Last updated 16:58, Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Blast from the past as a ten bob note drops into town for a flutter

READY FOR HIS SPENDING SPREE....NOT: John Huntington with the Ten Bob Note

NOT so much pennies from heaven, more a pre-decimal windfall for Vagabond chef John Hollingsworth.
John who cooks up culinary delights at the Marlborough Street hostelry, was the ‘lucky’ finder of an old red ten bob note, lying on the ground in the yard at the rear of the Whitehaven pub where he works.
“It was a bit of a surprise,’’ said Chris Morrison, mine host at The Vagabond. “This 10 shilling note just seemed to appear out of nowhere,’’
“It is a used note, but not dirty or anything. It’s very strange, where has it come from? These things went out of circulation nearly 40 years ago.’’
Diary will desist from any speculation as to whose wallet it may have escaped from. Suffice to say that we think it’ll be another 20 years before the editor opens his wallet again to notice it missing!
Believing 100 per cent in a load of old nonsense
BRITAIN needs a leader like this! screamed an anonymous leaflet delivered to the Whitehaven News this week.
It quoted a speech by Prime Minster of Australia John Howard and was a vitriolic attack on muslims in Australia.
“I hope you have the guts to print it” our anonymous correspondent scribbled on the bottom, adding: “I believe this 100%.”
Brushing over the fact that Kevin Rudd is prime minister of Australia, not John Howard, it would be unwise to believe this leaflet “100%”.
A quick surf of the net reveals it is a load of old tosh. It first surfaced in October 2002 as a letter by American Air Force veteran Barry Loudermilk to his local paper, The Bartow Trader.
At some point chunks of it got attributed to John Howard and has since been emailed round the globe by those desperate to believe it’s genuine.
On the bottom of our version of the leaflet it says, “Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, British citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths.”
Circulating this preposterous nonsense is unlikely to achieve anything.
There are some tough problems to be faced over immigration. They’ll only be solved by basing any decisions on cold hard facts, not unchecked flim-flam.
Cross words with one hopeful crossword editor
A GENTLEMAN dropped us an email last week saying he was a keen crossword compiler and would we like to buy his services.
We do, of course, already, have a suitably fiendish crossword which challenges the grey matter of Whitehaven News readers.
But even if we were looking to change, it probably wouldn’t be to this freelancer. His covering email asked “wether we would be interested” in his services. Ouch. It should of course be whether. According to our dictionary a wether is a “male sheep, esp a castrated one.”
I’m afraid it’s back to the drawing board for our crossword compiler.
Male Voice Choir bring the house down – literally
ANY concert by the Whitehaven Male Voice choir is always good – but last Saturday’s event at Rosehill Theatre almost literally brought the house down.
At one point a stage light came loose and appeared to dangle precariously over the heads of the choir. There were one or two gasps from the audience and then a nervous wait to see if it would fall to the stage. We’re glad to report that it didn’t and the concert ended successfully.
But perhaps it’s a reminder that the Rosehill Theatre Regeneration project can not come a moment too soon!
Have we got more talent than Carlisle?
THE latest boy star, Andrew Johnston, has split the office straight down the middle with his rendition of Pie Jesu.
After Andrew’s appearance on Britan’s Got Talent there’s been wall-to-wall coverage in the press. And whether you love his version of this sacred classic or find it slightly more painful than cats’ claws scraping down glass, you’ve got to admire the bravery of the Carlisle wunderkid.
But we just know that Whitehaven kids can do better. So if you’ve got a video clip of your son or grandson (or young ladies) singing Pie Jesu email it to news@whitehaven-news.co.uk and we’ll put the best on our website.
Driving down Memory Lane in a faithful Ford
THE British love affair with Ford cars is to be celebrated in a new documentary to be made by Testimony Films.
Researchers want to hear how a Ford changed your life – an incredible journey, how it helped you find romance or perhaps you still have that first Ford, lovingly cared for in the garage.
Drop a line to Lizi Cosslett on 0117 925 8589 or write to Ford Appeal, 12 Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5RH.
Name lives on for cragsman of yesteryear
OUR Memory Lane last week featured an article from 1908 about the erection of a plaque to ‘famous cragsman’ John Wilson Robinson.
We wondered if the plaque might still exist. It was a bronze tablet on a rock near the High Level route overlooking Pillar Rock. One hundred of his comrades had put the plaque up in his memory. It would be nice to think we could have such affection showered on us all after we shuffle the mortal coil!
We don’t think the plaque exists any more but our Copeland Collection photographer Bill Stainton has sent us this picture of Robinson Cairn – no doubt named after the great man – with Pillar Rock in the background. As a poem published in 1908 put it at the time, it is indeed a “gracious memory of our friend”.