Query of U.K. 'catters

Subject: RT query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 10:13 AM

Richard Thompson's most recent release "Mock Tudor" contains a song called SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF LONDON TOWN which quite cleverly (IMO) depicts a seamy side of London that the Board of Tourism, or whatever the appropriate organisation is, probably doesn't want you to know about. Is there an advertising campaign over there that Thompson might be doing a parody of? The refrain at the end of every verse is "It's the sights and sound of London town, the sights and sounds of London town."

Just curious in the colonies,

Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: wildlone
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 01:13 PM

I can't think of any London tourist board links to this song but you only get to see the "good" parts in adverts.
I am sure we can all think of places nearby we would not like visitors to see.

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 01:34 PM

As an ex Londoner, we would quite often go into the city to see the "sights" and though there is not at the moment as far as I know an advertising campaign "Visit London and see the sights and sounds" has often been used.Often brits talk about going to see the "sights" Of course- the sights and sounds that Richard Thompson is singing about are not those that most visitors really wan't to see though they are real.viz Westminster council actively moving people out of it's area and into some other borough happened a lot. Still that 20 years of Tory rule! Though not a lot has happened since!!! PS his latest tour was excellent!!!!!!!! Eric

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 01:36 PM

Just take the walk from Camden Town Tube station, to the famous Cecil Sharp House, and you will definately see some sights of London Town that the tourist boards don't want you to.....

But then again, there is so much good stuff they leave out of these guides, that I wonder why they bother at all. Not everyone who comes to London wants to stand outside Madame Toussauds for three hours, just to see a pile of waxworks that are similar to displays in practically every major city in the world. And who gives a poo about Harrods these days, with its list on the doors of do's and don'ts - you can't take photographs or videos, you can't wear a backpack, vest tops or ripped jeans, even if they are Calvin Kleins, you are watched by five different cameras for every move you make, you cannot eat or drink anything in there except what you buy there, and the prices are so hiked up; all you are paying for is the priviledge of giving them free advertising, and the pen I was given from there a few years ago, for Christmas, had stopped working by Twelfth night!

If you want to see bits of London you might otherwise miss, get a bus map, get a locality to explore and get a blue or pink plaque guide. Blue plaques mark sites of specific interest, birth or living places of famous people, pink plaques mark the same but of a person connected with the gay/lesbian lifestyle.

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: wildlone
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 01:52 PM

There used to be some really good second hand record shops in Soho with a fantastic range of Folk.

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 06:09 PM

Thanks all

Eric, you're killing me.About 6 or 7 years ago RT came to our small, out of the way city of Naples, FL and did a tremendous acoustic show which still reverberates in me.

Squeak, you can't be serious about the blue plaque/pink plaque thing. If so,what's up with that? You know how gullible I am, so don't toy with me.

Regards, Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Micca
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 06:18 PM

What she says of Blue plaques is true there is one on the house in Maygfair ehre Hendrix lived and opposite the Imperial War Museum in a very modest looking row of houses on one of which there is a plaque that says "Capt. William Bligh, Commander of HMS Bounty lived here"

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Sam Hudson
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 07:14 PM

Yes, the blue plaques are there. Terry Pratchett, in "Equal Rites" had a laugh about them:

"... a little plaque to reveal that, against all gynaecological probability, someone very famous was born half way up a wall."

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 Nov 99 - 03:54 AM

It's a well-known outside the Metropolis that people who live in London think it's the dead-centre of the country (if not the Universe: witness the Millennium Dome, for example - 20 quid and an average drive of 150 miles to a place with no motorways or main roads, then there's nowhere to park). The rest of us know better: we only go to London if we have to, or as tourists. Actually, the exact dead-centre of England is a place called Meriden; no-one ever goes there, either - not even as a tourist.

Steve

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: roopoo
Date: 20 Nov 99 - 02:40 AM

If you don't want to use to the tourist buses in London, get the number 12 bus. I used to get it outside my college at Elephant and Castle, but I think it comes up from the Old Kent Road. Buy a ticket to Shepherd's Bush. En route you will pass the Imperial War Museum, Westminster, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner, run down the side of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, through Ladbroke Grove out and down to Shepherd's Bush where you can get off and if you don't mind a bit of a walk, go up to the BBC Television Centre. (Or if you are so inclined, wander round to the QPR ground). I used this bus regularly in the 70s when I was at college down there. I took my kids about 8 years ago and took it from the Imperial War Museum to Regent Street. I think there are slight route deviations around Regent Street from time to time depending on whether or not the bus is going the full route or not, but London Transport will have full details.

mouldy

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Nov 99 - 02:07 PM

Or try the No. 15, which will take you from (since October, before then it used to go past my road, about 1 1/2 miles further on)Canning Town, on the newly opened Jubilee line, in view of the Millenium Drone, all the way through the city of London, past things like St Pauls, London Bridge & Tower of London (keep an eye out for the rotary clothes line), through the heart of the financial city, past the so called 'ring of steel' - one of the few ways you can go through the city now - past the dragon that guards the Inns of Court and the City, Aldgate Pump, through the area where Jack the Ripper stalked, to Trafalgar and Aldwych, the theatre area.

And Frankie, I am deadly serious, I don't post stuff I'm not at least 99.9% sure about. There is a Blue Plaque guide to England and a Pink Plaque guide to London. Any one of the Pink websites should be able to get you details. And they are well worth looking out for, because there are people there you might not have thought about. Oscar Wilde had a pink plaque, long before he ever got a blue one. The most unusual one I have seen is on the wall of a bank in Dorchester, Dorset, saying that the building is the one used as the house for the fictitional 'Mayor of Casterbridge', by local author Thomas Hardy. There is a building further down the same road that was the birthplace of Frederick Treves, the doctor who discovered the Elephant man, Joseph Meyrick, and incidentally took out the kings appendix, thus saving his life, the day before his corontation, don't ask me which king.... which doesn't have an offical blue plaque, just a little tablet on the wall. Oh, and if you walk around the City of London, you will see quite a lot of little blue square tiles, giving the names of buildings that stood there formerly, like a pub that stood in Chancery Lane (just off Fleet Street on the No.15 route) that had been there from 1420 to 1909 or something.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 03:34 AM

Do you think famous Mudcatters should have Blue Plaquey Things?

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 04:48 AM

You mean they don't already? I'm stunned!!! LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 07:38 AM

Liz, I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

Steve

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 09:06 AM

Oh Steve, how can I resist, meet you under the clock at Waterloo (well, OK, by the seats, there's a road there now) at 6.00, I'll be the one in the black overcoat with a bowler hat and a briefcase......

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 12:34 PM

Can we make it Ally Pally on Sunday morning? I'll be the one with the ... er, the wife ... This isn't going to be as much fun as I was hoping, is it? (And if Jo Taylor finds out ..!)

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 12:39 PM

Sorry, Sunday is out, I'm "God bothering" as my friend puts it, besides, I'd be the one with the husband, child and paramedics - last time I tried to climb up to the Ally, I nearly died with an asthma attack.... Nice view out the back of the ambulance though.....

I could make it round the back of West Ham, on Tuesday....

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 09:52 PM

Hi Squeak,

I've been out paddling around the Everglades and pining for you,uh, you're chocolate that is. But you seem to have done ok in my absence (watch her Steve). I don't doubt your truthfulness (except in matters pertaining to chocolate,of course) I just find it extremely curious that your historical societies or whoever takes care of that kind of thing over there should draw a distinction between homo- and heterosexuals with their color coded plaques. Why? Do they assign pink plaques for the convenience of gay sightseers or to warn off more conventional types. If they did that sort of thing over here our courts would be spilling over with discrimination lawsuits.

Even More Curious in the Colonies and Jonesing for Some of the Private Stash, Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 04:11 AM

The pink plaque scheme was, I believe, started by the gay community, because it was felt that those commemorated were being overlooked by the 'blue plaquers' (people like English Heritage, National Trust, that sort of group, very traditional, and until last decade, very homophobic apparently....). They tend to commemorate those members of the gay and lesbian community who actively struggled for recognition and the rights of GALS or who were almost exclusively reknowned for leading GAL lifestyles, people like the dear lamented Quentin Crisp, Oscar Wilde and others.

Mudcatters should have a banjo shaped plaque, I think, with a decoration of stars around the edge, depending on how many BS threads they started..... no, that could get out of hand.... how about a cat paw motif? (incidentally, my dear moggy is lying across my wrists, so I can't actually see the keyboard..... good job I touch type....)

Frankie, I didn't realise you were a 'Glader, always wanted to go there, never got the chance yet. Never mind, one day I might. Then I can deliver your chocolate in person. Never did find out what a Hershey bar was actually made of....

I could manage some virtual chocolate??

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 04:11 AM

The pink plaque scheme was, I believe, started by the gay community, because it was felt that those commemorated were being overlooked by the 'blue plaquers' (people like English Heritage, National Trust, that sort of group, very traditional, and until last decade, very homophobic apparently....). They tend to commemorate those members of the gay and lesbian community who actively struggled for recognition and the rights of GALS or who were almost exclusively reknowned for leading GAL lifestyles, people like the dear lamented Quentin Crisp, Oscar Wilde and others.

Mudcatters should have a banjo shaped plaque, I think, with a decoration of stars around the edge, depending on how many BS threads they started..... no, that could get out of hand.... how about a cat paw motif? (incidentally, my dear moggy is lying across my wrists, so I can't actually see the keyboard..... good job I touch type....)

Frankie, I didn't realise you were a 'Glader, always wanted to go there, never got the chance yet. Never mind, one day I might. Then I can deliver your chocolate in person. Never did find out what a Hershey bar was actually made of....

I could manage some virtual chocolate??

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 07:40 AM

How can I expect to manage virtual chocolate, when I can't even get a simple posting right!

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 09:22 AM

Thanks for enlightening me Squeak. I'll check out some of those pink websites. I'm not gay but I'm kind of disheartened at the homophobia that is still so prevalent in this country. Maybe we'll get some pink plaques here some day.

I wouldn't encourage anyne to make a pilgrimage to the Everglades as it's home to person-eating alligators (and even a few crocodiles) as well as the swamp ape (kissin' cousin to bigfoot). The 'gators are especially fond of British delicacies (oxymoron?) like yourself. Seriously though, it's a beautiful and mysterious place and well worth the trip but you better hurry because in spite of all the posturing by politicians like AL Gore, developers and the farming industry are constantly pecking away at it.

Virtual chocolate sounds good as long as you can guarantee that it's virtually fat free.

Hope it's not bad form to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving, Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 09:44 AM

Virtual chocolate is not only virtually fat free, it's virtually invisible!!! [] see? That's just one square of it...... It's also virtually taste free too, just lick your screen.......

I like Alligators, I don't like Al Gore, and I'm not sure if I'm and English Delicacy (yeah, like tripe and onions....) or an oxymoron...... mmmmmm.

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Micca
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 01:28 PM

Liz, your being an oxymoron even when your not.I would say more of an acquired taste, it would probably contravene state and National Park laws if they bit Liz.
Frankie, LtS can hear chocolate being unwrapped from more than a mile away. I, unfortunately, live within the "Liz the Squeak chocolate sensitive zone" this can make cooking Chocolate Mousse exciting, the doorbell has rung on 2 seperate occasions when I have been doing this and guess who was there? This is becoming a chocolate thread,(or should that be strand?).

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 05:00 PM

This from a man who can hear a cork being drawn in the next house and tell you if it is red or white wine......

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 08:03 AM

I know you two realize that I wasn't calling Liz an oxymoron, it was more a comment on the phrase Bitish delicacies. I think of you as a hot English dish, my dear, but I'm concerned about your fixation with chocolate, it can't be healthy. Best to just send me your entire supply for safekeeping here in the States until you get things under control.

Caring in the Colonies, Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 09:48 AM

...and Squeak I licked the screen and wound up with a mouthfull of dust and no chocolate buzz. You fooled me again! Oh well, back to licking toads.

And I hope you're aware that I could never accept a kiss from a maid with tripe on her breath (Uh, that's a Hersheys kiss, of course.)

F

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 09:49 AM

...and Squeak I licked the screen and wound up with a mouthfull of dust and no chocolate buzz. You fooled me again! Oh well, back to licking toads.

And I hope you're aware that I could never accept a kiss from a maid with tripe on her breath (Uh, that's a Hersheys kiss, of course.)

F

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 10:43 AM

Wouldn't catch me near tripes that weren't my own, and if you got dust and fuzz, you should try cleaning the screen a little more often. You may find that there is more than one colour on your desktop.....

And what hot English dish would that be then? I reckon I'd be Spotted Dick, hot, steamy, fruity, bad for you and great covered with custard......

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 05:25 AM

Hey, where'd everybody go? Funny how fast a room clears when you start talking about English cuisine. It's ok, I'm an anglophile, at least where you're concerned my little Spotted Dick. Doesn't sound terribly romantic does it, like an STD or something? Maybe I'll just call you Bubble and Squeak. Humor aside,what's contained in this dish and where did it get it's name? Do you have any other English dishes with quaint but amusing names? Shall we change the name of this thread to Anglo chat with LTS?

Frankie

PS can we substitute whip cream for custard? I think I'm allergic.

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Little Dorrit
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 05:25 PM

When I lived in the Midlands we had a very nice dish called a'one all in' which consists of a faggot (the offal of various carcases shaped into a meatball) mushy peas (too disgusting for words) and chips(french fries to the uninitiated)covered in gravy all housed in a large bread roll. With culinary delights such as these is it any wonder we english have a chocolate fixation(gosh I feel a curly wurly moment approaching)......

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 05:34 PM

Spotted Dick is neither an STD nor any other measly illness.

Basically it is a heavy sponge cake mixture made with flour, sugar, chopped suet (white animal fat that is not so greasy as lard - vegetable alternatives are available) and currants or raisins, with baking powder and salt. This is mixed up, rolled into a ball and wrapped in a pudding cloth - muslin or cotton cloth that is greased and floured, then just wrapped around the ball of mix and tied with butcher string, leaving room for swelling. The whole lot is put into a steamer and steamed for 2-3 hours and served with custard. Whipped cream is for wusses. There is another version which is rolled out a little, so it is about an inch thick, spread with jam and then rolled up, wrapped and steamed as before. This is Jam Roly Poly, also served with custard. Enjoy.

LTS

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Micca
Date: 28 Nov 99 - 07:58 PM

Of course the Royal Navy in its own inimitable style, because of the paleness of the pudding and the dark currants always referred to it as "ni***rs in the snow" and it lies in your stomach like concrete.

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 04:08 AM

Liz, now I know exactly what you meant about climbing up to the Ally: it's not suitable for normal people like me and Sue, let alone you asthmatics! We were passed at high speed by three young joggers, aged about 20-ish, going up the hill (as distinct from those going over the hill!); they came back soon after, still talking to each other!

We have a Black Country delicacy (back to the last subject now) called "Grorty Dick" (pr. grerty"). I can't tell you what's in it, 'cos it's a strictly-guarde secret, passed down from father to son, and my dad doesn't know either. A Black Country butcher last weeek won a major award for his faggots: I wonder if he qualifies for a pink plaque?!

Steve

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Melbert
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 05:09 AM

I'm quite fond of a plate of "bubble and squeak" myself........

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 07:29 AM

In case you wanted to know this.

Bubble and Squeak

Good bubble and squeak is made with floury potatoes, boiled and mashed with butter, seasoned to taste, and lightly cooked cabbage (preferably not the really dark tough stuff, but you can use brussels sprouts or cauliflower or broccoli (which I call broccoli) instead) shredded and mixed with the potato. Then it is fried (but it doesn't need much fat), best on a heavy iron pan, and turned to brown both sides and heat it right through. The light cooking of the cabbagey ingredient is absolutely vital. Some people add onion. It was originally served with beef, either cold or reheated, but its very good with egg, when the yolk breaks and runs into the potato mixture.

I forgot to mention when posting before, that it needs advance planning, and preparing much too much of the ingredients the day before, because it is a using up the leftovers recipe. This is probably another source of people thinking its horrid (after using over-cooked cabbage), as you have to be picky about what you hash up with it.

Penny

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Melbert
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 03:34 PM

"Champ" is quite nice too. My wife (bless her) is Irish and introduced me to this delicacy, which really sticks to the ribs! (well, the way she cooks it, it does!)

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Bert
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 03:58 PM

Frankie asks 'Do you have any other English dishes with quaint but amusing names?'

Well there's 'bloaters' and 'kippers' and 'toad in the hole' and 'starry gazey pie' and 'figgy obbin' and 'buckling' and 'bangers' and 'whelks' and 'jellied eels' and 'Pontefract cakes' and 'Eccles cakes' and 'Bath buns' and .. and ... oh come on you Limeys, there must be loads more.

Bert

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Frankie
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 06:02 PM

Thanks Bert, that's what I had in mind. I've been poking fun at English food (it's kind of an alternate national past time over here) but I really have fond memories of eating bangers and mash, sherperd's pie, steak and kidney pu' etc. at friends houses and at English pubs around Wash. DC where I grew up and of course washing it all down with numerous pints of Watney's.

Penny, your B&S sounds good I might have a go at making it. Some restaurants over over here try to pass off simple corned beef and cabbage as same.

Thanks, Lil'Dorritt for telling me about one in all. The Margaret Thatcher thing seems to make more sense now.

Liz, you said "whipped cream is for wusses". What is wusses? It sounds very English and quite scrumptious and if it's got whipped cream on it you can count me in. Incidentally, I've been planning the menu for when you come visit. We'll start off with a Hearts of Palm salad, on to Gator gumbo, main course Redfish in parchment (if the fishing's good) with jalapeno cornbread and for dessert the obligatory homemade key lime pie and then to satisfy any renegade chocolate cravings Javachip ice cream and coffee. Sound okay?

Thanks all, Frankie

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 02:49 AM

Oh Frankie, I'll be there in spirit (and stomach) if not actually in body!!

I like being bubble and squeak, I may make that my new name... or if I ever form a duo with anyone.....

A wuss is a big girls blouse, or a namby or anyone who doesn't play with powertools, or who cries during 'E.T.', or says they can't do something because they are a girl.. Basically your average wuss is a useless streak of liquid byproduct excreted by the kidneys.

Yes, I play with powertools, I'm off today to cut a letterbox in a steel coated door.... MMMMMM! Give me the big drill mummy!

LTS

And as it is now 1st December, I hope the rest of you Brits have had the sprouts on for Christmas dinner for the last month, if not, today is the last day to get that 'just died' taste right!

Subject: RE: Query of U.K. 'catters
From: Penny S.
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 08:49 AM

I think the origin of B&S (spooky initials, or what) included cold roast beef as an element, and I can see how that could go the other way to corned beef and cabbage. I saw some discussion in a women's magazine, back when they were worth reading, as to which bit was the bubble, and which the squeak.

Penny