Rising Dawn

Sign from above for city club (From York Press)

A CHURCH has used the renaming of a refurbished York nightclub to put out its own message.

A poster outside St Edward’s Church on Tadcaster Road declares: “SALVATION… more than a nightclub.”

But the marketing people behind Club Salvation – formerly Nexus – in George Hudson Street reckon God moves in mysterious ways.

Following my earlier rant about Salvation - the club - placing a promotion outside The Salvation Army it’s good to see another York church getting in on the act. But it’s one of those eternal dilemmas. At what point are you just creating more promotion for the event you object to. Two sayings come to mind. Imitation is flattery and All publicity is good publicity. 

The fact still remains Salvation is not found in a Night Club.

Scotts butchers closes after 130 years From York Press

ONE of York’s oldest butchers has closed its doors for the final time, citing council red-tape and corporate customers’ debts for the decision.

Scott’s Butchers has been at its Low Petergate home for 130 years.

What sad news. This was The Place to buy good meat and pies. To my mind no one matched Scotts, but I have to confess I rarely bought anything there. I guess I contributed to its demise - in a very small way. It looks as though bad debts and poor access were largely to blame for the closure of the business.

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Speed up, life’s too short
Just as dieting makes you fat, time management courses make you inefficient.

An insight from Lucy Kellaway - a columnist in The FT - I have been known to take issue with her in the past. But this time I think she may be on to something - maybe.

Simon Jenkins: When it comes to kissing and telling, you cant beat this 15th-century gadget
I am baffled as to why this medium is still so derided by futurology gurus. My bulging file marked “death of the book” stretches back almost half a century. Alvin Toffler in 1962 declared in a book that the practice of smearing ink on dead trees was “the last smokestack industry” and would die. A decade ago, Geoffrey Nunberg, in The Future of the Book, declared that “if by books we mean bound printed volumes, then most books will likely disappear soon”. He wisely proffered no date.

I was listening to another series of comments inspired by Cherie Blair’s memoirs as I was reading The Guardian (electronically) and came across Simon Jenkyns column. I’m fascinated by the way our thoughts so often lead us to the medium rather than the message, and here again it’s the book that’s more interesting than the memoir.

Christians were once known as the people of the book, but in their case the message is far more dynamic than the medium. As someone said recently in his observation of Christians, before he became one himself. ”

Christians are these people who are so judgemental, incredibly dull and uptight and yet they believe in something that is so insane it makes Lord of the Rings sound like a dull episode of the Archers.

 If you want to hear the whole talk it was given by Charlie Mackesy at Holy Trinity Brompton recently. You’ll love his jokes!

New Technology is still a million miles away from displacing the book - even now the only advantage of reading on screen is the immediacy - otherwise old tech print wins hands down for me.

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Zimbabwe: ‘The devil came late today.’
This might not look like the average Mothers’ Union meeting as we know them in Britain, but in terms of peacefulness, good works, child-centredness and Christian goodness, the Mothers’ Union branch in Harare is no different from its UK counterparts. Having known more hardship, its members are probably even more good than the unsung English stalwarts who keep the churches here upright in every sense. There can be no true explanation then for why, shortly after this photograph was taken, this meeting was broken up by Zimbabwe riot police.

Evidence of pointless intimidation in Zimbabwe, and the resilience of The Mothers Union!

George Monbiot: The most potent weapon wielded by the empires of Murdoch and China | Comment is free | The Guardian
If you want to know how powerful Rupert Murdoch is, read the reviews of Bruce Dover’s book, Rupert’s Adventures in China. Well, go on, read them. You can’t find any? I rest my case.

As lucid and alarming as ever George Monbiot puts Murdoch in his sights and provokes an intelligent discussion on the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog.

The Times used to be the final authority in British Newspapers. No longer. I’d rather read The Telegraph. At least I know what it’s bias is. I have to work hard to discern which part of Murdoch’s empire The Times is championing on any one day, but I know it’ll be in there somewhere.

Do I have Sky? Yes, but only for the football. And if wanted to rant on I could whip up a good argument for the way pay TV has ruined the beautiful game too. 

The article may be long but it’s worth reading, including the comments from readers.

I am sick of hearing Labour Cabinet minister defending the abolition of the 10p tax band. It’s so pathetic they have lost all credibility. They have to hold their hands up and admit they’re robbing low paid single people of some of their income.

There’s no point in arguing how much better they all are since Labour came to power, or that they will sort it out sometime never. Just give them their money back. Take it out of my tax bill if it makes you feel better but stop being so stupid.

Just because people are single and low paid they aren’t stupid. Many of them are loving caring people like the staff who look after my son who has learning disabilities. They are low paid but they care. And at the moment Mr Darling, Ms Cooper, and the rest of you treasury wonks - you clearly don’t. 

Bishop Alan’s Blog: Bully pulpit — On baiting of the Clergy

An interesting piece about bullying in the church. There’s an article in the Church Times too. I can’t help but feel that we’re in sad times when congregations and clergy need protection from each other through guidelines and the threat of legal action. While these things raise awareness and positive action can be valuable in reducing incidents, legal action is never a route to resolution - just division, bitterness and even  retribution.

BBC NEWS | UK | Youngest inventor patents broom
A five-year-old boy is thought to be the UKs youngest person to patent an idea after inventing a labour-saving broom to help his father sweep leaves.
Sam Houghton, of Buxton, Derbyshire, was just three when he came up with a double-headed broom to collect large debris and fine dust simultaneously.
After passing the rigorous patenting process, his idea is now protected from anyone who might copy it.

I heard this story on 5Live this morning. The boy was apparently only 3 when he invented the broom.  Amazing. Then I heard that his father is an expert in patent law. At that point the story lost something. Am I just being cynical?

BBC NEWS | Radio 4 news hit by giggling fit

Hundreds of listeners have contacted BBC Radio 4 after newsreader Charlotte Green dissolved into giggles while reading a bulletin on Today.She lost control after playing a clip of the oldest known recording of the human voice.

Charlotte Green has my sympathy - as someone who used to read news bulletins I know the dreadful feeling when a fit of the giggles interrupts your normally sedate reading voice.

The one that I recall most vividly was when I was reading a piece of copy, “North Yorkshire dinner ladies were toasted for winning an employment tribunal case over equal pay”. My imagination played riot with the idea of toasted dinner ladies.