Non-Pig News

Could You Be Any More Offensive?   pic: Scotzine.com   You probably recognise the title because it's a quote from  Wayne's World . It's what Cassandra said to Wayne after he said, referring to his love rival, Benjamin, "Maybe he's pokin' ya". His reply to her shocked response, "Could you be any more offensive"? was "Yeah" at which point, quite rightly, she threw him out of her flat.    A piece of fake news about so-called Political Correctness aroused my interest in what sort of thing people really do find offensive. The article in question was in an American web magazine and claimed that a little boy at school had been arrested for using racist language after calling a chocolate bun a brownie. That anyone could fall for such nonsense is depressing but not surprising; the fact is, of course, that chocolate buns have been known as brownies for generations and no reasonable person would consider the use of such an innoc...

September at Old Moor Long ago, when T. Rex were top of the charts and we only had a choice of three television channels, there was a coal mine called Manvers Colliery on the outskirts of Rotherham. It's not there now, of course, but where the land collapsed, undermined by the workings below, lots of lakes were formed and the site is now the Old Moor RSPB Nature Reserve. And it's a good place to visit on an afternoon when summer has begun to migrate South and the leaves and fruits are looking all autumnal. We didn't see much in the way of unusual birds. There was a kingfisher on a post and it was almost visible with decent binoculars, and we had a good view of some rude cormorants who insisted on sitting with their backs to us, but in compensation the berries, leaves and remaining flowers looked brilliant. There is a field of sunflowers which I can never remember seeing there before. I only hope that the pictures below do them justice. The photo of the interesting ...