rovers are chasing promotion from the Conference, whilst Sabadell are fighting relegation.

    Sabadell strips from Spanish Wikipedia
    Image courtesy of Wikipedia

    Let’s hope the players of both teams are more on target than Bristol’s alleged newspaper of record. 🙂

  • The pavement pizza of politics

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    Banksy, probably Bristol’s most visible artist since the days when noted portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence (13th April 1769 – 7th January 1830) became President of the Royal Academy of Arts, has now given allegedly given his opinion on Mr Farage’s party of right-wing xenophobes; and I don’t think Nigel will be enamoured with it.

    stencil of UKIP being regurgitated by a vomiting woman

    This image will now be forever in my mind whenever the words ‘United Kingdom Independence Party‘ appear before me on a ballot paper.

  • The Wild Wild Bristol West Hustings

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Tech

    ORG logoOn Friday 24th April 2015, the Open Rights Group is supporting the Wild Wild Bristol West Hustings, a chance for local voters to quiz the candidates for the Bristol West constituency – rated by commentators as either a 2-way or 3-way marginal constituency.

    The event will be from 7.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. and its venue is Bristol University’s Wills Memorial Building, Park Street, Bristol BS8 1RJ (map).

    In alphabetical order, the candidates attending as this post goes to press include:

    More information about the prospective Bristol West MPs is available at http//meetyournextmp.com/event/646-wild-wild-bristol-west-your-future.

    The event is free, but in order to allocate spaces fairly, you’ll have to register via EventBrite.

    The event is being supported by ORG Bristol as part of the organisers, the Greater Bristol Alliance, a coalition of local campaign groups.

    Reposted from Bristol Wireless.

  • Ashton Gate station petition

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    One transport project which is moving closer to realisation in the Bristol area – and is popular with locals too – is the reopening to passenger traffic of the railway line to Portishead (which is currently only used by freight trains to and from Portbury Dock. Ed.).

    The project will entail building a new station at Portishead and reopening Pill station.

    However, there’s also a petition to rally support for the building of a new station at Ashton Gate to replace the now-vanished original Ashton Gate station.

    The site of the original Ashton Gate station
    The site of the original Ashton Gate station. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    The petition reads as follows.

    We are local residents and organisations (big and small) in BS3 campaigning for a new railway station in Ashton Gate on the Portishead branch line.

    We want a new station opening in 2019 with two trains an hour in both directions – towards Portishead and Temple Meads.

    In 2019 the Portishead rail line will be upgraded for new passenger services linking Bristol, Bath, Avonmouth and Portishead. New stations are being built at Pill and Portishead. Four trains an hour will pass through Ashton Gate.

    A station linked into the local bus network would encourage visits to the area and promote the local economy. We believe trains must stop at Ashton Gate to allow residents, workers and visitors to come and go easily and comfortably whilst decreasing the strain on the heavily-used local road network.

    A new station would bring substantial, long-term benefits to South West Bristol. Local people are increasingly turning to public transport and more rail services help to promote the city as a European Green Capital.

    Sign the petition.

  • There, their, they’re Bristol Post

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    The minions of the Bristol Post, possibly under strain from toiling away at the Temple Way Ministry of Truth looking for the city’s blandest news content, seem to have particular difficulty with homophones, i.e. words that are pronounced the same as another word but differ in meaning and may differ in spelling.

    This was amply illustrated below by a photo gallery posted this morning on the local organ’s website.

    screenshot of gallery headed Pictures of Bristol Rovers fans during there Bristol Rovers v Southport game

    Should the Post’s ‘journalists’ wish to cure themselves of acute homophonia, help is at hand up at Bristol University.

    Its website has a handy grammar tutorial page for the illiterati on the simple differences between there, their and they’re.

    To quote from that page

    There is the place, i.e. not here.

    Their is the possessive form indicating belonging to them.

    They’re is the contracted form of “they are”.

    Have you got that, Bristol Post, if so Bristol University’s site also has a useful exercise to check whether the lesson has sunk in.

  • The birds are nesting; time to fell more trees

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    The weather is warming up, summer migrant birds are returning to the UK to breed in the trees, shrubs and other traditional nesting sites; and as regular as clockwork, Bristol City Council sends workmen out to destroy those same traditional nesting sites, as witnessed this morning at the junction of Lawrence Hill and Croydon Street.

    three mature trees being felled by city council contractors

    During the few minutes it took me to buy a tin of coffee up the road, the two trunks seen standing in the photo had been felled, joining a previously felled companion. All three felled were – as far as I could see – healthy specimens.

    As regards protecting breeding birds and mitigating harm during the breeding season, Natural England’s advice (PDF, p. 4) is as follows:

    The main mitigation route to reduce the likelihood of harm to breeding birds is to undertake clearance or destruction of any vegetation or structure which may be used as a breeding site outside the bird breeding season when breeding birds are unlikely to be present (based upon habitat features) or where survey work has confirmed their absence. Avoidance of such features is best achieved through timing of work (see below) but may also be possible by temporarily preventing birds from using these features, before they start doing so. Examples include physical exclusion (preventing access to potential nest sites) or use of visual or audible deterrents. Such measures should only be undertaken following the advice of a suitably experienced ecologist, taking account of relevant legislation and welfare considerations.

    The bird breeding season will be dependent upon weather conditions and will vary from year to year, but in general is the period between early March and late August.

    Natural England acts as an adviser to central government on the natural environment, providing practical science-based advice on how best to safeguard England’s natural wealth for the benefit of all.

    By carrying out such works at this time of year, Bristol City Council is not only disregarding the advice given by Natural England, but also its own advice which it gives to community groups (PDF) carrying out conservation works involving trees. Page 2 of this document clearly states in relation to coppicing that this should be carried out between October and February. In the exact words of the guidance (page 2), this

    Should be done during the dormant season and outside the bird nesting season.

    In another city council document (PDF) entitled Tree Management Standards, page 4 clearly states:

    Nesting birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (and other related wildlife law).

    All this is happening in the year when Bristol is allegedly European Green Capital. However, the city council seems more interested in press stunts than in sound environmental practice that protects the environment and wildlife.

    Readers with long-term memories may remember that scrub clearance took place last year nearby at Lawrence Hill roundabout (posts passim).

Posts navigation