Can we please have a period in-between the fight a mad man and Garlikid joining our team? Maybe Garlikid does the speech once we are about to leave the building or maybe we have to talk to him in order to hear his speech. This would help people who are resetting for natures or for a shiny one.
(04-16-2018, 05:14 PM)VictoryHoshi Wrote: Can we please have a period in-between the fight a mad man and Garlikid joining our team? Maybe Garlikid does the speech once we are about to leave the building or maybe we have to talk to him in order to hear his speech. This would help people who are resetting for natures or for a shiny one.
Yeah it takes around about three-five minutes to see your Garlikid which I think is way to much time to reset for nature, ivs, or shininess.. That three perfect IV thing would be really nice and I would love that. Only thing is how would they fix all of the old captured legends that people have caught before.
*Shrugs* They don't, or they find someway to create an program that can update all Old Legends to have 3 P.IVs that works well. Up to them how they implement such a thing, if they bother. I'd like the opportunity for easy farming of IVs/Shinies to be had, but its not likely going to happen until the game is completely finished, if at all. Oh well, we can still dream right?


Jon Hassell - Jon Hassell - Remixes. Vinyl EP. Bleep.
All Saints unveil another remix EP to mark their 23rd year, this time asking three of the roster's heavy hitters to remix a fourth: the groundbreaking trumpet manipulator Jon Hassell. Four of his strongest pieces are given a revamp here, with 'Ba-Ya Dub' drenched in Basic Channel static and foggy pads by No UFO's; 'Inversion' whisked into a trancey storm by Bandshell and 'Elsewhere is a Negative Mirror' transformed into lumbering acid by Some Truths. With traces of the source instrument hidden in the mix this is the most avant garde trumpet album you're ever likely to hear.
Jon Hassell Remixes - TRAILER from All Saints Records on Vimeo.


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Home Blogs Film Reviews
What's your favourite film? Why? I enjoy film and hearing people's views and opinions on them. I believe film is a great outlet and engaging in conversation over film can lend itself to other areas of life and help inspire your thoughts and feelings on any subject. I'll be using this space to give my opinions and hopefully to hear yours. I'm also keen on environmental issues and try to encourage everyone to develop an awareness of these issues in the community. I believe the foundations of success are built on the involvement of everyone and hearing these voices allows us to shape a better understanding of life and the planet we live on.
Women in film: some strong female characters
Summer Movie Top Picks
What happened to Imagination?
Fantasy and today's Cinema. In past blogs I have discussed films of a more mature nature, aimed at a certain type of audience. So, I...
The Golden Age of Special Effects
Utilisation of Special Effects I'd like to look at films featuring practical special effects and focus on some of the artists and directors that made...
Hearing out the film critics
When it comes to the movies, many people tend to shun film critics. Instead they may look straight to a five-star rating or a...
Alternative romantic films for Valentine's Day
Many of us might choose to cuddle up on the couch this romantic Valentine's evening and watch something smoochy like Love Actually, Four Weddings and a...
Visions of the Past: Period Dramas
Inspired by the new movie - Mary, Queen of Scots. I've been inspired by the upcoming film Mary, Queen of Scots to look at period...
As summer draws nearer, I thought I would use the season as inspiration for the blog. I've picked out a selection of films I...
Halloween Movie Fest
Shocktober! It's October and Halloween may traditionally be a time we indulge in the macabre and otherworldly, this may take the form of watching 'Horror'...
Having recently noticed Film4 were producing a season on women in film, it inspired me to consider which starring roles by women resonated with...
Boost your skills with free digital courses from Teesside University
Free digital courses being offered by Teesside University could help people in the region bridge a digital skills gap whilst also supporting...
Festive financial support for County Durham pubs
Views of residents sought ahead of funding bid submission
Kelsie helps others ring the bells for Christmas
Funding boost for athletics stadium
Constabulary submit plans for new custody suite
Enjoy the magic of panto at home
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N. Ireland Politics
Police advice on avoiding festive theft
Details of fake or cloned cards are often taken from genuine cards stolen from members of the public
Police are advising the business community to step up its security in the approach to the festive period.
Detective Inspector Davy Connery of the PSNI's Crime Prevention Unit said that now was a good time for business people to ensure they had appropriate security measures in place.
He said there were "simple but very effective steps" businesses could take to ensure a crime-free Christmas and New Year, the retail trade's busiest period.
"Criminals will always try to take advantage of the high turnover of cash and valuables in outlets all over Northern Ireland," Mr Connery said.
"At this time of year you may take in more money than usual. Reduce the amount of cash you have in your tills regularly and make sure you transfer it to a safe - preferably in an occupied office.
"Have your money taken to a bank frequently by a recognised cash in transit (CIT) company. This ensures your money has the safest possible journey to your bank, reducing the risk of it being stolen."
He said traders should also consider a "safe drop" where money could be kept until it was collected.
Access could be limited to just two people, including the CIT staff. Once the money was dropped into the safe - located in a secure room - only authorised individuals would have access to it.
Mr Connery also highlighted the dangers of stolen or cloned credit cards, and thefts from cash machines with criminals using sophisticated methods including identity theft.
He said the details on these cards usually belonged to a genuine member of the public whose identity, either their name or their bank number, had been stolen along with their bank card.
"Some businesses, for example large petrol stations, have cash machines. These are another target for criminals, who have been attaching sophisticated devices that can capture a customer's card details and pin number.
"Cameras can be installed to monitor ATMs for suspicious activity. Anyone who sees someone tampering with an ATM should not approach them but call police immediately."
He advised the business community to ensure their staff did not become the target of so-called tiger kidnaps.
"A tiger kidnap is the holding of a hostage, or claim of having done so to force a person to steal cash or valuables from a business in the form of a ransom to get the hostage freed," DI Connery said.
"Businesses should ensure no-one has access to enough cash to make them an attractive target to criminals, so all cash transfers of money should be done by cash in transit firms."
He said business people should also think about using closed-circuit television systems to monitor vulnerable areas. They should also educate staff to observe and report anything unusual which may indicate a colleague was acting under duress.
For further information on Crime Prevention, call your local police on 0845 600 800, or log on to www.psni.police.uk and read the PSNI Crime Prevention section.


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21 Invest France takes a majority stake in FMA Assurances alongside its Founder
FMA Assurances is a multi-specialist broker involved in the design, multichannel distribution and management of insurance products for individuals.
Founded 23 years ago, this independent player initially positioned in the two-wheeler segment has been diversifying towards complementary activities since the last 10 years, namely property and casualty insurance (four-wheelers, license-free cars, multi-risk home, animals, bicycles, e-bikes) and personal insurance (health & welfare).
Thanks to its unique know-how and mastery of the value chain, FMA Assurances offers its services to more than 100,000 clients primarily in BtoB via insurance professionals and in BtoBtoC through 1,900 active distributors among which Honda, Harley Davidson or BMW. FMA Assurances relies on partnership agreements signed with Tier-1 insurers or specialists, in particular Swiss Life, Allianz, Generali and historically La Parisienne.
Benefiting from the steady growth of the insurance market, the Group reached a turnover of 24 million euros in 2018 (+ 18% CAGR over the last three years) with strong resilience and solid profitability.
With the support of 21 Invest France, FMA Assurances intends to strengthen its position in its current segments and develop new niches through organic and external growth.
Ludovic Dumont, CEO & Founder of FMA Assurances declares: "We are very excited to start this new stage of development alongside 21 Invest France, Stéphane Perriquet and his team. We will rely on their expertise in supporting growth companies in niche markets as well as their proven experience of market consolidation to achieve our ambitions. This operation was carried out with the support of EY's M & A Dept. (Jean-Louis Duverney-Guichard) "
Stéphane Perriquet, Managing Partner at 21 Invest comments: "FMA Assurances has managed to establish itself as a key player in its market. Its robust organization, high innovation capacity and operational excellence give us all the keys to structure a new growth phase alongside the management team"
DL Software expands business towards new industry
DL Software expands business towards new industry with the acquisition of Egide Informatique, software publisher for Real estate professionals
SIFI to acquire a pharmaceutical product portfolio in France
SIFI, the Italian leader in ophthalmology, has acquired Dacudoses and Novoptine, leading ophthalmic antiseptic brands in France
21 Invest France completes its management transition
Announced in 2017, the new governance is now effective and François Barbier becomes CEO of 21 Invest France, succeeding Gérard Pluvinet who joins the Supervisory Board. Meanwhile, the team has signed four acquisitions for its new Fund, which now counts five investments in total.
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The mirror stands in the middle of the room, facing away from the windows, so that the light falls on the observer and not the glass. The man before the mirror is dressed in ruffled scarlet embroidered with gold thread. His dark hair falls over his shoulders in extravagant curls. He has a high-bridged nose, a well-shaped mouth, and eyes with an almost oriental slant. He exudes an aura of regal power, even as he gazes at himself.
Behind him is a man some 20 years older, dressed in black, the only concession to finery being the lace collar of his shirt. His hair is dark, his eyes watchful, his forehead habitually frowning as if calculating figures, his mouth in contrast sensitive, almost feminine. He is the most powerful man in France after the King. He is the King's Controller of Finances. The duty of the most powerful man is to attend on the King, while at the same time running the country. The attending takes up more time than he likes to think about, and means interpreting the King's mood as well as his plans. There are days when the King is unusually quick to anger and on these days, the all powerful Colbert is apt to develop a nervous tic to the eyelid.
This is not one of those days, for Louis is pleased with what he sees. He examines his handsome face in the mirror, staring deep into the shining black of his irises, and stretches out his hand to touch the glass. He can see the newly shaved indentations of his skin, each hair of the delicate moustache that echoes the arch of his brows. He smiles at the reflection of Colbert behind him.
He runs a finger around the reflected outline of his mouth. Imagine, he says to his image, imagine a whole wall of these mirrors, no, a hall, a hall of mirrors, reflecting the beauty around them. Imagine five hundred people reflected into thousands, the mirrors facing each other, so your image is visible on all sides. Mirrors reflecting your expression even when you're not looking at them. You will be able to catch them unawares, and read their thoughts when they think they are unobserved. Imagine my court surrounded by mirrors. Not one of them will be able to dissemble, their images will betray them. I see that Colbert is frowning. He is thinking of money.
"How much did it cost?" he asks.
The dark eyes reflect a fathomless blackness, the anger that lies in the depths of the King like an underground lake. There is nothing to be done when it begins to rise to the surface, but to agree to the royal will.
The two men turn from the mirror and leave the room. The mirror continues to reflect the space they had filled, images of baroque carving, of hunting tapestries. Insentient, yet all seeing.
There is a click of high-heeled shoes on the marble floor, and a new image enters the mirror's unconscious eye. It is that of a woman, dressed in embroidered blue silk, a silver edged lace fichu at her neck. At a distance, she stops and stares at the mirror, then slowly, as if by magnetic force, she is drawn towards it, until she stands before it, unmoving, locked in her own image. She gazes at herself, taking in the clear skin, the intense blue of the eyes, the chestnut curls of her elaborately dressed hair. She has never seen herself in such detail. Why, I really am beautiful, she murmurs, and then the thought flickers through her mind, How frightening this mirror will be one day. But in the meantime, the image is perfect, and Athenais continues to look at the glass, smiling.


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Do you need Bright Beer? A standard cask comes 'on-the-yeast' meaning it will need to be sat for 36 hours to let any sediment and yeast settle, to the bottom of the cask, to give you a clear beer. Bright beer has already settled in our cellar and the clear beer has then been decanted into a fresh cask, leaving any sediment behind. This means it can be tapped & drunk immediately, without needing to settle.


The Mesa Luna was a Vancouver venue that closed a number of years ago, and perhaps that's why the new Vancouver-based band Mesa Luna have opted to call their first single "Shutting Down."
The song, which is a gradually building, darkly minimal electronic pop number, is available on a 7-inch through Kingfisher Bluez. It comes backed with "Get Going," which is slightly sunnier and sports an inventive electro-acoustic arrangement.
The vinyl is available in a run of 300. The records will ship on or around February 15 and can be purchased on Bandcamp; the songs are available digitally in the meantime.


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Gallaway, TN
Best Libraries around Gallaway, TN
Arbyrd Branch Library
100A North Douglas Avenue
Arbyrd, MO
B. J. Chain Public Library (Olive Branch)
6619 Highway 305 North (Cockrum)
Olive Branch, MS
Hours Monday to Thursday 10:00-8:00 Friday 10:00-6:00 Saturday 10:00-5:00 Sunday 2:00-5:00
About us: The Bartlett Branch Library is one of the busiest in the county. We serve a population of over forty thousand people. Thousands of stud...
Gallaway Top Searches
Batesville Public Library
206 Highway 51 North
Batesville, MS
About us: Batesville Public Library is Located approximately 25 miles west of Oxford, MS (home of the University of Mississippi). From I-55, take ...
Bernie Public Library
111 North Allen Street
Bernie, MO
Welcome to the Bernie Public Library. The Bernie Library provides the citizens of Bernie with access to the most current books, magazines, vi...
Blackmur Memorial Library
608 Blackmur Drive
Water Valley, MS
About Us Blackmur Memorial Library, located in Water Valley, is one of only two independent libraries in the state of Mississippi. It operates und...
Blytheville Public Library
200 North Fifth Street
Blytheville, AR
HOURS Sunday - 1:00 - 4:00 Monday - 9:00 - 8:00 Tuesday - 9:00 - 5:00 Wednesday - 9:00 - 5:00 Thursday - 9:00 - 5:00 Friday - 9:00 - 5:00 Sa...
Bolivar-Hardeman Library
213 North Washington Street
Bolivar, TN
The mission of the Bolivar-Hardeman County Library is to serve the city and county as a resource center by providing resources and materials which ...
Bond Memorial Library
Ashland, MS
Hours: Monday to Friday: 9:00am-5:00pm
C. E. Weldon Public Library
Martin, TN
Founded in 1925 as the Woman's Club Library, the library was housed in a room at the Martin Elementary School and was open one afternoon a we...
Campbell Branch Library
404 West Grand
Campbell, MO
Library Hours 1:00 - 5:00 Monday through Friday
Caraway Public Library
102 East State Street
Caraway, AR
Cardwell Branch Library
Cardwell, MO
Library Hours: Monday 12:00 - 5:00Tuesday 9:00 - 2:00Wednesday 12:00 - 5:00Thursday 12:00 - 5:00Friday 1:00 - 5:00
Caruthersville Public Library
Caruthersville, MO
Charleston Public Library
Charleston, MS
Clarkton Branch Library
Clarkton, MO
Cordova Branch Library
8457 Trinity Road
Cornelia Crenshaw Branch Library
531 Vance Avenue
About Us The Cornelia Crenshaw Branch Library is located on Vance Avenue next door to the King of Discount Food Mart which is at the intersectio...
Corning Public Library
Corning, AR
Hours Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 8:30 - 5:30 pm Wednesday: 8:30 - 5:00 pm Friday: 8:30 - 4:00 pm Saturday: 9:00 - 1:00 pm Sunday: Closed
Cossitt Branch Library
33 South Front Street
About Us Cossitt Branch Library began its existence in 1888 as the Cossitt-Goodwyn Institute, the first public library in the fledgling city of Me...
More on Gallaway, TN


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May 13, 2017, 07:02AM
Today's Truest Dystopian Novel
Forget 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale, read Ready Player One.
Since Donald Trump was elected president, there has been a renewed interest in the dystopian novel. George Orwell's 1984 has returned to the bestseller lists, accompanied by a parade of articles pondering the ways books like The Hunger Games or Fahrenheit 451 can apply to Trump's America, all of which continues aided and abetted by the Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale. Some comparisons fare better than others, but the mistake I persistently see is the hunt for direct parallels. But if there's any sort of dystopian fiction that most closely parallels our present, it's Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.
The story is essentially a high-tech treasure hunt. In the world of 2044, the center of human civilization is the OASIS, a hybrid of virtual reality, multi-player gaming, social media, and the Internet. When one of its creators, James Halliday, dies, he wills his vast fortune and empire to whoever can decipher his clues to reach the Easter egg hidden in the OASIS. It's so well-hidden, that five years pass before the first key to the egg is found by Wade Watts, an Oklahoma City teenager. Along the way, he and his friends must fight the corporate drones at IOI who are openly using the hunt as a hostile takeover.
Watts' "real world" life outside the OASIS is what I find so compelling. At the opening, he lives in a trailer park with his aunt, who's more interested in his government-issued food vouchers than his well-being. Like many of these stories, his teenaged parents died very young, and they're described as "refugees." The Great Recession never ended, and his parents' generation suffered the indignity of watching middle class prosperity vanish. His father was killed looting a grocery store, and his mother died of a drug overdose.
Describing Watts' home as a trailer park doesn't really do it justice. In the aftermath of an oil crash, "large cities had been flooded with refugees from surrounding suburban and rural areas, resulting in a massive urban housing shortage." To maximize space, trailers end up getting stacked on top of each other, held together with "haphazard metal latticework," into vertical shanty towns framing the boundaries of major cities. Watts lives in a top trailer, with his aunt, and her other tenants. It's reminiscent of what used to be the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, with its high crime, unlicensed businesses, and dank alleyways. Residents who work outside the stacks travel by shuttle bus. Due to the overcrowding, he's found a hideout in the sea of abandoned cars, where he can set up a makeshift connection to the OASIS, where he both attends school and hunts for Halliday's egg in private.
When Watts finds the first key that will lead him to the egg, he's accosted by the IOI honcho, Nolan Sorrento, one of contemporary literature's best villains. In an attempt to make Watts an offer he can't refuse, Sorrento wants to make him a company man—or else. Showing Watts the video surveillance IOI has on his aunt's trailer, Sorrento is unaware of the hideout. His homicidal threat is chilling in how true it seems: the stacks' shaky architecture already make them vulnerable to collapse; throw in a high crime rate that includes drug labs and domestic terror cells, especially around all those propane tanks, explosions aren't that unusual. If Sorrento blew up Watts' home, who will care? It's less trailer trash sponging off the system. Observing the destruction from his hideout, Watts concedes the underlying truth to Sorrento's words, and decides to take advantage of Sorrento believing him to be dead.
In Ready Player One, Columbus, OH is the center of the tech world, and home to the headquarters of both IOI and the company behind the OASIS. Making his way from Oklahoma City to Columbus by bullet-proof bus, he experiences the world beyond the stacks for the first time. In addition to the bullet-proofing on the outside, the driver works in a bullet-proof booth, and there are armed guards in the bus' upper deck because rural areas are now lawless badlands full of roving bandits. The journey takes several days because the highways are in such disrepair, in addition to stops at energy reloading stations. From his bus seat, Watts uses the OASIS to take on a false identity. With the financial endorsements he received for reaching the first key, he gets an apartment which he makes into a secure bunker for himself, creating a kind of self-sustaining life so he never has to venture out, and can devote his efforts to finding Halliday's egg and defeating IOI.
After winning the second key, Watts' new identity runs up enough debt to IOI to be taken in as an indentured worker, by force. In the novel's world, people who can't pay their debts no longer file for bankruptcy, they become pawns to the companies they're indebted to. Even sadder, some people are described as doing this on purpose for secure housing, healthcare, and food. Watts does this to spy on the company and Sorrento. Again, the snapshot of life in Columbus that Watts observes as he's being transported is chilling: parks converted into refugee camps, with tents and cardboard homes lining the streets. People in their virtual reality gear make random gestures around wireless hubs. The indentured servants can never pay their way out, of course, so Watts' escape does make for a fun adventure.
When Watts wins the egg, he meets with an exclusive virtual reality version of Halliday that tells him not to repeat his own mistake—hiding from the real world in the virtual world. In the backstory behind the creation of the OASIS, the other creator, Ogden Morrow, leaves the company, with regret over the monster he'd created. He says human civilization is dying of neglect because of humanity's addiction to the pleasure palace the OASIS provides.
By setting the book in smaller cities like Oklahoma City and Columbus, Cline is able to use the decline rural America is already facing to make the story plausible. A lot of Americans are still dealing with the fallout from the Great Recession. An energy crisis seems inevitable, as do food shortages. In looking at the continuing water crisis in Flint, MI, any hope of competence to protect the most basic of resources is gone. Student loans are destroying the financial futures of young people, so the prospect of bank deregulation taking a turn for indentured servitude doesn't strike me as far-fetched. People are already committing crimes for the healthcare jail provides. The epidemics of obesity and opioids have crossed a threshold where the life expectancy of white, rural Americans has shown a slight decline.
Ready Player One reminds me of Fahrenheit 451, in that their dystopian societies emerge from a gradual decline. Ray Bradbury said, "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." It's not a coincidence that OASIS is saved by a kid who takes delight in the fact that it's home to the world's largest library. The resources exist to stave off decline, but the most underutilized one is knowledge.
You Mine For Clues
That's Called Entitlement
The Master's Finest Work
Stained Glass Eyes
Saturday Night Live Hates Poor People
A Portrait For a Secret


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You are here: Home / Featured / First, do no harm: Morning File, Friday, July 10, 2015
First, do no harm: Morning File, Friday, July 10, 2015
July 10, 2015 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments
1. Harm reduction
Louis Armstrong, smoking pot.
The debate over the use of drug-testing kits at the Evolve Festival underscores the hypocrisy of the war on drugs. People have always used drugs, and no manner of prohibition or police action will stop them doing so. And drug use has always been connected to artistic endeavours, and especially so to the music scene. From the jazz clubs of the 1920s to the hippy concerts of the 1960s to the indie festivals of today, the drug of choice may change, but the fact of drug-taking remains constant.
To be sure, some of that drug use has led to tremendous personal tragedy; there's no denying that some small percentage of people who go to music festivals and the like fall into life problems because of drugs.
But for a hundred years we've tried to address the harm that comes from drug use with prohibition, and that inevitably brought with it racism, discriminatory justice systems, out of control police, and invasions of civil liberties.
It's time to try a different approach.
2. Income assistance
"Income assistance has been frozen in the province for two years now, which demonstrators who gathered in the north-end Halifax neighbourhood argued has left many across the province struggling to pay rent, access healthy food and receive training to help find jobs," reports Metro's Heide Pearson.
3. Rainmen
The Rainmen. Photo: Kristen Lipscombe / Metro
Bankruptcy filings show that the Rainmen owe creditors nearly $700,000, reports the Chronicle Herald:
[Team owner Andre] Levingston listed assets of just $1,002, including $1 for team merchandise and clothing, which originally cost $7,000, and $1,000 for furniture such as computers, TVs, desks and chairs, which originally cost $10,000.
The "intangible asset" of the Rainmen team name is listed at $1.
4. Shark
John Emberly, a surfer, was at Martinique Beach yesterday when he saw a big shark:
"It was huge. It was almost surreal, it was like I was watching a movie. It was big, it was really big and I really wasn't far away from it," he said.
"This was definitely a shark. It was a very triangular fin, it was a really big fin, it was insane how big it was. I couldn't believe how big it was."
He estimates the dorsal fin was about the size of a large pizza box, and he thinks it belonged to possibly a three-metre long shark.
Amberley shot a video of the creature.
5. Bullshitter of the day
Acadian Affairs Minister Michel Samson
"Acadian Flag Licence Plates Promote Vibrant Culture" reads a press release from the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. "I want to thank all of the organizers and volunteers and wish them success as they celebrate and promote Nova Scotia's vibrant Acadian culture," said Acadian Affairs Minister Michel Samson in the release.
The French word for "vibrant" is "connerie."
Meanwhile, Service Nova Scotia confirms that licence plates it has issued are defective, with the paint peeling off.
1. Mother Canada™
Mother Canada™
The Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation, the registered charity behind the Mother Canada™ proposal, has no money, reports Paul McLeod:
[A]ccording to filings with the Canada Revenue Agency, as of the end of last year the foundation had only $6,000 in the bank. It also had $30,000 in accounts receivable against $396,000 in accounts payable and accrued liabilities.
This raises the obvious question: "Who The Hell Is Going To Pay For The Mother Canada Statue?":
The Never Forgotten Memorial Foundation is promising to raise the costs of Mother Canada from private donations. The group told BuzzFeed Canada it expects the project to cost $25 million. Earlier estimates range from $25 to $60 million.
One concern raised by opponents of the monstrosity is that the Never Forgotten Foundation will start construction on the complex but not have the money to continue. But because the monument is on public land, the federal government will have to step in to finance completion of it.
Meanwhile, Tina Loo, a historian at the University of British Columbia, puts the Mother Canada™ proposal in the context of economic development of Cape Breton:
If businessman Tony Trigiani, the President of the NFNMF, were proposing a monument to pacifists or a fish farm in the park, he likely would have the support of local people who need jobs.
As Loo points out, the Cape Breton economy has been reeling since the closure of the coal mines:
More than fifty years ago, another Conservative Prime Minister — John Diefenbaker — pledged what at the time were vast sums of public money to his own pet history project, also on Cape Breton; the restoration of Fortress Louisbourg. Dief had already taken an interest in the site when Ivan Rand's Royal Commission on Coal provided him with the opportunity to frame its restoration as regional development. Concluding that there was little future for the coal industry on the island, Rand argued in 1960 that its economy had to diversify: prosperity would only come by capitalizing on its "natural and historical endowment"; specifically by building a highway and "reconstruct[ing]…the Fortress of Louisbourg."
Ten months later, in June 1961, Diefenbaker stood up in the House and committed his government to the restoration as a way of "providing alternative employment for the persons affected by the closing of certain mines in Cape Breton." The next year, Cabinet agreed to expend $12 million over twelve years to restore the fortress, making it the heritage mega project of its time, the largest initiative undertaken by the National Parks Branch. The partially restored fortress would become the jewel of the National Historic Sites division, what Banff was to the national park system. Like some of the national parks, unemployed men were put to work — albeit voluntarily — at the fortress. In all, some 225 coalminers were retrained as stonemasons, bricklayers, and carpenters. Others worked as labourers on the site. After the restoration was completed, many miners were able to take their new skills to other jobs.
Loo goes on to chronicle the federal government's unapologetically interventionist strategies for dealing with the struggling Cape Breton economy, through ARDA (the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act), FRED (the Fund for Rural Economic Development), and DREE (dedicated regional economic expansion), among others.
In retrospect, some of the ideas for saving Cape Breton seem kind of silly:
As Will Langford argues, with the winding down of coal operations, in 1975 the Cape Breton Development Company (DEVCO), a crown corporation charged with improving employment opportunities on the island, imported sheep — and not just any sheep, but sheep from Scotland. As lamb, they would be marketed to affluent urban foodies; but before they were mobilized as meat, the immigrant animals were meant to serve as visual reminders of the idyllic, rural, and folkloric Nova Scotia, part of the continuing tartanization of the province.
But the point, continues Loo, was that the federal government, and Canadians generally, were committed to reducing poverty by directly investing in regional development. She concludes:
With the rise of neo-liberalism, that commitment to region and place has shrunk along with the state. In 2012, the Conservative government made deep cuts to Parks Canada, ones that hit the Atlantic region hardest, including the Fortress Louisbourg site and Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Those cuts eliminated important jobs in the broader tourism sector…
Given this, we should be outraged about the $100,000 the feds gave to the NFNMF through Parks Canada – not just because it compromised the government consultation process, but because it represents the extent of our retreat from a vision of Canada as a particular kind of political community, a more generous one in which our commitment to social and spatial justice – to meeting the needs of strangers – is achieved through an interventionist state.
As important, entertaining, and fun as the debates over the "giga-kitsch" of "Mommy Canada" are, we can't let them divert us completely from thinking and talking seriously about our collective commitment to region.
Photo and original by Stephen Archibald
"A few years ago we realized that the garlic in grocery stores at that moment was grown in China," writes Stephen Archibald. "This was also the time when we were seeing amazing photos by Edward Burtynsky of Chinese industrial sites. We purchased things made in China but the idea of eating food that grew in Chinese soil felt really dodgy. At that time it was hard to find local garlic growers so we started growing our own. And discovered scapes."
3. Boonamoogwaddy
Lezlie Lowe addresses the Dartmouth separatists.
4. Cranky letter of the day
To the Chronicle Herald:
In reference to Tuesday's letter about poor local berries, I have to say that in Shelburne our strawberries, which are grown locally by Jackson Lore and sold in local stores including Sobeys, are absolutely delicious. Excellent taste and flavour; I am on my 4th box. Will keep buying them until they are gone.
Kathy Spencer, Shelburne
Happy birthday MacKay Bridge! Photo: wikipedia
On this date in 1970 the MacKay Bridge opened. Forty-five years later, we're still calling it the "new bridge," and I doubt that will change even after the Macdonald Bridge is completely rebuilt over the next year and a half.
This week, I've been chronicling Timothy Gillespie's reporting on the proposed "Redneck competition" at the Founders' Days celebration in Shelburne.
Shelburne was created at Port Roseway in 1783 and1784, when Loyalists fleeing the newly formed United States arrived. By 1784 it had a population of 17,000 and was the fourth largest city in North America.
From the start, the Loyalist migration was segregated: Shelburne for white Loyalists and next-door Birchtown for Black Loyalists. Those who wished to break through the colour barrier were attacked, explains the Canadian Encyclopedia:
[I]t didn't take long for racial animosity to arise. Tensions reached a breaking point in Shelburne on 26 July 1784 when a group of about 40 white Loyalists demolished the home of Baptist preacher David George. George had chosen to establish his church in Shelburne rather than Birchtown, and had challenged the established racial hierarchy by baptizing white Loyalists. The mob also tore down the houses of about 20 other free Blacks living on George's property.
Despite threats, George continued to preach from his church in Shelburne. The mob returned, beating the pastor with sticks and chasing him into a swamp. The riot spread. Disgruntled white settlers seized the opportunity to lash out. There are few firsthand accounts of the ensuing days, but a merchant in nearby Liverpool recorded hearing that "Some thousands of people assembled with clubs and drove the Negroes out of town."
While Black Loyalists were the primary targets, rioters also attacked white settlers that were believed to be colluding with the incompetent British authorities. Surveyor Benjamin Marston fled to the army barracks, where his remaining friends convinced him to slip away on a boat to Halifax.
Shelburne County's Black Loyalists had no such refuge. Rioting continued for at least 10 days, and incursions into Birchtown were reported for up to one month. Four companies of the 17th Regiment were dispatched to maintain order in the weeks following the riot. Governor John Parr visited Shelburne on 23 August. Marston, despised by Shelburne's white Loyalists, provided a convenient scapegoat and was subsequently fired. Evidently concerned that violence might reemerge, Parr also dispatched a naval frigate to support the 17th Regiment. Only one individual was charged in connection with the riot.
The Shelburne riots are considered the first race riots in North America. And here we are 231 years later, when race issues are still exploding on front pages across North America, and Shelburne is thinking about having a redneck competition for Founders Day — the very same founders of Shelburne who attacked the Blacks among them. That's either a staggering lack of self-awareness, or purposeful racist provocation. As the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Birchtown was opened just last month with much fanfare, I'm putting my money on the "purposeful racist provocation" explanation.
"Deputy mayor [Elizabeth] Rhuland said she had not been aware of the event last year, but that the 'redneck' identity was merely a matter of lifestyle. 'We need to be careful about not being prejudiced against a lifestyle, she told the [Town Council's Anti-discrimination and Racism Committee]," reported Gillespie.
The old "lifestyle" or "tradition" dodge.
We see the same lame arguments trotted out in defence of the Confederate flag. Take, for example, this photo, taken yesterday by reader Lynn Jones, of a truck with a Nova Scotia licence plate driving around Truro:
Photo: Lynn Jones
The owner of the truck makes explicit connection between "redneck" and the Confederate flag: "Jack it up, tear it up, live it loud, redneck proud," it reads. Which is correct — "redneck" identity is intertwined with the Confederate flag and southern "tradition."
But the "Heritage not Hate" thing is utter bullshit. The Confederate flag is all about hate. Always has been, always will be.
While Shelburnites should know the history of their own town, it's perhaps understandable that Canadians generally don't know the history of the American south. So let's quickly run through exactly what "tradition" the Confederate flag represents.
First of course is slavery. And anyone who tells you the US Civil War was about something other than slavery is obfuscating. Sure, economic issues, inflation, whatever, but at the very heart of the southern economy was slavery. Take away slavery, you have no southern economy, and the economy was the foundation of the culture.
There were a couple of years after the Civil War when the victorious north imposed "reconstruction" — a short period when Black people could and did vote and elect Black men to state legislatures and the federal Congress. The southern white response to this was terrorism — the Ku Klux Klan was created specifically to terrorize Black people from being full citizens. At the same time, southern governments instituted Jim Crow, a series of racist laws that effectively made it impossible for Black people to vote, created a two-tier system of public facilities — white and Black schools, white and Black hospitals, etc — with the Black facilities woefully inadequate and underfunded, and complete segregation of all businesses, restaurants, trains, etc. Once the north lost interest in the cause, Jim Crow worked; although Black people would continue to challenge the system and assert their rights at great personal risk, no Black politicians were elected in the south for a hundred years.
Alongside Jim Crow was the continued terrorism of the KKK and lynching. The Equal Justice Initiative has documented 3,959 lynchings in 12 southern states between 1877 and 1950 — and presents the data in this graphic:
The Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s, and was resisted by many white southerners at every turn. The state of Virginia where I grew up (among other states) closed its schools rather than allow Black children sit next to white children in the classroom.
Violence against Black people was a staple throughout the Civil Rights era — church bombings, activists murdered, firehoses turned on protesters.
In the wake of the Civil Rights movement, "redneck" culture reflected the culture of resentment, a rebellion against modernity and the recognition of Black people as full and equal citizens.
I grew up in the American south in the 1960s and 1970s. Let me tell you: southerners know exactly what the Confederate flag stands for: the "heritage" of hating Black people. The kids in my childhood neighbourhood spoke about it honestly and directly, as kids do before they learn to speak in code in public. The parents who flew Confederate flags were the same parents who used the n-word, said "Blacks were better off under slavery," and otherwise found any excuse to belittle Black people.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a rebranding of redneckism, the introduction of code words and the absurd argument that the Confederate flag represented a "tradition" completely disconnected from the defining element of the south: that racism was and is at the core of its very being.
There is perhaps no better example of the rebranding of southern racism and the use of code words than Ronald Reagan's 1980 "states rights" speech at Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where the KKK murdered three civil rights workers in 1964. Reagan's speech was a direct appeal to racism — the "states rights" doctrine had long justified the federal government's inaction and non-interference during Jim Crow.
The Dukes of Hazzard TV show ran from 1979 to 1985. In the show, two ol' boys were seen as just a couple of fun loving guys doofusly making their way in the world. Their car was named the General Lee, but so far as I can remember, never was the racism of the actual General Lee ever discussed. By 1985, "redneck chic" was a thing.
The rebranding of southern racism as goofy, innocent fun worked. Around 1990 I was living in California and had a girlfriend, an otherwise intelligent woman from Indiana, who gave me a bandana with a Confederate flag on it, "because you're such a rebel." I had a long conversation with my girlfriend, explaining how the Confederate flag had been transformed into meaningless rebellion without a cause and treason without context, utterly disassociated from the violence against Black people at its essence.
The rebranding of redneck culture and code words aside, southerners know perfectly well what's going on. Dylann Roof, the man arrested and charged with the cold-blooded murder of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, used the very same symbolism — the Confederate flag, a church shooting — that had long characterized white violence towards Black people.
Moreover, the language of Roof's manifesto is to this day the everyday language of many white people in the south, and especially the language of those who call themselves "rednecks."
The Confederate flag is beyond offensive. It is a symbol of slavery, of lynching, of race hatred — period. And "redneck" culture embraces it, fully and consciously.
The good people of Shelburne, the people who reject the racism of some of its founders, need to intervene and put a stop to this display of ugly race hatred. Why not embrace the other side of the history of Shelburne, those whites and Blacks who tried to live and worship together, but were attacked for it?
(direct link to this section)
The internet at my undisclosed location in the woods is moving at a snail's pace this morning, making it impossible to get the ship info in in a timely manner.
Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Morning File
WayeMason says
"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us." This is a speech given by CSA VP Stephens of the CSA about 90 days after the CSA was set up. There can be NO doubt as to what the primary cause of the Civil War was about, and what the flag stood for, and stands for.
'direct link to this section' – thanks! This makes me much more likely to share (and I did) because I think it's too hard to explain to people how to find the part I'm telling them about, and I think people won't make all that effort.
Tim Bousquet says
Each main section– News, commentary, government, Noticed, On the harbour, and footnotes — is linkable with the navigation at the top of the post. I'm working on getting each subhead to be a link as well, but that's taking some time.
paulvienneau says
Word is, it was a sunfish, a big ol floppy one-eye-to-a-sided fishy thing(in my defence I take pictures, not oceanography or biology).
Which is great, because I want to go back there to surf Martinique again, and with my lack of grace out of my wheelchair and in my wetsuit, I would be easy lunch for old Chompy, out there.
Halifax Rainman: US carpetbagger declares bankruptcy | Friendship First, Competition Second – An Amateur Sport Website says:
[…] From the Halifax Examiner. Morning File, Friday, July 10, 2015 […]


text:
Q: How to prove this series converges ? I have this series
$\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\:\left(\sqrt[n]{n}-1\right)^n$
Im having truoble to prove that this converges,
I've tryind to use the ratio test but it didnt seem to get me to something that will be easy enough to calculate the limit.
any advices ?

A: Root Test! We have
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}((\sqrt[n]{n}-1)^n)^{1/n}=\lim_{n\to\infty}(\sqrt[n]{n}-1)=0.$$
Another way: After a while, $0\lt \sqrt[n]{n}-1\le \frac{1}{2}$. Now do a comparison with the convergent geometric series $\sum \frac{1}{2^n}$.

A: Write $n$ as:
$$ n=\prod_{k=1}^{n-1}\frac{k+1}{k}=1\cdot\prod_{k=1}^{n-1}\left(1+\frac{1}{k}\right) $$
and apply the AM-GM inequality:
$$ \sqrt[n]{n} \leq 1+\frac{H_{n-1}}{n}. $$
The last inequality trivially implies that your series is convergent.

A: Apply the $\;n\,-$ th root test directly (you can as your series is non-negative):
$$\sqrt[n]{\left(\sqrt[n]n-1\right)^n}=\sqrt[n]n-1\xrightarrow[n\to\infty]{}0<1$$
so your series converges

A: Let $q \in (0,1)$. Since
$$\lim_{n \to \infty} \sqrt[n]{n} = 1$$
It follows that there exists $N \in \mathbb{N}$ such that for all $n \geq N$ we have
$$|\sqrt[n]{n} - 1| \leq q$$
Hence
$$\sum_{n=N}^\infty (\sqrt[n]{n} - 1)^n \leq \sum_{n=N}^\infty q^n < \infty$$
Convergence follows since the whole sum can now be evaluated to be smaller than some finite terms plus a  convergent sum.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This is the one main feature that is preventing my organization from using Teams. We NEED the ability to manage individual channel permissions and invite members outside of the team into specific channels.
This is a must have. We've created project channels within my team, and we absolutely need the ability to invite non-team members to specific channels within the team to collaborate on that project. We are trying not to create separate teams for every single project.


text:
5. The whole thing suddenly fell apart
2. An autograph before you go
3. A new kind of game show
4. A rising exasperation with the quantity of dirt
6. Synthetic propensity
7. It was destined to be an anti-climax
8. This is your show now
9. The awesome scale of our wastefulness
10. Hands up those who couldn't care less
11. Together We'll Be Ok
12. Decide the shape of ITV in the 1980s
13. Alan is too commercial
14. It worked like a dream
15. Older men, doing school boy tricks
16. Killing the Golden Goose
17. People love us to be sexy
18. The manure is worth more than the cattle
19. They were big in the States and we noted that
20. I'm still aggressive and I'm still handing out the insults
21. A new style of lunatic humour
22. The Habitat-bean-bag-hessian-wallpaper brigade
23. Thoroughly sinful
24. All carrots should be scraped, sliced and cooked
25. Back then it was radical stuff
26. Whatever they do, we can do it better
27. You'll have to take us as you find us
28. Entertainment that keeps on the move
29. It's the public that has to pay
30. The last we saw of either of them was their sad faces
31. Just shoot the bastard
32. Britain could clearly be facing its darkest hour
33.	Any enthusiasm we may have had for continuing discussions is waning
34.	It was considered by LWT and then put in a bottom drawer
35.	Watch the redoubtable Terry take off
36. I thought it might be terrible and I wouldn't enjoy it at all
37. Kamikaze Mastermind
38. We haven't moved into luxury
39. We are investing in people
40. Delivered impeccably
41. He has to allow you to do your bit
42. All the anticipation of the great emotive point
43. If you want Russ Abbot to do it, then you have to accept me and my ideas
44. Let's get straight into this
45. Unedifying Greed
46. We've got the fucking lot!
47. Scope for humour and danger
48. Pure Megablast
49. There's lots of killing, but not much else
50. I wanted to make sure it was going to be disastrous
51. Oh dear – Auntie's playing bingo!
52. A Shrivelled Little Thing
53. I shouldn't have accepted it
54. We would be the spoilsports
55. The Most Sexless Person In Television
56. They'd have strung me up if I hadn't chosen him
57. Is there some way to play with the internal constituent parts?
58. The most important entertainment programme of my time
59. The plumply pretty female duo
60. The audience just sort of started to freeze on him
61. More pilots than British Airways
62. There's going to come a time when you'll have to go to the BBC
63. A slightly pretentious manifesto
64. Things Look Very Precarious
65. It's no good doing all the same old people all the time
66. That's just not funny Bobby, it's corny - just don't do that
67. Well bottom's not funny
68. We Are The Funnymen
69. The powers that be listened to Denis
70. Stretchers never go up stairs
71. I was in obscurity until this series
72. I don't care if he doesn't like me
73. There's such a passion for nostalgia right now
74. I Heard A Seat In The Stalls Go 'Gerdonk!'
75. This is your show, folks, and I do mean you
76. There's good news for perplexed fans of 3-2-1!
77. Taking on Blind Date would be a real challenge
78. You wanna bet on it?
79.	The yarns worked their tried and tested magic
80. The Charge-And-Shout Brigade
81. I sat for a moment in silence, then turned in my chair and left the stage
82. We just weren't allowed into UK terrestrial television
83. Beadle's A Prick
84. The interviewer always has to know when it's best to keep his or her mouth shut
85. Can you come up with a good solution for the Murder Weekend mystery?
86. He's not a goody- goody hero
87. The Sexism, The Dolly Birds, The Catchphrases
88. The feel of Saturday night
89. 1990 Who would employ an ex-alky with lowered self-esteem
90. It were a right smack in the face
91. Look Straight Into My Eyes And Everything Will Be Alright, That's A Promise
92. That's the last thing I was expecting, Jim
93. The characters and situations are real
94. Oh Man, There Go All My Women Fans
95. A Double Order of Talent
96. If there is an air of spontaneity about it, it'll be genuine
97. NTV brings you ... empty rooms!
98. You're BBC, you shouldn't be here
99. If this doesn't work out, we're both snookered!
100. The humour of Beadle comes through humiliating people!
101. To allow such bilge on TV is an insult to the audience
102. Like a cup of cold sick
103. A litre of gin, ecstasy and crack cocaine
104. A reliable tent pole for Saturday evenings
105. It is in the cutlery drawer
106. Welcome to the new Saturday night
107. Congratulations, you have got the fucking Gen Game
108. The programme has done extremely badly and will be dropped after this series
109. Building the excitement and tension to a crescendo
110. He gives us our spirit of unity; we'd all like to strangle him
111. The worst programme currently on terrestrial television
LWT's output in those early days was as varied as any other ITV station, however the combination of, as David Docherty in his book Running the Show: 21 Years of London Weekend Television puts it, "Brecht, Britten (and) some uninspired situation comedies and uninteresting variety programmes," along with a number of high-profile live programmes that fell victim to strike action meant that ratings started catastrophically low, and remained that way. On 9 September 1968 (just 18 days into the life of LWT), ATV's Lew Grade chaired a network programme meeting that was highly critical of the fledgling channel.
Held on a regular basis, these get togethers were designed to allow the heads of the respective ITV regional franchises the opportunity to meet up and co-ordinate their activities, collectively shoring up weak points in each other's schedules and determining the most appropriate tactics to ensure ratings dominance for ITV. In reality, they were often an opportunity for the old guard (those who had held franchises prior to 1967) to gang up against the brash usurpers. Grade brought enormous pressure on Michael Peacock and Cyril Bennett to dramatically alter their schedules.
As the meeting progressed, it was clear that, on this issue, ITV was split, but by no means down the middle. Granada remained the only company willing to remain supportive of LWT. All of the others expressed a lack of confidence in the station's output and refused to schedule any LWT programmes in peak-time. Grade enflamed the situation by citing the BBC's audience share for August as 61 percent (in actual fact, the official figures showed that the corporation had only attained 52 percent), and then capped it all by proclaiming "I got where I am by knowing what I hate, and I know I hate David Frost."
It was "what the Sunday Times called a 'Palladium counter-attack'" recalls David Frost, "Cyril Bennett and Michael Peacock were unable to hold the line. Frost on Saturday was moved from 6.45pm to 10.55pm. Michael Parkinson's Sports Arena was transferred from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon at 2.30, and Southern, Westward and ATV refused to have the Sunday play or the Saturday Frost at all."
These initial changes were still not enough and the remainder of the year saw a string of scheduling mix-ups. The Franchise Trail – a satire based on LWT's turbulent birth was deemed by Peacock to be too close to the bone for broadcast during the ACTT strike and found itself persistently scheduled, cancelled and then re-scheduled. Such "censorship" flew in the face of LWT's claims of being an innovative broadcaster. Matters weren't helped when the production company actually began distributing pirate copies of the drama on videotape. Similarly, a play containing critical comments of former Labour foreign security, George Brown's drinking habits was withdrawn by Peacock and Bennett after the ITA demanded cuts. Finally, LWT's costly "Avengers-beating" action series – The Inquisitors was scrapped prior to any episodes being broadcast because, according to Running The Show, it was just plain "terrible".
LWT stumbled into 1969 in a fragile state. Michael Peacock's relationship with the board of directors was becoming symbolic of the company's perilous situation. Peacock remained convinced he and his colleagues should be left to get on with the business of making television unimpeded by a bunch of money men. The board, in turn was growing concerned that Peacock and his team were ignoring the primary function of any enterprise – to make money for the investors. It is not an uncommon tactic in business to foster team spirit and build up loyalty within a group of people by positioning another part of the same organisation as a threat to the team's ideals and existence. This is a powerful mechanism, but one that can become self-defeating; particularly when the group identified as the "enemy" hold ultimate control.
Such a tactic worked for Peacock only while his team of creators believed they were producing programmes of artistic merit. The bind for Peacock and Bennett was that even though they did not agree with the board's view, they could not fail to concede that it was their duty to produce programmes that would attract high ratings; and so far they had not done this. They would have to compromise their artistic aspirations, and in the process risk fracturing the loyalty that had built up within their team.
The schedule for January 1969 was far more mainstream – a return to the kind of light entertainment variety diet that LWT had promised to stamp out. The Saturday evening line-up consisted of Leslie Crowther, followed by an imported drama, Ronnie Corbett, a feature film and a late night topical satire programme (made by Granada). While it was generally agreed that the Crowther vehicle was simply not good enough, Corbett still remembers his own programme – The Corbett Follies with fondness. "The idea," he recalls, "was that I would host the show looking very natty in a fancy dinner jacket or a wild silk suit and I would be fronting a lot of very tall, very beautiful girls … and I would do a few sketches and introduce young American artists, like Henry Youngman or Peter Nero". The series had been offered to Corbett as part of a deal he and partner Ronnie Barker had struck with David Frost's production company, Paradine Productions (Barker also got his own LWT show – The Ronnie Barker Playhouse). The duo had first worked with Frost on the BBC programme The Frost Report, and had followed their colleague across to LWT to appear on Frost On Sunday as well as their own programmes. Clearly they, like many others, had seen great opportunity within the fledgling station.
While The Corbett Follies was reasonable enough, and the Saturday line up as a whole unashamedly populist, there was still no significant increase in ratings, and – worse still – there was no let up of external factors negatively impacting LWT. A new ratings system was introduced, and its process of calculating viewers differed from previous measurements – to the disadvantage of ITV. "Furthermore," remembers Frost, "in February 1969 the companies began to announce their revenue figures on a monthly, rather than a quarterly, basis. This increased the agencies' tactical room from manoeuvre against the weaker stations in general, and therefore LWT in particular." It seemed to Peacock and Bennett that no matter what measures they were taking, nothing was working.
"Something has gone crucially wrong with our company," lamented Humphrey Barclay in a memo written in 1969 to Bennett. Disillusionment was ripe throughout the ranks of LWT's creative talent, with many appalled at the apparent disregard for the vision that had driven the company's formation. Bennett's response (delivered via a press conference on 3 July) was to assert that "the first duty of a commercial station is to survive". This was taken as an admission of a major downsizing in LWT's artistic ambition, and served only to disgruntle the "BBC3" contingent even more. In the middle of the rancour, Frank Muir pressed on oblivious of what was going on around him. "Everything now in LWT seemed to be going so well," he remarked of mid-1969. "My department had the usual complement of failures, but also some stunning successes, three of the shows ran for years and there were plenty more in the pipeline." Muir's life at LWT seemed to consist of visits to Russia, or Buckingham Palace, gentle reciprocal mickey-taking with his staff, and space and authority to make whatever programmes he wished. In retrospect, Muir's LWT experience, although contrary to everybody else, suggested the original LWT vision might have been sustainable after all.
Now partly based in New York, David Frost looked on with mounting frustration. He was aware to some degree of the problems back at LWT, and to him, Peacock was most at fault. "Michael's relationship with the board had become a dialogue for the deaf," he observed. "He regarded almost anything that the members of the board attempted to do … as unjustified interference. The board in their turn looked in vain for a sign that Michael and his management team had the skill and experience to respond to changing circumstances. As someone who had recruited many of the members of the board, I found this gulf particularly sad, and worse still totally avoidable."
"Then," recalls Muir, "the whole thing suddenly fell apart". In August The Sunday Times published a damning report, in which they compared the promises made by the new ITV franchise owners against what had actually been delivered. None of the new stations was considered to have fulfilled their obligations, but LWT was singled out for special criticism. How much of the report was fuelled by a desire to bring the station down a peg or two is difficult to determine; whatever the motive, the piece had a dramatic effect, precipitating the final downfall of the high-minded LWT that had been presented to the ITC back in 1967.
Michael Peacock grew ever more belligerent as his position became under siege. Not only was his relationship with the board and his staff now at an all-time low, he was disliked by many within the other ITV stations too. His continual attempts to have advertising revenue re-allocated (to the benefit of LWT) plus protestations at the poor scheduling of LWT programmes by the other regions and their unwillingness to schedule their top rated programmes on a Saturday night, meant that whenever LWT was mentioned at a Network Programme meeting, lengthy and bitter arguments would inevitably break out. To cap it all, the advertisers objected to Peacock's high-minded approach, commenting that he found the whole notion of advertising reprehensible.
Next: "Synthetic propensity"
Related Items:Cyril Bennett, David Frost, Frank Muir, Frontpage!, Humphrey Barclay, It's Saturday Night, Leslie Crowther, LWT, Michael Peacock, Ronnie Corbett, The Corbett Follies
Your Friday Night In… September 1991
TVC Trumps #38: Terrifying TV Titles