Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

michaels

Being strongly pro Brexit due to the democracy deficit it is a little ironic that I am feeling very 'none of the above' in the local govt and police commissioner elections. Why does local democracy work so much better in the US?

I love the way all the card shops have (international) Mothers Day cards in the hope that most guys are too dopey to remember they have already done mothers day once this year.

On a point of order Dixons closed its shops many years ago and dropped the brand entirely a few years later.

vivatifosi

I too can vote for the Police and Crime Commissioner. What is the point? It is an office I don't agree with, held by somebody who when he took it up, said he would relinquish his other public duties. Afaics he still does both. The opposition opponents are also spectacularly underwhelming.

It will be the first time since I got the right to vote in the 1980s that I will have chosen not to use it (as opposed to being unable to use it, e.g. overseas, sick, etc).

Thoroughly depressing. I have two friends who are working at polling stations today, both only on the police, not local gov't, elections. They are both expecting very low turnouts. How can that be considered as a democratic mandate?

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I couldn't read the CK link thing.... clicked and it started loading .... so then I continued to read all the NP thread - and did a couple of posts - and it's still "loading". So had to give up.

Try the refresh button

The way Facebook has coded it is as a popup within a link. It's a publicly shared post by a friend of mine, and I've asked specific permission to post it here, to which the answer was it's fine, as long as there isn't a bombardment of friend requests

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Talking of Georgia, I like their national bank building. It looks like they couldn't agree which way the building should face, so chose a compromise solution.

Reminds me of a cubey sort of pick-a-stick game!

Georgia.........(right, that's top of the list for googling later.....)
Hmm. Apart from loving the song (Geor-giaaaaaaa, Geor-giaaaaaa...)
and liking the name as a name, I don't know anything about it. (Hence the googling later).

However, every time I see the reference to the country, it reminds me of this fabulous story I read as a child. I've never been able to trace it, despite trying various search sites. (The fact that I don't remember the title or author doesn't help).
It was a long story in a compendium of stories written for kids of probably 11-14 years, something like that? Don't know how old the book was; it was just there in the house, so it could have been oldish.
I think I was about 12 or 13 when I read it.

The story obviously stayed in my mind all these years. It was set, I think, in the early 20th Century, and was written in the first person. The protagonist was a girl who had been selected from her village in Georgia to join the harem of a sultan, presumably in Turkey, and it told of her experiences in having to get used to a very different culture, and sidestep the machinations and intrigues of the harem hierarchies, until the harem was "liberated" by ?invading forces? - a few years later.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

Being strongly pro Brexit due to the democracy deficit it is a little ironic that I am feeling very 'none of the above' in the local govt and police commissioner elections. Why does local democracy work so much better in the US?

I love the way all the card shops have (international) Mothers Day cards in the hope that most guys are too dopey to remember they have already done mothers day once this year.

On a point of order Dixons closed its shops many years ago and dropped the brand entirely a few years later.

We had an electronics chain just go bust over here, !!!! Smiths. (wonder if that will get through the filter, he was born 'Richard Smith'). I kept looking but I couldn't find anything I wanted even at the bankruptcy discount which explains a lot.

I remember reading a while back that the liability of their outstanding leases was greater than their market cap so no surprises that they closed the stores!!!

silvercar

CKhalvashi wrote: »

(Posted with permission, DQWD)

Also not working for me. Way round is to see the name of the poster that appears briefly and go to her page. First article on the page.

Generali wrote: »

Obviously I clicked on you and saw your map of Europe and it struck me once again just how much like a flaccid phallus Scandinavia looks. Once seen it can't be unseen.

I see a picture of pandas trying a new position. Also can't be unseen.

silvercar

Doozergirl wrote: »

I can go to the village hall and vote for the Police and Crime Commissioner. It appears that it's up to me to find out any relevant information about the candidiates. The only info I've been subject to is the polling card.

The one election where I cba to vote.

michaels wrote: »

On a point of order Dixons closed its shops many years ago and dropped the brand entirely a few years later.

Dixons stores are still at the airport, keen prices and you can pre-order.

https://www.dixonstravel.com/

GDB2222

We received a natty little brochure giving details of the London mayoral candidates. They had to pay £10k each to appear in it, and it was mailed to every elector in London.

I'm surprised that there were no brands advertising in it - a Persil washes whiter candidate, or a John Lewis never knowingly undersold candidate. £10k is very cheap for that number of mailings, even if many are unread.

Generali

silvercar wrote: »

The one election where I cba to vote.



Dixons stores are still at the airport, keen prices and you can pre-order.

https://www.dixonstravel.com/

I did have a vague recollection of buying a pair of headphones last time (time before?) that I went to the UK.

Wheezy_2

I can see pandas, but not Generali's Scandinavian flaccid phallus.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Every time you open the lid, there it all is .... my accumulated rubbish since late December.

5 months to fill your recycling bin??? :eek: